Saturday, 8:35pm,
BBC One
We may never officially know which came first – Endemol buying the The Wall format or hiring hardman cockney actor Danny Dyer to be a gameshow host, and let’s be clear – it’s stunt casting that’s either going to look ingenious or fall very flat, and that’s just Angela Rippon reading the questions.
It’s the BBC’s very own version of International Moderatehit The Wall, where pairs of contestants try and win thousands of pounds (although not, in all likelihood, anywhere close to the US top prize potential of $12m) from the titular wall, gambling on their partner’s ability to answer general knowledge questions. For every correct answer they can drop green balls into the wall, adding wherever they land (and there’s actually a little bit of strategy to this, the bigger amounts are further to the right so they can drop further to the right if they’re comfortable) but wrong answers will take money away. The person answering the questions won’t know if they’re right or wrong or not, leading to a possibly interesting, possibly not buy-out decision at the end of the show depending on how they’ve pitched it.
The US original is basically fine, it remains to be seen if the much smaller stakes (and slightly longer ad-less runtime) still make it worthwhile. Let us know what you think in the comments, Tweacle.
We actually do a little bit of discussion of the original US show here:
https://www.bothersbar.co.uk/?p=9635#comment-452206
Something I had forgotten about – the numbers flying about so large it all seems a bit abstract.
Our version shouldn’t have that problem, but it might well have the opposite problem
The English language version of project z has been renewed for a second series as tweets have gone out on school accounts saying that the producers visited them
Well here’s some gameshow news you probably weren’t expecting.
Sony is rebooting the canceled gameshow can’t touch this in Mexico.
https://holykey1.com/sony-pictures-television-reboots-british-gameshow-cant-touch-this-with-mexican-pilot-mipcom/amp/
Having watched a load of the French version editions via YT, and in idle moments of trying to drege up what I learnt in French lessons at le coat de bleu school, I did wonder if it ended up over here, it would be on ITV rather than the BBC.
And when I found out it was coming here, I was therefore looking forward to applying for tickets to see it at either Elstree Film Studios or Pinewood (as they are the only realistically suitable place with a high enough lighting grid to get The Wall into) so, therefore, totally skipping with joy to find out Endemol recorded the entire series on the set of the Polish version.
OK, i thought, so at least they’ll get a decent and experienced gameshow host, for such a technical and fast moving question and gameplay. Oh.
According to a piece in Broadcast Magazine – Dyer ended up as being the host, because when the BBC and Endemol brought the rights it was also with the idea that the host of the show, wouldn’t be a ‘regular’ on the quizshow hosting circut. I’ll reseve judgement until the first show – but my hopes are a ground level, if the fast cut trailer is anything to go by,
I reckon Dyer might be something of an inspired choice, actually. Once you get over the shock value you think… “yeah, why not?”. Why not try someone that arguably appeals more to the C2DE’s? There’s been something of a rut in casting choices recently, and it’s nice to try something different.
I can just see it now – ‘Answer the questions, you schlags!’
First impression: I hope they don’t have that annoying Colour Of Money-esque intro in every episode. Danny Dyer is like a discount Bradley Walsh. How did they get the audience for this? I know when they shot 500 Questions and Beat the Star in Germany, they used families from nearby British Army bases, did they have something to rely on here? Or is it a mostly Polish audience, which would explain the awkward delays in the reactions to Danny’s jokes.
I think we can assume the audience was mainly Polish – they were sat there stony-faced for large portions of the show. The problem with that is the audience is in shot **so much of the time** – far more than the French version from memory – so it becomes a distraction.
I agree with Mr Bodycombe – Danny Dyer was a clever bit of casting. If they’d have gone for a Nick Knowles, say, or some other generic face, this show would probably have sunk without trace. Dyer gives it a bit of talkability – and to his credit, he seemed genuinely involved in the game and was excellent explaining the rules. I’m amazed, however, his gag about Kim Jong-un – which fell *very* flat in the studio – was left in the edit.
I know Brig’s concerned that they didn’t choose to show a big win on episode one – but I’m OK with that. Demonstrate to the audience it’s a game of luck and there’s a reason to return to see if next week’s players do better.
I don’t think it needed to open with a big win, I think it should probably have opened with a moderate Wall win just to show off the show’s potential, but I won’t argue with the result.
Actually really liked Danny Dyer here. Not a natural gameshow host, no, and he’s not about to get work hosting Mastermind any time soon. But he clearly understands and gets into the game and has a great rapport with the contestants. I did think his opening intro doesn’t suit him though, the first minute was “oh crikey” and then ten minutes later I was completely on board.
Still think Freefall’s “must finish in the positive” is a rubbish rule, because clearly they aren’t going to replace them with another team if they lose, they’re just going to reshoot with others and not show it, so the tension isn’t there.
I think the lower cash values actually benefit the format, it’s the sort of money where you can pretty easily work out the utility for yourselves in a way that seven figure sums flying about doesn’t manage.
I’ll leave the final words to my Mum who texted me after the show, and is normally a pretty good barometer of mainstream appeal:
“Well I just watched The Wall…. loved it! Honestly wasn’t expecting to like it after seeing the ads for it, but it was very easy to get invested in the outcome.”
Years ago, an academic and TV historian once memorably, and quite correctly, referred to our very own Brig as an International Game Show Analyst. In the same vein, I reckon Brig’s Mum should be considered a red hot National Game Show Analyst.
Apart from the spoilerific intro, pleading with balls, and the artificial ending, I enjoyed it! I was really dreading American-style contestants on a sugar rush so it was nice to start with a fairly normal pair, and especially nice not to lead off with the predictable big win.
What are the top money values on this version?
Danny Dyer is just plain awful as a gameshow host. So much so it’s put me right off watching any future episodes. I am all for trying somebody different but Danny Dyer is not the right person in my view. Rob Beckett could have done well hosting this I think he is doing well on Head Hunters.
50k, 25k, 15k, 10k, 5k, 2.5k in the final round.
If it were me, I’d have the layout like this, hopefully they’ll do it starting in series 2:
Round 1:
£1 £500 £100 £2,000 £10 £1,000 £1 £2,500 £1 £1,000 £10 £2,000 £100 £500 £1
Round 2:
£1 £500 £100 £1,000 £10 £2,500 £1 £5,000 £1 £10,000 £10 £12,500 £100 £25,000 £1
Round 3:
£1 £5,000 £100 £10,000 £10 £20,000 £1 £30,000 £1 £40,000 £10 £50,000 £100 £100,000 £1
Obviously that would mean that the bigger values are 10% of the U.S. version values in pounds and it would mean that it would be the first ever BBC game show to theoretically give away £1,000,000 or more, with the top prize being £1,237,494. And also, the contract would the amount won in Free Fall plus £2,000 for each correct answer in rounds 2 and 3 with the maximum contract being £49,500.
I suspect giving away what they did tonight is about the limit of what they would be prepared to do. IITWI gave away £100k occasionally. Given that the BBC is burning licence fees in cash terms, I can’t see them upping the values further.
If this has been on ITV I think they would have used those amounts, the Polish version does.
4.1m for The Wall; X Factor Celebrity did 4.7m.
I suspect the BBC will be happier with that!
Random thought totally unrelated to the wall of the day.
Does anyone know what pitches won that Harry hill remote controller pilot from a couple years ago. Imagine if we missed the next best series because they wouldn’t commission it,
But if first & last can get a series after pilot after pilot then maybe the remote controller can.
Weren’t they scouting around for people to send in their ideas for this about 5 months back…?
I don’t remember seeing anything about that, all I could find online is the information about the 2017 pilot
One thing they could have done is made the Wall into a bit more of a character, with scripted banter between Danny and the Wall similar to the announcers on some European shows or the Brain from Beat The Brain. Given how often Ben personifies the machine on Tipping Point and the fact the Wall already has a voice, I can see that working.
But that all depends on when Angela’s voicetrack was recorded.
If it was done live during the recording, then, yes, I could see that working – although, it would ‘ruin’ the slightly distant air to the proceedings that the wall has. Chatty stuff is left to the host front of stage.
One suspects though (and not just with the UK, but with other versions) the voice, is either pre-recorded then programmed into the software driving the operation of The Wall, music, graphics and lighting during gameplay – or – is done in post-production, a la John Briggs on The Weakest Link.
Very much liking this. Enjoy the dynamic between the players on either side of The Wall; for the one in the isolation booth it’s a test of knowledge, for the other, it’s a test of relationships… until relationships go out of the window and the player tries chasing their losses after a massive blowout. I can definitely see the final proveout brining some real heart-in-mouth moments as the gulf between the wall winnings and guaranteed cash widens.
Weirdly I found this perfectly watchable but not particularly entertaining. It looks great but a lot of the gameplay just left me cold for some reason.
I HATED the ending where they’re talking about the contract and the other one has to fake her reaction. Didn’t need to be done like that at all.
Do we know how the values relate to the US original and therefore can we extrapolate the likely average and top prizes?
All that has been worked out on the Wikipedia page.£687,495 is the top prize and as expected from that most of the amount are 5% of the US (or half of the Polish version). The highest win is $1.4 million which translates to roughly £70k. The US average for just season 2 to according to Buzzerblog is $354,134. From that you could guess that our average might be about £17,500, but it’s important to remember for all our predictions that the smaller prize amounts could affect the risks the contestants take. Most of the the versions I’ve looked at have a table of results on their Wikipedia page and it look like wins of over the top pocket value are quite common, so that means we will most likely see a win of over £50k.
Iain pointed elsewhere to this review of the show from the Irish Times. It has a fantastic throwaway line about an old favourite in the eighth paragraph.
As Mark from the DOND forum would have said
“Oh dear oh dear should have been a LOT more brave and a MASSIVE REGRET”
OH MY GOD YOU DIDN’T
I thought I forgot this part of my life
The second episode was a lot better than the first. Why they decided not to put this one on last week instead of the sisters, I have no idea.
3.75m for episode two last night; a whisker behind X Factor Celebrity on 3.9m.
Again, suspect BBC happier than ITV here – that’s a million drop for X Fac.
Ouch.
In other news, didn’t realise you couldn’t go into negative figures in Freefall.
Also somebody forgot to turn the beep machine for the dropping balls on, except for one question seemingly.
Which is strange, because you’d think there’d be a motion sensor on each of the ‘prongs’, which when moved (or hit) would activate the beep noise in the computer system driving all aspects of The Wall, which would then go to the sound desk and the sfx onto the soundtrack.
To dub that on in post prod would take some very quick fingers on the dubbing mixer to time a ball hit down the wall properly.
From what I remember it was beeping on the green balls and silent on the red ones. If anything I prefered it, it felt slightly more menacing when it was quieter.
Don’t think so, because once I noticed its absence I couldn’t un-notice it, and having wondered if it depended on the ball it didn’t seem to.
Personally I like it, adds dynamism, but accept mileages may vary.
I thought the bank had a floor of £0 all the way through the game, everything else I’ve seen suggests that.
I’d suggest that having to finish ‘in the positive’ implies that the opposite is also possible.
Enjoying this quiz a lot.
Last night:
The Wall – 3.78m
X Factor Celebrity – 3.5m
OoooooooooOOOOoh.
I do think it’s worth reiterating that Dyer is the show’s biggest asset and brings a new voice to proceedings by basically being sincere and guileless. This is great for a simple team-against-the-house show like this.
It would be a very very big mistake to start putting him in other formats, he’s clearly not a gameshow host, but he is good at hosting this specific one.
Of course it’s getting numbers off the back of Strictly, but the fact it’s beating X Factor, actually increasing week on week, is no mean feat.
The much cheaper Pointless Celebrities beat X Factor a couple of years ago at least once.
Well, here’s something I thought I’d never thought I’d type. Whilst watching last Saturdays edition, I actually felt sorry for Dan.
He was feeding the contestant and the audience some dry, slightly self deprecating but mildly amusing comments – and because of where its recorded (and you have to assume 95% of the audience watching a show in their second language) , they fell completely flat.
Infact at one point I caught several members of the audience looking somewhere off set towards the lighting grid, which led me to think their may have been some sort of big screen providing a live Polish translation for them…
.. Or maybe it was the shadow of the chap up a ladder, who loads the balls into the respective dropzone container.
Which leads onto another thought. I’m pretty sure the ball loading chute on stage, just loops back under the stage and back upto the dispenser – or is there some special vacuum and wire and pulley system to get the balls upto the top of the wall.?
One for Mr Babbage in his lock-up to investigate, perhaps?
My bet is they just go under the set and someone replaces them in the holder between rounds.
I feel like it would be massively improved if they used those light-up signs in the audience that say something like “applause” or “laugh” at the appropriate moments as some American shows used to use, I forget what they’re called.
Episode 4 – using a different intro this week but needlessly recapping last time when games don’t continue from show to show.
Surely it’s just pointing out that the big money can be one so it’s worth sticking around for, for anybody who didn’t watch the previous weeks.
It seemed a convinient way to shove in the fact one game didn’t make it past Free Fall more than anything
One thing I did notice tonight was the audience seemed to have been given some Red Bull to make them a bit more lively
Yeah, the Freefall thing was quite interesting in that it doesn’t really solve the issue – we know that people *can* lose, we know they won’t show it as part of a normal show, so there’s no surprise result possible.
It feels like that awkward delay in the audience reactions has gone, maybe they’ve started using canned reactions or something. On the other episodes, there would be one bunch of people who would laugh first, and then another wave who thought “hang on, the people who speak better English are laughing at something,we should probably join in.” I think one think that helped this week was the “CHRIS PINE” incident where everyone in the audience could understand why it was funny. There was one guy in the audience who kept nodding very enthusiastically when the right answer was mentioned, very strange.
You’d expect the Polish audience would have better knowledge of Marvel films and Hollywood actors than they do of English soaps though.
The Wall hit 4m last night! FINALLY!
Harsh ending last night.
I was wondering if the Guarantee is *too* generous at around £15-20k. I think ultimately you want them to go with The Wall 60-70% of the time, that’s the more fun option, but there has to be enough on the line for it to be a difficult decision.
For reference in the US top value in Freefall is $25k, top values in round 2 and 3 are $250k and $1m, the guarantee is worth $20k a question. Effectively 1/50th of a top whack drop – the guarantee is almost certainly not worth taking… but it’s actually been taken 10 out of thirty times.
In the UK those values are £2.5k, £25k and £50k and at £2.5k, 1/20th of a top whack drop, and the Guarantee has been taken three times out of five (so far). My gut is saying the decision ought balance out more favourably for entertainment if it was £1k-1.5k for each correct answer.
Brutal ending! BRUTAL!!
I must admit when I watch on catch up I skip right towards the end of the questions, ‘ooh £120,000’, it gives and it takes it all away within 5 minutes…
Also Danny Dyer really is an exceptional choice of host for this, you can tell he is really feeling the emotion along with the contestants
Crikey, I didn’t notice until tonight that The Wall even gets the honour of a repeat on BBC1 during the week in the ‘I should probably think about going to bed by now’ 11:40pm slot!
Not hugely surprising given how well it’s done against X-factor, but: second series confirmed at the end of tonight’s show.
Spoiler for those who haven’t seen it, but it hadn’t occurred to me that games where the guarantee and the game result end are in the same ballpark turn out to be a bit of a damp squib. I guess you have to be a bit unlucky for that to happen too often.
Yeah, suspect production were willing for anything but that last ball to go there.
Anyway, good show, deserves a second go.
Fully deserving of a second series. Really does need a British audience. A couple of tweaks with the rules and they’ll have a damn near perfect quiz.