Well, today I’ve been to Westfield Shopping Centre, as made famous in TV’s The Apprentice a few weeks ago. Let’s take a look at this year’s HOTTEST ITEMS.

Mmm nom nom nom

As regular viewers will know, I’m “from” Cambridge. Cambridge does not have a Krispy Kreme, but London has loads. Krispy Kreme doughnuts are good. We have just had a Yo Sushi open though, so it’s probably only a matter of time. Yes I know they look a bit squashed but they’re all eventually going in my gob anyway.

British television's TOUGHEST DVD on television

I had no clue this was coming out (or perhaps it’s been out for a year – it seems a bit odd to be coming out now with no news of a third series), but it features over 1,300 questions and puzzles (including a slidey puzzle thing) and an insinuation that press-ups may be involved and is an actual board game with DVD element. I will try and give it a run through sometime. Debenhams had it for £20 today (£25 normally apprently) but Amazon are selling it for less. I bought a copy because I always like to support shows I like (couldn’t find any copies of The Cube or Pointless anywhere in Westfield) however I also saw copies of The Million Pound Drop going at WHSmiths for £30 apiece, the back shows off the drop table, you get 40 “bundles of cash” counters and 240 questions and a timer.

However, this year’s hottest gameshow gift is probably going to be this:

BUZZ

Part of a range of Britain’s Got Talent merchandise (i.e. a microphone, magic set etc) these also come in packs of three. Single ones are £6 each, and light up and make the sound and everything. Even if you don’t use it for judging talent contests, why not do what I intend to do and use it in an office environment, buzzing people whenever they say something really stupid or annoying?

Speaking of getting behind things, before the weekend I was introduced to Brett Domino’s Gillian McKeith song which is very likable and got to number 29 in the OFFICIAL Top 40 chart at the weekend. Buy it on iTunes, or watch the video:

Thanks to Kylie to alerting us to this – Endemol looking for teams of three for a new physical and mental challenge show for Saturday nights. Oh God. OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD (look for the 9th September).

Meanwhile in happier news, Peter Davey off of The Mole is working with Penn and Teller and Jonathan Ross on a new magic competition format. It’s practically a dream team.

Magic seems to be very ‘in’ at the moment, there’s another show currently in production called The Magicians fronted by Lenny Henry involving celebrities and magic for the BBC.

Did anyone watch Daybreak this morning? Of course you didn’t. However (according to a friend of mine who DID watch it), apparently there was some rather intriguing news few have picked up on – Jonathan Ross (who has recently been associated with Endemol) is apparently working on a UK version of The Golden Cage for the BBC.

We’ve mentioned TGC a few times at the bar already as it’s a bit of a curio, but if you’re new: The Golden Cage is originally a Dutch show (in fact it’s the idea that begat Big Brother but didn’t get turned into its own show until John de Mol launched his own TV channel a few years ago) where a number of people live the life of luxury in a villa. When you’ve had enough you leave. Last person standing wins the villa and a significant cash prize – “how much freedom are you willing to give up for ultimate freedom?” The show was meant to last indefinitely, but poor ratings and a change of channel (after de Mol’s Tien network shut down) led to them modifying the format to find a winner and end the show. The show made the news for inter-contestant bullying, but despite the fact the show did fairly well amongst the Dutch youth it was never really captured the nation’s imagination in the way Big Brother did.

It will be interesting to see how they adapt it for the UK audience. I suspect they won’t ask for a €10,000 deposit to dissaude people walking before six months or was it two years? I forget), and will they make it indefinite, or will it just be Big Brother under a different title?

Even The History Channel is getting in on the act, with Histerical with Marcus Brigstocke which looks like its filming a pilot next week. It’s like Annually Retentive never happened.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in when Famous and Fearless is happening, you can get tickets for shows beginning 3rd January. I’m a little bit surprised Claire Balding’s co-hosting this with Chris Evans.

I’m so annoyed there have been so few new shows to go and see recently, I’m booking to go and see Pointless being filmed at the end of January. So you can have an EXCLUSIVE GLIMPSE of how they’ve watered down the premise for series four. Only joking, Pointless is brillopants, obviously.

According to reports (i.e. someone posting on a forum) on Digital Spy, the next run of The Million Pound Drop – Live will be from  Wednesday 15th December to Saturday 18th at the interesting time of 8pm, a timeslot that will probably give it two hundred million thousand viewers until the Endemol Question Writing Cretins come up with a question like “what day is Christmas? Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday” and then everyone on the internet complains because actually most of those answers are right because it doesn’t ask for which year and then the show gets axed.

Then The Million Dollar (Money) Drop starts on Fox in the US the following week.