The Sound of the Cloud

By | May 3, 2017
9 Comments

Great post from long time FOTB Little Timmy the other day pointing out that Babushka (and Trapped!) music supremo (and we say that unironically, the show might have issues but the music isn’t one of them) Dobs Vye has loads of stuff on Soundcloud. It’s really interesting actually, his playlists suggest an idea for something frequently ends up being used for something else.

It is often said that the music is considered one of the least important bits of gameshow production. And yet we’ll always be more willing to forgive a show’s faults with a great score behind it. With this in mind who else on Soundcloud is worth following?

  • Nick Foster – Deffo one of our fave tune merchants, there’s stuff on here ranging from 5 Minutes to a Fortune (if you’re reading Nick please put up the money countdown music thanks) to The Cube (Hyper Intense! Mega Intense! Unbearably Intense!) and also Reflex.
  • Liam Tate – Go 8 Bit stuff.
  • Paul Farrer – Big fan of a lot of his work, although he’s not updated this for a number of years and seems to favour Youtube these days where you can listen to the entire and amazing 1000 Heartbeats Suite.
  • Nicolas Caligi – A bit niche but somebody who creates Fort Boyard soundalikes that are so near the originals I can’t tell the difference between his work and the actual tunes.

There are probably loads of great people we’re missing. Do you know any?

Show Discussion: Babushka

By | April 30, 2017
91 Comments

Weekdays, 5pm,
ITV

Right, well, somebody decided this was worth a commission, so here we go. It’s also another show that’s marketed itself as being a bit like Deal Or No Deal, but still, over ten years on, misunderstands Deal or No Deal.

Rylan Clark-Neal invites couples to attempt to win up to £44,000 by answering questions and opening matryoshka babushka dolls. There are ten dolls, two of them are empty, the others have smaller dolls inside them worth cash, and some of those have smaller dolls inside them with more cash and so on up to £10,000. The couple MUST open eight of them and can’t leave the game until they’ve done so. Unfortunately to open a doll they have to answer a question. Get it wrong? Lose all your money. Open an empty doll? Lose all your money. Push your luck too far with a doll? Lose all your money. And there’s a double or nothing gamble at the end.

So what we have is a rollercoaster, except with just eight chances to make money but about 25 opportunities to lose it all it’s a rollercoaster made up of a load of speedbumps. If you do find yourselves towards the end with some money, the game encourages conservative (i.e. boring) play so you don’t lose it all. And then there’s a double or nothing gamble at the end which as we all know will only ever get used if they’ve ended up doing really badly.

Everything I’ve seen of it points to it being rubbish. But, y’know, I might be wrong. I think Rylan deserves a bit better anyway.

Bother’s Bar Does Что? Где? Когда? – Episode 4

By | April 29, 2017
5 Comments

Once again it’s time to put your lateral thinking quiz heads on with another game of What? Where? When?, the show where viewers send in their questions to try and stump the panel. It’s 2-1 to the panel so far, who will win today?

If you have an idea for a question then send it in to David and it might feature in a future episode. Don’t know when the next one is going to be as the next few weeks are quite busy, but hopefully soon.

Missed an episode? Watch the playlist!

Tenable’s looking for contestants

By | April 27, 2017
6 Comments

Today’s #easycontent winner is Tenable which is looking for contestants for a new series with this poster. You can click if you want it slightly larger.

We have another exciting edition of What? Where? When? for you on Saturday.

Show Discussion: Taskmaster Series 4

By | April 25, 2017
42 Comments

Tuesday nights, 9pm,
Dave

Hurrah! Taskmaster‘s back for an extended run with five brand new comics testing their problem solving, creativity and gamesmanship talents.

This series features old Bake Off host Mel Giedroyc, new Bake Off host Noel Fielding, Lolly Adefope, Hugh Dennis and Joe Lycett.

Note the new earlier start time (brave) which almost caught me out, although the first episode has been up on UKTV Play all week anyway. However I haven’t watched it yet because I tend to prefer communal broadcast.

This shouldn’t bother you however, if you delve into the comments you should be aware that there are likely to be spoilers.

Show Discussion: The Boss

By | April 24, 2017
42 Comments

Weekdays, 2:15pm,
BBC1

Susan Calman is in charge as a team of strangers led by a contestant referred to as ‘the boss’ build up a pot of cash in rounds of questions. Can The Boss stay in power and who will walk away with the cash?

It sounds a bit Weakest Link and a bit Greed. It’s got spinning podiums a bit like The Voice. It’s on for the next four weeks. Let us know what you think in the comments.