I was just writing the comment for Interceptor in the Gameshow General Election (yes it is in the Top 30) and discovered the following startling fact:
Sean O’Kane is only 45.
Come on ITV, I think you understand what I’m saying here…
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So do I – but first lets do some flaw fixing..
1 – A better presenter than Anabell Croft
2 – Less obvious set-ups for getting the contestant from A to B.
Contestant “I want to go to a farm around 5 miles from here, can you help”
Car Driver “I was just popping down that way to walk my pet Hippo, jump in the back of the car”
3 – Better sound mixing. Having Croft shouting to both contestants. both contestants bawling out the they can’t see The Interceptor, and the Interceptor talking to Mikey over the helicopter rotor blades does not make for easy sound narrative
4 – Draw the contestant pool from an area larger than a direct line around 40 miles northwest of Uxbridge.
There.
And for God’s sake don’t change the theme.
A different presenter from Crofty? Er, yes; nothing quite screamed “jolly hockey sticks what a jape chaps let’s open lashings of ginger beer what-ho” as the host. Either get someone completely over-the-top to host (but Boris Johnson appears to have given up on his game show career) or, preferably, someone A Bit Good (Michael Underwood?)
Part of the artifice of Interceptor was that the contestants had to have their backs exposed for as long as possible, so that Interceptor could get a good zap at them. That meant lots of movement on foot, lots of flat-bed trucks, sports cars and the ilk. Would Interceptor 2011 use more modern high-powered lasers, potentially allowing contestants to ride in enclosed cars?
Even within the one series we got, the producers became somewhat more inventive as they grew in confidence – from simple transfers in Cumbria (which I’m fairly sure was the pilot episode) to complex routings in Kent and Cornwall. I’m sure that a second run would have been much more dastardly.
The sound mix was state-of-the-art for 1989. It’s not quite up to 2010 standards, showing how far the technology has advanced over two decades.
Contestants from outside the Thames franchise area? No-one’s going to argue with that. Well, no-one outside the Thames franchise area, and they’re the ones who have stopped Boris from hosting the programme.