Normally when a someone in the world of gameshows die we’ve often mentioned it and put a tribute video up. We’ve never met these people, we try not to be too mawkish.
Fuck that. Tonight I’m crying proper tears.
Jacques Antoine represented everything that is brilliant about the genre and was absolutely the number one influence for me in terms of the sorts of shows I want to see made. Why be so limiting to a studio when you can have a massive castle, or you can be chased by a shrieking man, or you could go anywhere in the world. Antoine was responsible for shows that people didn’t just like but really loved and left an impression.
I can’t find a full upload (I do have it, I will try and put it up over the weekend somewhere) of the first episode of Les Cles de Fort Boyard so right now this will have to do, it’s an episode from the very first series with a Polish voiceover:
There is also this interesting video here made in 2009:
I will try and put together a slightly fuller career retrospective over the weekend, including lots of his old studio shows he created from the 70s and 80s.
I’ve basically fallen in love with Italian show Avanti un Altro! (which you can watch ungeoblocked here). I am hoping to find a way to capture the video stream so I can do a proper feature on it at the weekend. The format on paper is nothing much – person at front of queue tries to answer three questions out of four in a set, iof they succeed they pick a tube with (usually) an amount of money in. They must decide to stay on and increase their total or retire from the seat and become King of the Hill, knowing that if they get the next set of questions wrong they’re immediately out the door. Keep going until the end of the show where the person currently in the champions seat gets the opportunity to win all the money they accumulated + €100,000.
It’s basically simple and brilliant and it’s helped no end by a brilliant host and a range of characters who turn up, do some sort of comic skit and then ask special questions for extra bonuses.
Here is the end game. It’s from the Spanish primetime version which is a bit less wacky than the Italian show but adds some interesting and fun elements of its own (such as physical challenges). Basically the contestant has to get 21 questions wrong – the incorrect answer is the correct answer – if they can do that within 2:30 they win all the money they accumulated plus €100,000. If the time runs out, they lose the accumulated money but they can still win up to €100k which starts counting down. The trouble is, if they give a bad response to a question they’ve got to start the entire list all over again at light speed. It’s fun.
(I would have preferred to show from the Italian show, but Mediaset are notoriously quick to get rid of stuff on Youtube so it’s difficult to find a good example)
The “from the top” list quiz has been an Italian staple for years and years – I remember it from Luna Park. It’s especially fun the faster the host goes. This season they’ve introduced an added element in the Italian show, if the money drops down to €50,000 the contestant can opt to freeze the clock on the understanding that that will be the last go and you’ll leave with nothing if you don’t complete the list on that attempt. This getsd round the rather obvious flaw that once you get down to €30k or so and fail you aren’t going to get through the list fast enough to complete.
Someforeign shows you can watch and immediately see how you could translate it to British screens. This is one of them.
However we do know a few things about it. Noel Edmonds fronted an episode of this for a pitch film you can see on C21. In it, unsuspecting people are surprised in shopping malls and suchlike when the host appears on advertising boards. He sets quizzes and tasks against the clock for money, and contestants can get help from anyone nearby. That’s it really.
Why it now needs an audience and Vernon Kay we hope to find out.
As Summer turns into Autumn, let us see what dead leaves there are to be mulched in the world of competitive light entertainment this week. Yes.
Dragon’s’s’s”’ Den – New series of the show where Evan Davis basically reiterates something that happened on screen five seconds previously. (9pm, Sunday, BBC2)
Only Connect – Footballers vs Second Violinists. Clarke Carlisle nowhere to be seen. (8:30pm, Monday, BBC4)
Dancing With The Cards – the next exciting Bother’s Bar Poker Event, open to anyone with $13.50 lying around in their Pokerstars account and can make Tuesday Night at 8:30. Here are the details.
The Million Pound Drop – Live! Surprised they don’t just have this on Fridays and Saturdays in perpetuity these days, it’s on over the next six weekends and once again a member of the public will get to play with a celeb. Don’t forget you can play along with The Million Pound Drapp – Live! (Friday 9pm, Saturday 9:20pm)
QI – Series J. It’s funny to think when I went and saw an episode from the first series being filmed they were suggesting it would be as big as Have I Got News For You. I scoffed. I was wrong. Also Victoria Coren’s in this one. (10pm, Friday, BBC2)
Comedy World Cup – David Tennant (obviously) chairs a new panel game thing where comedians do battle to determine who is funniest. Presumably. Actually we don’t know an awful lot about this. (8:20pm, Saturday, C4)
And we were hoping to bill Schlag den Raab this week, but that’s actually the 22nd September as it turns out. Still there’s no stopping Ver Raab, he’s doing a competitive big prize political debate show thing called Absolute Mehrheit.
OK, so it doesn’t get lost down the back of the sofa, I went and saw future ITV1 entertainment offering My Man Can last night and you can read what I thought here.
Also, a quick plug that I’ve got a poker game coming Tuesday evening at 8:30pm, you can read about Dancing With the Cards here. It’s open to anyone with $13.50 resting in their Pokerstars account.
OK, on with the show:
Total Wipeout – 6:35pm, BBC1
Red or Black – £1.5m on the line tonight, Britain’s biggest gameshow cash prize ever (unless you count The E-Millionaire Show, although that was split two ways, so). I wonder what is going to happen. (7:25pm and 9:10pm, ITV1)
The X Factor – 8:10pm, ITV1
The National Lottery Secret Fortune – Of course the big thing in the lottery last week were the jackpot winners winning less than the five plus bonus winners because of a freak winner breakdown – five winners, one second prize winner. Not the first time it’s happened (as newspapers would have you believe), there was that time about 15 years ago when there were 130-ish jackpot winners although I can’t find the story. Well I probably could, but I’m lazy. (8:20pm, BBC1)
There’s no Fort Boyard now. My Sunday morning catch-up is going to feel lost without it 🙁 Although I suppose there is Sweden and the Netherlands.
NEXT WEEK: Schlag den Raab is BACK. EDIT: no it’s been pushed back a week. Sorry.
