An exciting looking press release has dropped suggesting that Zoe Ball and hilarious Release the Hounds wimp Ashley Banjo (also from street dance group Diversity) are the people fronting upcoming entertainment show Can’t Touch This.

I won’t repeat the release, you can read it here. The show essentially boils down to “touch the prize, win the prize.”

Things of note:

• Sue Perkins is providing the commentary. The last time Sue Perkins commentated on a physical gameshow it was Don’t Scare the Hare.
• It sounds very much like the sort of show that’s going in the old Saturday Total Wipeout slot, but it’s filmed in Belfast so likely will have slightly more stringent health and safety than Total Wipeout.
• Stellify Media is staffed by decent, Bother’s Bar approved people, and whilst this doesn’t guarantee success or even a good show, it’s likely that some thought will have gone into it.

The host of the surprise second series of The Edge is apparently none other than Gabby Logan. I can’t imagine her doing the same balls related “gags” with quite as much gusto as Mark Benton, but there we are. I wonder if they’ve made some changes to the format? We will endeavour to find out.

The show is filming right now at Elstree, tickets through the BBC site.

Edit: I was hoping to get a ticket to watch this afternoon (Sunday) but I was either too last minute booking on Friday afternoon or they don’t want me. Anyway the suggestion is they have indeed made changes to the sizes of the Edge on each lane, but whether they’ve corrected the issue of too much work for not much fun remains so far a mystery.

To celebrate the show’s tenth birthday on October 31st September 18th TVs very own Noel Edmonds will be playing the game of Deal or No Deal with Sarah Millican hosting. Noel’s only there once so I imagine he’ll be brave enough to go right through to the end and win £250,000, etc.

18th September is a Friday so presumably this will be a primetime special. However there are four episodes of 15 to 1 to play out week beginning Monday 14th (Wed 9th is ep 36 and there’s racing the rest of the week, the series is 40 eps long as far as I know) so they might throw it out in the afternoon, although that’d be pretty unusual. I would presume the series starts “proper” w/b 21st, although no guarantees.

Edit: Buzzerblog suggesting DS suggests it’s going out at 8pm, but I can’t find the story to link to. So.

Edit edit: Here you are.

Quickie round-up for Bank Holiday Monday:

• The Chase is back after its Summer break today with new Chaser Jenny Ryan (aka The Vixen) in tow. Meanwhile in Australia The Chase feat. Anne Hegerty will be replacing Deal or No Deal (which has been in reruns for ages) and Million Dollar Minute (which I said wouldn’t do that well, but has lasted longer than I anticipated).
• If you enjoy endurance contests/army boot camp things like I do then you should probably give Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week on BBC2 on Sunday nights a try. 29 (I expect someone dropped out before filming) of our brightest and best are subjected to moderate versions of special forces selection training from around the world over the course of a week (or so) whilst Freddie Flintoff comments “ooh, that looks terrible” to camera with each new exercise. Last night some Navy SEALS shouted at them to do press-ups in the sea and featured a hilarious and surreal moment where everyone breaks out into Westlife. I haven’t yet worked out if this is meant to be a competition or not (there’s an on screen counter to show how many of them remain as drop outs through injury and giving up frequently happen, and there’s a weird bit at the end where it looks like the people in charge are going to force eliminate who they think are weakest every week regardless, Flintoff used the word “winner” at one point) but we’d be watching regardless as Very Much The Sort Of Thing We Like. If you missed it the first ep is up on iPlayer.
• We’re big fans of the Jackbox Party Pack (the highly stylised party game app from the people behind You Don’t Know Jack) and unsurprisingly there’s a sequel coming and this time the central focus will be on Fibbage 2 – this seems fair enough as whenever we get it out it tends to be Fibbage and Drawful we gravitate to, so.

It’s here! The second inaugural Bother’s Bar Super Smash Bros on Wii U tourney is tonight at 9pm and will last for an hour. You’re all invited to join in, here are the details:

Date: Sun 30th August, 9:00pm – 10pm UK – drop in and out as you please.
Name: Bother’ Bar [no ‘s’ I’ve just noticed]
Tournament ID: 51531042063538
Password: tarrant [all lower case]

In other news it’s the last in the run of Race to Escape, it’s been a solid 8/10 sort of show and I hope it’s done well enough to come back. Dodgy link in those comments.

Finally here’s an episode of US Crosswits from the mid-80s I came across, it’s mesmerizingly terrible:

The original version in the seventies isn’t really that much better in terms of game but the questions are much more fun and Jack Clark’s an excellent host.

Launch show tonight, 9pm,
Five

(and basically the rest of the night for Bit on the Side and some live streaming variously)

The nights are starting to draw in a bit and what better way to celebrate than with a new Celebrity Big Brother! The theme is US vs UK and who knows how it will manifest itself – perhaps they will combine rich and poor house with all manner of tasks based on what people have said behind other people’s backs?

We don’t know, but apparently there’s five weeks of it to come so that’s something to look forward to.

Erm actually I’m out tonight watching a production of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (which is a bit like Big Brother but with murder) but I’m sure the launch night twist will be EXPLOSIVE and I look forward to reading all about it.