Don’t forget that this Saturday is our usual Schlag-cast, and I’m now taking volunteers for Bother’s Bar Game Night 19 panellists for 13th June, please leave a message or drop me a DM. Don’t just respond to a tweet because I might forget about it. You’ve got until next Thursday to put your hat into the ring.
Anyway, The Sun reporting that ITV are signing up Gino “Sheffield” d’Acampo for a reboot of non-all star Family Fortunes. He’ll probably say something accidentally inappropriate, it’ll be great.
Gino also recently hosted the surprise gritty reboot of Win Your Wish List on Five. He was alright at it, actually.
“Iām not taking volunteers” Well then, suit yourself!
I think he means “now”
Blimey, how did that happen?
Changed anyway, thanks.
Also, yeah, showing my interest here.
Ta, will let you know.
I’ll be honest, the FF reboot sounds…not great. Can understand them getting away with Win Your Wish List tucked away on C5, but ITV primetime in a much loved format is a different kettle of fish.
I also might be totally wrong!
I don’t know what to make of this news.
On the one hand, it’s great to see Family Fortunes making a proper return to British TV with ordinary families as players.
On the other hand, Gino does not strike me as a natural fit for this show at all…
There is a certain charm about the Les Dennis episodes
‘Let’s meet the Adams family!’ (followed by obvious humming of a certain theme tune by Les)
‘You’ve won a prize…Steve!’
The guaranteed Mavis / Thatcher impressions every time Corrie or Prime Ministers comes up as a question
‘If it’s up there I’ll give you the money meself!’…poor Les must still be in debt with that 20 quid or so he ended up coughing up due to that promise over the years
And of course the family ambushing him when they won the jackpot whilst he was trying to do his final piece to camera
…all this done and dusted within a half hour episode with fairly normal families so of course the reboot will be an hour long and audition a load of made for TV families
We can’t even have Gino saying “goodbye!” at the end of the credits because of modern television practices.
“It’s Family Fortunes, and tonight’s families are: John, Jane, Peter, Roger and Pat, the Doe family. And they’re playing: Joe, Fred, Alice, Bob and Charlie, the Bloggs family. And here’s your host… Les Dennis!”
I’d argue that some of this charm was lost in the mini-revamp in 2000, when, among other things, Steve was replaced by Peter Dickson and a supposedly “dramatic” arrangement of the theme tune was introduced (which, twenty years on, I still think sounds rather cheap – certainly not Mike Woolmans’ finest work). But of course, the show used a dot-matrix board, and dot-matrix score and family name displays, right to the very end – incredibly dated these might have looked by 2002 (seven-segment displays were also dying out at this time, except of course on Countdown and HIGNFY), but they still had far, *far* more charm than the multi-coloured, computer-generated board and displays used in Vernon Kay’s version.
Whether or not they’re just going through the motions, Challenge are currently showing all of Les’s episodes in broadcast order (including Christmas specials). They started the 1994 series today (the first in which a car was offered for finding all five top answers in Big Money, of course), and the first question was “name two foods which go together”. One of the contestants said “beans on toast”, and Les replied, “Let’s hope you don’t get a *razz razzzzz*”. Truly, even a brilliant future FF host will never quite be *this* brilliant… š
They tried to use a colour screen at some point much earlier than the Vernon Kay version, I’ve never seen a video of it but apparently it looked do awful it only lasted a few episodes.
You mean THIS version of the gameboard?
It’s nice to see they have not gone for a safe bet like a Mullhern or Schofield. I think Rob Beckett would have done well with presenting this. I just hope they don’t “improve” the format.
Hate to be a party pooper here, but I just can’t help but say that the Sun is not a paper I’d readily trust. (Nor would I readily trust the Mail or the Express – and before people think I’m a loony leftie, I *would* readily trust the Times and be slightly reluctant to trust the Mirror.)
I’ll only believe that “Gino’s Family Fortunes” is happening if it’s confirmed by ITV and it’s reported by the Beeb and/or the papers I *would* readily trust (which also include the Guardian, of course).
Also been reported by the Radio Times and Digital Spy.
And they’ve clearly looked at the Sun’s article – although the RT does have the sense to wait for official confirmation, and thus say that it *could be* returning.
The Sun also says “civilian Family Fortunes hasn’t aired since 2002 when Les Dennis was host”. Andy Collins might have something to say about that.
I’m not a fan of The Sun when it comes to proper news at all but their TV news is almost always accurate.
Escape Game Fort Boyard out July 7th (in North America!)!
Two days before my birthday! How am I meant to be able to resist?
https://www.nintendo.com/en_CA/games/detail/escape-game-fort-boyard-switch/
I believe its out on the 25th June (In France at least)
Its also been reported about Fort Boyard filming this year (which is scheduled to start in 2 week) that it may be cancelled due to lack of insurance while shooting the show. They have already had to accept it would just be France filming this year.
If it does go ahead Teams will be of 5 people this year rather than the usual 6.
https://www.ozap.com/actu/-fort-boyard-inquiete-pour-l-avenir-du-jeu-alexia-laroche-joubert-lance-un-appel-au-gouvernement/593755
Well, I guess this call for families counts as official confirmation that it’s coming back (though Gino isn’t mentioned):
https://twitter.com/CastingEllen/status/1270299593583087616