Really really not much going on this week, although history fans might be interested to know that it’s Takeshi’s Castle‘s 25th Anniversary tomorrow, apparently. Challenge are celebrating by showing double bills at 1am and 5pm.
And after the Easter break, The Bother Series of Poker resumes next Sunday – details to follow, it’s not been created yet. Edit: Game 9 now created and details now up.
If it counts as any sort of excitement, recordings for series 5 of Pointless begin tomorrow – single episode being recorded in the evening, I’ll be there. (Missing it returning to our tellyboxes after the snooker…! I love Sky+.)
Since I’m coming in from outside of London and staying overnight, I was rather hoping I could get tickets for Tuesday afternoon as well and see two recordings in one visit, but neither I nor anybody I know seems to have got tickets for then. Pretty different to series 3, back when they were throwing tickets at me for every date I applied for… maybe a sign of its rising popularity? I’d like to say that, but there’s also the part where Applause Store have been guaranteeing priority tickets to things like QI and the X Factor so long as they attend Pointless recordings, so I think that too might be a factor. Is it a bit snobbish that that annoys me? The warmup always asks who’s familiar with the show/has seen it before at the start, and there’s usually quite an even spread of have/have nots… last time I went to recordings he was asking who came along just for priority QI tickets and it just makes you want to say something like “don’t worry, -I’m- a fan of the actual show we’re here for today!”… …or that might just be me…
I used to quite like it where for unpopular or new shows if you went for the afternoon session they would have tried to accomodate you for the evening session if you wanted to stay on.
I really enjoyed the afternoon Pointless recording I went to months ago, alas no such offer extended. It does sound like the evening was a full house though so yes it does suggest it’s now a popular show to go and watch, and something I would absolutely recommend seeing recorded if you can as it’s much funnier.
To give you an idea K. I have been to Deal or No Deal numerous times but a couple of times to see the morning session (9am) but wasn’t offered to stay for the afternoon recordings. That said, when I attended the Britain’s Got Talent auditions at Birmingham Hippodrome in 2008, we was offered to stay for the evening session but decided to head back home.
K – I was given the option to stay for the afternoon show at Deal (it was a 2 morning / 1 afternoon taping that I saw in October 2009) and took them up on it.
I suspect, although I can’t be sure, it was the fact that I was visiting from out of town (specifically, out of continent), although the fact that they didn’t have a full house booked for the last show (as stated by the director over the PA) probably helped too.
Curious: do any shows tape in the summer?
Not many as the summer shows to air have been recorded by now or will do this month, like Odd One In. All Star Family Fortunes will be recording over the summer. I suspect The Cube will also be recording for their autumn run but I must warn you that it could take a good 4 hours to record one show.
According to the application form (I quite fancy a go at The Cube, so I thought I might apply!), the recording dates are everyday between 25th June to 8th July inclusive….interestingly, it says when you pick your dates of choice in case you make it to be a contestant that your supporters (the three or four family / friends in the audience) are needed between 5pm and 10pm each day…but contestants are needed between 2pm and 10pm each day. Does that mean contestants get a run through of some of the games…
It won’t be that, it’ll be going over rules, checking your wardrobe, mic checks and setup, but certainly no practice games.
Ahhh…cheers Dan – getting my hopes up there, in case I got on! Haven’t even heard anything yet mind you, but you have to hope, don’t you?!
Two solid weeks of filming! Blimey, I wonder how many episodes they’re hoping to make.
I’ve had an application form back in late 2010 (but didn’t fill it out), and the filming dates for that were about a fortnight too.
Oh, did they actually used to do that? Interesting… tomorrow will be the… tenth Pointless recording I’ve been to, I think? They’ve never said anything like that (and on leaving the afternoon recording, the queue for the evening one is always massive) but sometimes the warmup has asked if anybody’s staying on for the afternoon one, and I always thought that was a bit strange since it never seemed like an option? Especially given what an imprecise science getting tickets seems to be now, I wasn’t sure what the odds were for being able to score two tickets for the same day!
I do love seeing it recorded but it means I end up watching those episodes on broadcast waiting for favourite bits that die the death of the edit, so it’s almost more relaxing watching episodes I didn’t see since I’m not preoccupied by that, hah. One of these things where if I really let myself think about just how much gets lost in the edit, then… though given the apparent availability of tickets this series, I’m just glad I managed to see as many recordings as I did in series 3 and 4!
I can’t guarantee Pointless has ever done that, but certainly for new shows there’s a good chance of being offered.
I know what you mean regarding editing of the good bits, I thought one of the episodes I saw would go down as the best ever but a lot of the comedy didn’t make the edit, which was very sad.
Of course, everything that’s cut from the OC edit is pure filth.
Only Connect – the X rated connections edition!
I know this has nothing to do with anything, I just thought you guys’d know this sort of thing. Sorry if it’s a dumb question, but anyway: is it fact that The Crystal Maze is a British re-imagining of Fort Boyard or is it just a show that Jacques Antoine that’s similar?
“That Jacques Antoine has done”, I should say.
The Crystal Maze was going to be Fort Boyard (I recollect Richard O’Brien on Live and Kicking once saying the show would be called ‘The Keys To Fort Boyard’ over here)
I’m pretty sure in the same interview, he said that as the French series was going to air later than Channel 4 wanted it, and the weather in France during the winter when the fort was being restored ahead of the first series was so bad it delayed the works by a couple of months and would miss the transmission date, so to avoid loosing the commission, Jacques and Chatsworth Television, reworked the format to be recorded in a studio, and the idea of FB was then dropped.
Ah, that explains everything. Thanks a bundle.
It wasn’t quite the case that FB was dropped just like that. The producers asked the designer to make an internal mock-up of a castle for use as a pilot, and the designer (James Dillon) said “Sure, I can give you a castle, but I can also give you other areas as well…” And so the idea of the zones was born.
Yep, basically this.
I’ve got a book on the history of Fort Boyard but unfortunately it’s all in French. At some point I’ll do some translation, hopefully.
Brig – give me a page number and I’ll punch it up sometime this week. Assuming we’re speaking about the same book, correct?
I can’t remember where it is, probably the chapter about the British trying to put a Union Jack up. I’m pretty sure it’s been mentioned here in the past at any rate.
In other news, I’m getting a lot of hits for Walk the Line with Paddy McGuinness today. What bit of news have I missed?
Quote from DS: “Challenge are currently showing the first Ninja Warrior competition but they don’t have Stuart Hall doing the voiceover”.
Not seen it myself yet, but, COME ON SKY. Promote stuff on Challenge properly!
I see they are showing Blockbusters from 16th May but Digiguide are saying they’re new episodes.
I’m betting it’s the 2000 revival with Liza Tarbuck as that was a Sky One show.
I’d heard it was the G4 special commemorating 25 tournaments, but watching it back this morning it was the 1 hour edit G4 did of the first competition at Tokyo Bay. There was a new UK voiceover though, by Jim North – I think he used to team up with Dave Lamb, it certainly had a bit of a Come Dine With Me feel to it, if you can imagine that.
And they did start promoting the new series, about 10 minutes after the first episode. Apparently it’s the Thursday and Friday 10pm broadcasts that are new, if anyone’s interested but my Freeview+ shows no difference whatsoever between the listings, except that it appears they are series linked together.
In terms of Fort Boyard 2011.
France are having 7 episodes this year with the return of Sweeden Norway and Algeria confirmed. After these countires are shot the Speical kid prize winners will be on the fort. It is yet not known if these will be aired.
Well The Cube did a good rebound- 3.65 million when you add the +1, and a 20% share…that was up over 400K from last week…
little news from Italy:
unexpectedly, Mediaset announced a new daytime gameshow to start next Monday, but this time it’s not going to air on a major network but on Iris, one of their theme channels (this one is about cinema)
it’s Parole Crociate (Crosswords) hosted by Daniele Bossari
http://static.blogo.it/tvblog/parolecrociatedanielebossari.JPG
I guess it’s something like Merv Griffin’s Crosswords on a shoestring budget.
in other news, Uman debuts tonight ^_^
I’d like to point out the fact that the actual Merv Griffin’s Crosswords seemed like Merv Griffin’s Crosswords on a budget as well.
Speaking of Takeshi’s Castle, I’ve found a full episode of it that’s from the original uncut Japanese broadcast. Here are the short-formed hyperlinks…
Part 1 – http://youtu.be/ecX7xpVSp1c
Part 2 – http://youtu.be/TUM1n7YO1e0
Part 3 – http://youtu.be/EZjuAye1Yl0
Part 4 – http://youtu.be/hw0jTrt3BY4
Part 5 – http://youtu.be/0lC5IyAwHV8