Because it’s quiet, I thought I’d link to a video.

Growing up, I had a lot of fond memories of an Italian show called Il Grande Gioco dell’Oca, an apparently live show that used to go out on Friday nights on Rai Due, back when you could get those sorts of channels on cable. The Grand Game of Goose, as it translates to, was a giant board game – contestants roll the dice (apparently pre-loaded so as to make sure the show doesn’t overrun too much, contestants pick their colour by lot) and move forward earning cash for each square passed. When they land they might earn a bonus or penalty, but more usually they’d be given a stunt to do. These were sometimes funny, sometimes action packed, usually scary and occasionally quite disgusting and almost certainly dangerous looking. The contestant makes a bet on them completing the stunt from the money earnt. The one contestant who manages to land on the final space by exact count (if time was running out they’d drop the stunts to find a winner) won whatever they had built up.

Well this just blew my tiny little 11-14 year old mind (I forget when), I hadn’t seen Fort Boyard by this point yet I don’t think, but I do remember Clive James mentioning it on one of his shows, alongside clips of a contestant with his feet in quick dry cement trying to chisel his way to freedom, and an older contestant trying to keep his heart rate down whilst some scantily-clad females danced around him.

I later discovered the Italian one decended from a Spanish show, El Gran Juego de la Oca, and the clips I’ve seen suggest it’s copied pretty much exactly. So with this in mind, here is a clip from a later version of the Spanish original, in which a man attempts to staple some overalls with himself to a bit of board with a view to hanging on for ten seconds when it’s lifted into the air. Also includes dancing girls!

I’ve always really wanted a full episode of this to do a feature on. Maybe it will happen in the future.