TV’s Michael Harmstone has alerted us to some Instagram viral advertising for Belgian Mole set in Greece this year. Do click through to the short video, it’s quite something, but tongues are wagging that the Omega is a suggestion of an ending. Whatsmore Belgian Mole has form for this, the original series ended whilst it was hugely popular as well.
This would make us very sad, obviously, as it’s the best thing currently in regular broadcast and has been consistently excellent throughout its four previous series. However, we’ve been saying for years it must be due a duff season surely so perhaps a break will be worthwhile.
There’s two interpretations of the Omega symbol being there – either the finale is April 26th (in which case, RIP my social life for an entire month) or the premiere is April 26th and it’s the last one for a while. GDC has gone on record before saying he wanted a little break so the quality isn’t affected, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the latter.
Anybody else from the Bar here at the Fingers on Buzzers podcast taping? I’m sure they’re going to be great but I feel incredibly awkward even by my usual standards.
Afraid not, I gather the weather has put a lot of people on my Twitter off from going by the sounds of it.
It was hilarious, utterly shambolic, very funny, as filthy as a 3am kebab and highly recommended.
The special guest was one Nick Helm, with whom I wasn’t really familiar; I don’t claim to know the guy himself at all, but his comedy persona looks like Treguard if Lord Fear had taken over Dunshelm Castle and kicked him into Level One of the dungeons for a couple of months. Nick was one of the running themes of the show, along with Celebrity Mastermind and Bill Murray, for the event took place at a comedy club entitled The Bill Murray. As it was a podcast recording, you’ll get to hear the very vast majority of what went on, as long as they can find a good way to edit it and keep only the funniest swearing in. (I don’t think there were any tremendous anecdotes that won’t make it.)
The most interesting format point was that they have announced that they are going to devise pilot quiz show formats for their special guests to host on the podcast. GIven Nick’s boxing-themed comedy pilot The Killing Machine, this episode extremely loosely tried to be a micro version of quiz boxing in the style of Bullseye, Big Break or Full Swing. It relied on quite a visual gag but it’ll come over clearly in the podcast. While we did end up with one of the hosts not making it to the end of the podcast recording, nobody was hurt, let alone knocked out.
The more faint-hearted among us Bar patrons (myself firmly included, for I have a rotten cold) may not have found the logistics of the whole experience particularly welcoming. The room in which the comedy took place was perfectly fine; I think I saw a suggestion of 65 capacity and (thanks to Storm CIara) perhaps 30 turned up. However, the waiting area was a teeny tiny little bar, packed to the gills, which wasn’t especially comfortable, particularly for attendees on their own. (Jenny was waiting in there beforehand with the rest of us, but I felt it would be rude to interrupt the talent and their preparations.) Nevertheless, thank you to the Fingers on Buzzers team for a real treat and fingers crossed for further recordings in the future; if my schedule permits, I’m very likely to attend.
Nick Helm’s one of those comics who’s quietly been around doing stuff threatening to break through to the mainstream for ages – he’s a regular in Dictionary Corner on 8/10CDC, he had a fairly successful BBC3 sitcom called Uncle, and he’s had a Dave show where he travels the world eating food to get over breaking up with his girlfriend. Amongst other things.
I think he’d be a good fit for Taskmaster. Actually surprised he hasn’t done it already.
Another live podcast recording has been announced: Sunday 8th March, 4:30pm, as part of the Vault festival (which has quite a few rather cool-looking immersive events). The guest this time is Kate Thornton, and it’s a bit earlier in the day, so one might expect the balance to be slightly more quizzy and slightly less comedy than the first. Kate has plenty of game shows on her CV but only a one-off that could be considered a straight quiz, but it should still be rather fun. £15, sixty minutes, but all the money goes to the child.org charity.
Does my schedule permit? Almost certainly not, this time!
and at 2:30 AM, the Sanremo contest has a winner!
Diodato with Fai Rumore (Make Noise) will also be Italy’s entry at the ESC
“Coming Soon” trailer for Race Across The World aired before Doctor Who, so that’s probably not too far off now; unless I’m very bad at recognising celebs, looks like it is indeed the civilian version going out first.
It also reveals the first checkpoint and the final destination, which I’d been wondering about; Honduras is the first stop, heading to Argentina. Looks like they may be starting from Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City if my Google-fu hasn’t failed me.
Ooh, my instinct on them doing Alaska – Argentina wasn’t too far off the mark then.
I would imagine the reason they didn’t is because there’s basically no interesting, culture shock-y way for them to get from Anchorage to Vancouver.
And they want to avoid comparisons with Win the Wilderness, might be another reason.
I’ve just binge watched series 2 of The Heist. I enjoyed it more than series 1 but that could be because it’s in my neck of the woods.
However some of the problems remain and I still just get the feeling it’s actors rather than a genuine reality TV show. Still might be of interest to some of you.
I also agree. The issues I have with it (eg the Detectives are REALLY unlikeable compared to the Hunters on Hunted) are still there, but the series is better in Series 2. The fugitives seem to be much more entertaining this time around (although there’s one episode where I genuinely question why two of them were even cast in the middle of the series). It’s not rubbish, but it’s getting better.
It is going out in 3 weeks as far as I’m aware. 8th March. Replacing Top Gear.
There’s been more of these uploaded to a different account. Any hidden clues in these? https://www.instagram.com/p/B8bWt2fBfsb/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Interesting video- a UK pilot of Scattergories…
https://youtu.be/L4ovREGOUB0
Jon Snow’s Very Hard Questions starts next Wednesday on More 4.
Gods of the Game starts March 9th on Comedy Central.
We get a trailer today – start date has been confirmed as March 8th.
And here is said trailer! https://twitter.com/opVIER/status/1228258098738913280
That sounds right for the 26th April to be the finale, but it’s odd to give the date of the last episode before we knew when the first episode was.
The theme of the season seems to be starting with the end, so it fits in. (Previous straplines include “Have you missed me?” and “The Mole knows nothing.”)
Maybe it will start with the pre-titles sequences showing something from the final, similar to what Glenn says at the start of the very first episode of the UK version.
I think we had that last year with Gilles outside the temple before the winner was revealed, so there must be something more.