It turns out that Dara O Briain’s Go 8 Bit is pretty much an immediate hit for Dave with the first episode last night really not far off what a first-run of Taskmaster (new series starts October 4th) gets, and some presentational issues aside I’m pleased for everybody involved.
Anyway I went on Youtube last night and it recommended Games World to me. I used to love watching this growing up, a weeknightly video games show on Sky One. The week’s main events were The Eliminator (on Mondays and from the second series Mondays and Wednesdays) and then Beat the Elite on Fridays, where the Eliminator winners would take on the Videators (i.e. researchers they’ve put in costumes) to try and get as high as possible on the all important leaderboard.
And it’s still not bad today, carried as it is by Bob Mills in one of his earliest TV jobs (he tends to stick to radio these days) as ringmaster taking the piss out of moody twelve year-olds and in this special episode games journalists:
What struck me here is how *young* the journos are, I used to spend all my pocket money on computer mags at the time and would have assumed they were all much older. Also whilst Mills is clearly not a gamer he was quite good at exposition and running the show, letting Jeremy Daldry (also quite a funny guy and went on to become a TV producer) play to his strength as commentator without treading on his toes.
Games World is not as fondly remembered as Gamesmaster, but certainly at the time I thought it was a pretty successful attempt at video games entertainment.
Here is a thing on Games World that I saw recently, as part of an overall look at gaming telly in the UK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5qSbqRH39U&list=PLbQabA7N5NN8jKfJxFsvSlPgerMPfVh6u&index=2
Notably, it really does look like Mills was incredibly drunk 100% of the time.
Definitely watching that when I get home tonight. Thanks!
Wow. There’s a lot of stuff on that guy’s channel that I want to watch (the old Amiga reviews).
The other fun Games World thing is if I remember correctly TV’s Richard Osman was involved in the writing of Barry’s Joypad with a young David Walliams.
I loved Games World! I actually took part in one episode of Games World Live, when the show came from someone’s home each week and challengers played the “home team” hoping to win having the show broadcast from THEIR home next week. Jeremy Daldry was the studio host, and Phil Edgar Jones (and later on, Andy Collins) anchored the live OB from someone’s house. I played (and was beaten by a young girl on the home team!) a game called Zombies, using the telephone keypad to navigate around the screen… I thought GW was brilliantly inventive and ahead of it’s time, given the limitations of it’s budget. If it had been on a terrestrial channel, it would have been a runaway success. I’m in touch with a couple of the Videators on Facebook – Rik Henderson (The Violet Blade) is editor I think of the Pocket Lint gadget website, and Alex Verrey ( Big Boy Barry) has his own tech PR firm… there were quite a few others, weren’t there – Letty Edwards, Mr Mathers the Megabyte Millionaire, the Persian Prince of Perfection, Electric Eddie, Radion Automatic, Trixie Belle the Minx from Hell, Colin the Console Cowboy…. good days!