Board of Excitement 11th to 17th December 2011

By | December 11, 2011
17 Comments

It’s almost the end of the year, but there are a few interesting things in store yet:

  • The Cube – on at the earlier time of 6:30 this evening.(6:30pm, Sunday, ITV1)
  • The X Factor Grand Final – Two hours. I will be watching Black Mirror on C4 afterwards based on reality TV (15 Million Merits) before calculating the Fantasy X Factor result, so be warned. (7:30pm, Sunday, ITV1)
  • Connecting Wall Night – for no discernable reason, eight teams will be taking part in an Only Connect Connecting Wall tournament. It sounds like there are going to be eleven throughout the evening plus some celeb anecdotes, so if you’re a fan of the third best round of Only Connect, you’re in for a treat. (8:30pm and 10pm. Monday, BBC4)
  • Fear Factor – Rather brilliantly, this is back on US screens on Monday, and Joe Rogan has returned to host. Technology has improved since they stopped making the show originally, so the stunts are expected to be more exciting and terrifying. (Monday, NBC)
  • Countdown – last episode of Spelling with Stelling. (3:10pm, Friday, C4)
  • Vernon Kay’s Play Your Cards Right – The pilot for this films on Friday. (Friday, London Television Studios)
  • One Man Army – Go HOT! (9pm, Friday, Discovery UK)
  • Winter Wipeout – Despite having a Summer series already in the can, here’s an even newer winter series. How Christmassy! (6pm, Saturday, BBC1)
  • Schlag den Raab – it’s the last one of the year. Expect Christmas trees. (7:15pm GMT, Saturday, Pro Sieben or naughty internet streaming, hopefully.)

Bother’s Bargains

By | December 9, 2011
8 Comments

Well sort of, I can only really tell you where things are cheapest:

The Cube Boardgame
Well possibly interesting, although possibly not, it looks like the best place to buy this is in fact your local John Lewis (or online) which is selling it for £20.24.

This compares rather favourably to Amazon, which is still charging £27 for it. In fact loads of places are doing it cheaper. Edit: Spooky, it’s jumped to £32.50 whilst I was sorting this out. You can still buy new from elsewhere for £27.99 though.

Pointless
Again, John Lewis appears to be your friend here where it is going for £20.

Amazon don’t seem to have it in stock at all. But it does have Zero, an American game that’s clearly inspired by it.

The Million Pound Drop
Amazon fare better here, it’s only £15. Only two stars though, and that’s because the favourable review is for Amazon’s returns policy by the looks of things.

John Lewis have it for £19.99.

QI: The Board Game
This is new out this year. Amazon have the edge on John Lewis. £17.49 at Amazon, although Stephen Fry’s face on the cover appears to be scaring kids.

It’s £19.95 at John Lewis.

Dragon’s Den: The Boardgame
John Lewis has this going for £19.95.

Amazon doesn’t have it itself, but does have it “from £18.75” from different sellers.

So there we are. Basically if you can’t be bothered to wait, go down your local branch of John Lewis, clearly.

A couple of other things of note:

There are now countless amounts of All-Star Family Fortunes skeins, but this one for £17.99 includes face-off buzzers, which is quite exciting. We can’t find the one with the big electronic board, though.

Forget yer Zeldas and yer Call of Duties, There’s an Eggheads DS game coming out next Friday! I hope you get to “be” CJ. There are also two different versions of the board game. Or at least two different boxes. Here is box one, here is box two.

OR! Why not party like a celebrity with your very own I’m a Celebrity Which Witchety Grub? Game? 10 white chocolate grubs. Seven are toffee, three are tripe. Christmas fun for all the family!

It’s the Take Me Out game we’ve ALL been waiting for!

Meanwhile here’s a book there’s a fairly decent chance I wrote loads of.

Is there anything else interesting you’ve spotted, punters?

Lose a Million

By | December 8, 2011
1 Comment

Well here’s fun (although not quite as much fun as I remember), someone’s put up an episode of Chris Tarrant non-hit Lose a Million on Youtube.

Quite like the end game. The final round is quite a good idea, although I don’t know how they decided the very important order of play. First two rounds drag on a bit.

Stephen Leahy and Andrew O Connor devised this, they also devised Incredible Games which had a game with a ghost schoolmaster just like round two but without the clever juxtapositions. And then The Two Ronnies nicked it for that seventies Mastermind sketch.

The Bother Series of Poker 2012

By | December 7, 2011
3 Comments

Well with Fantasy X Factor finishing this weekend, it’s time for the other Bother’s Bar sleeping giant to awaken.

It’s just one month until The Bother Series of Poker 2012 begins another six month competition of cards and “hilarious” “banter”. This year I’m going to give you the opportunity to play January’s events (pencilled in for the 8th and 22nd January) for free.

I need to test out the Pokerstars home game settings, and to that end I will be attempting to set up a FREEROLL this evening for Sunday 18th December, 8pm (A Christmas special, if you like). The winner will win the money equivilent of the buy-ins to January’s games (£5.50 each, I think). Amazing.

You will need to be a member of Brig’s Poker Club to play. So join today!

The BotherSOP 2012: you’ll need your A Game, all game.