Fifty 50 OB 3

By | July 1, 2014

Fifty 50 has a break from its sommerpause to bring you another Outside Broadcast, courtesy of Iain Weaver. This one is set at puzzle hunt event DASH in London.

Meanwhile Georgie Thompson and Josh Widdcombe are to be the new hosts of Fighting Talk. Never would have considered Georgie, but it might be quite a smart choice.

And finally, Challenge will be showing the C5 Fort Boyard from August. On our FB’14 discussion page I made a little point about dramatic and narrative effect, about having the antagonist communicate with the team from a distance and then face to face at the end. Imagine if they did a new version with Grantham as Boyard as the effective Pere Fouras character, sniping from the sidelines and controlling everything, and bought back Melinda Messenger with a new host? GOLD. Easy to do as well seeing as the new council pretty much ditches the Maitres d’ Tenebres in favour of other fort characters so you could eliminate the fairytale element the UK version never really did anyway.

Some Sunday Youtubing

By | June 29, 2014

So one of the HOTTEST Youtube channels around at the moment is gbgameshows who very recently has uploaded some really interesting stuff -we’d mentioned Connections previously, and in the last few days has uploaded an episode of Play Your Cards Right from 1987, a Jeopardy from 1995 and the motherlode, an episode of The Krypton Factor from 1983 which I think is now the earliest one on Youtube. UNLESS YOU KNOW BETTER.

Friday round-up

By | June 27, 2014
  • NBC/Universal are looking for contestants for paid run-throughs in June and July in London. Send an e-mail to contestants@nbcuni.com for details.
  • Someone has uploaded not one but TWO episodes of Connections with Sue Robbie on Youtube, Really, the show The Link could have been. Still loving Link the Letters, and the whole show has got a really strong graphical look.
  • The World Cup not exciting enough for you? Next Thursday at 8:30 (new time!)  is the next Bother’s Bar Poker game. Come and join us. It’s a World Cup rest day so you won’t be missing anything.
  • Finally Fort Boyard season 25 starts tomorrow! The latest exciting revelation is that there’s no lever next to the treasure room. Also they’ve updated the app with new games, a mixed bag but a bit more interesting than the ones originally included.

Celebrity Squares

By | June 24, 2014

60 minute episodes we’re hearing, which is a lot to sit through if it’s not very good as the pilot suggests. Although we suppose if you’re going to extend a show to an hour, one with 12 people talking in it is more likely to work than most.

Tim Vine (yay!) and Joe Wilkinson are going to be regular panellists.

From the ITV Press Centre (back in April):

Bob Massie, Head of Entertainment, September Films said: “It’s so exciting to have Warwick hosting this classic game show, with a new comedy twist.”

…as opposed to the original which was really serious a bit like Mastermind.

A Question of Sport: Super Saturday

By | June 22, 2014

I watched this this afternoon, I mentioned it briefly on Twitter, I briefly mention those things again here:

  • Needs better chemistry between the regulars.
  • Needs to be funnier.
  • Needs to drop the Question of Sport branding, it doesn’t help either the main show or this spin-off – in fact just calling it Super Saturday and not limiting to sport might be the better idea.
  • It was slightly baffling how Matt’s team were on the left of the screen on the sofas and on the score graphic, but on the right on the challenges.
  • Some halfway decent ideas in fairness, although after setting up Top Gear style establishing shots in the OBs, they bottle it completely, direction is functional rather than interesting or outstanding.
  • Yeah yeah, A League of Their Own. ALOTO certainly didn’t invent sporting challenges in a quiz (actually this has very little quiz content), but it certainly ran with the idea the furthest.
  • It’s not awful, but it does feel rather unnecessary, and rather bafflingly both too loose AND not loose enough.

Avanti soundtrack

By | June 21, 2014

And so to tonight’s excitement in this: the 2014 Summer of Excitement, we thank Tom B for discovering this and sending it in our direction – Luca Orioli’s Avanti un Altro soundtrack EP is on iTunes for £2.49, five tracks INCLUDING the title sequence, the bit where they fish for a scroll (three minutes long and wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Fort Boyard in the 90s. Also: Mike Oldfield.), the quiz bed that plays throughout the entire show AND ALSO THE GIOCHI FINAL 21 QUESTIONS WRONG MUSIC (without a ticking clock, although I’m sure the more clever amongst you might be able to solve that issue).

You can buy it here.

It’s all gone a bit quiet on UK adaptation The Next One, a large part of me sort of hopes it’s dead in the water so it can’t be stuffed up. But you never know. And don’t worry Bonolis fans! He’s back in charge when it comes back in September.