The Whole 19 Yards this evening

By | April 17, 2010

There’s actually a quite a lot of interesting things on this evening, BBC1 have Total Wipeout, Doctor Who, Over the Rainbow and Who Dares Wins, whilst ITV1 have brand new series of The Whole 19 Yards and behemoth Britain’s Got Talent.

The Whole 19 Yards is tonight’s pick for me, I think, because I’m quite interested to see how watching it being filmed translates to television. Anyway, if you’ve seen the Spanish show then I’m pretty sure you’ll find this a lot more fun. How many different challenges they can come up with (And therefore how long it’s likely to hold my interest) remains to be seen.

In other news, thanks to Mad Cap’n Tom Scott for alerting me to Puzzgrid, a homage to Only Connect’s Connecting Walls. It doesn’t have the official site’s presentation or quality control (although you get to rate the grids), but it basically works fairly well if you’ve exhausted the official ones, and you can submit your own.

Edit: Some quick opinion:

  • Yeah, that was alright. Glenn Hugill’s audition as future voiceover of Come Dine With Me added quite a lot to the early rounds, and a bit less to the later rounds with less going on.
  • I was quite impressed with the calibre of the contestants’ knowledge this evening, and wonder if the researchers have come up with anybody with even less general knowledge for future editions.
  • End game… not as good as I think it could be, but I appreciate and approve that they’ve not gone all or nothing. Having made the rest of the show quite hi-octane, the rather slow stop-starty nature of it doesn’t gel – I think I would have preferred it if it was all done continuously in one go with Going for Gold style questions and the contestant running to the buzzer and back to the start against the moving buzzer clock.
  • It looks like they’re repeating games after one week which isn’t… a great sign. But I’d give the first episode a promising 7/10 I think.

It’s BotherSOP Thursday, again!

By | April 15, 2010

pokertrophy2Keep your eyes on the prize, the prize being that trophy there. It’s another round of the BotherSOP at Full Tilt at 8pm on Sunday, the details of which I have forgotten to put up, brilliantly. I will do so this afternoon, if you don’t fancy going through them all yourselves (it currently exists and is registerable). This game marks the halfway point in the proceedings and thoughts of “possibly it should be October to March next time” surely can’t be coming from just me. David Bodycombe currently leads the pack by a catchable landslide, but the battle for the silver and bronze prizes is currently very exciting indeed.

As always, I extend the “come and join us!” hand of community friendship safe in the konwledge that nobody will take it up. Ah well.

In other news:

  • Can we fix it? Yes we Caan.
  • We learn that Dec from Ant and Dec is scared of birds.
  • Mission: 2110 sounds like it’s pilfering its end game from the mighty The Adventure Game. We are quite excited. (Via to the mighty Quizzlestick)
  • A new series of 8th best new format of 2009 You Have Been Watching begins tonight on Channel 4, after apparently 21m (more like 4m, I reckon) viewers have watched this year’s biggest gameshow, the first leader’s debate. WHO WILL WIN? Don’t forget that Sky News HD launches with their leader’s debate soon. Watch their heads crease in HIGH DEF!

Questions that are too esoteric for Only Connect

By | April 14, 2010

Right, the fact is I’ve got three out of four in my head, and overnight I intend on thinking of a fourth one. Let’s hope I can find one! This is a music question by the way.

  • Glory Days, by Pulp
  • Three Lions, by Skinner, Baddiel and The Lightning Seeds

Giveaway clue in the morning.

Nobody? How about:

  • Theme from Give Us a Clue, Alan Braden

Alright, final clue so we can move on:

  • 99 Luftballons, by Nena

And David B has got it! They are all tunes that have been at one point or another redone with different lyrics, by the same artists.

Join us next time for a game of Questions That Are A Bit Too Esoteric For Only Connect!

Incidentally…

By | April 14, 2010

…because I’ve had a couple of queries already – yes, Ant and Dec can count as one entity in the host’s poll if you wish, as most awards shows combine them as well.

For once, I’m speechless

By | April 13, 2010

Wooh! It sounds like Give Us A Clue is coming back after a successful run in The Netherlands (well, it’s had a pilot, nobody’s picked it up yet) with George Lamb hosting, and Rufus Hound and Kirsten O Brien as team captains. The show has some “modern twists” – here’s hoping for the return of the lateral thinking puzzle!

Try and mime your sense of excitement.