Not enough of interest for a full Board of Excitement at the moment, but I think it would be remiss not to point out that Dara O’ Briain’s School of Hard Sums starts tonight at 8pm on Dave. It’s probably not quite a gameshow, but I expect it will be of interest.
Based on a Japanese show, it gives both Dara and celeb guests difficult problems and asks if maths or practical ability comes up with the easier solution. Tonight’s guests are regular Marcus du Sautoy and David O’ Doherty.
Wasn’t this a Studio Takeshi format originally? I know it was being billed as Dara’s Institute of Practical Mathematics at one point, which is one hwll of a turn off as a title.
Watching it thus far, I’m reminded of the YTV show Fun and Games, although the games here are much more cerebral.
(I’m going to watch this on +1, incidentally)
Yes, Takeshi’s University of Practical Mathematics was the Japanese show IIRC. Although I’m not sure I love “school of hard sums” either.
According to the closing credits, it’s a Fujisankei Communications International and Wild Rover Productions programme.
As a winner is (somewhat arbitrarily) declared, I think it can pass muster as a game show.
That’ll do me!
Hrm. I can imagine this not getting another season, it just didn’t feel Dave-y enough to me. I’m guessing it’s trying to be like QI, smart while being entertaining to the layperson, but it manages to leave out the entertaining part because it focuses on such a specific (and frankly dull) subject.
According to an interview with the Radio Times, Dara wanted to make it even weirder than the Japanese original before the production team reined it all in.
Pity 🙁
To me, the funniest and most original line was the one from the student about hexagonal tiling. The rest of it was, well, pretty moderate.
Yes, it was OK but could do with being a bit more knockabout and fun.
It seemed like they cut out most of Dara’s explanation which is a bit of a cop out, although I liked du Sautoy’s simple explanation.
Common sense has prevailed regarding gameshows and gambling:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2129881/Deal-Or-No-Deal-saved-TV-gambling-ban–temporary-reprieve.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
That didn’t make the front page of the Daily Mail like the original story did though. Funny that.
“Some of Britain’s most popular TV quiz shows”
“Red Or Black?”
HA.
And the one decent aspect of Red or Black is being scrapped by ditching the roulette wheel end game.
Hang on, *what*?
It’s basically a completely different show that shares the hosts and name now, isn’t it?
What a shocker just watching World Series of Dating on BBC3 it is quite funny. Think Take Me Out and Come Dine with Me meets the commentary from US Wipeout.
I saw the first ep, and basically ran the gamut from hating it and everything it stood for, to actually getting the whole self-parody over-the-top feeling of it all and back again in the same show.
I literally can’t decide whether I like it or hate it.
i too watched the first one with mixed feelings. the truth is though at no point have i been tempted to tune in for a second episode. its yet another show where i feel the name came before the format.
Confessions of a television viewer, number 82: I really like . For my money, it’s a comedy programme wrapped around a game show, with particularly good improvisation from Bentley Kalu and Thalia Zucchi.
The programme very subtly takes the mick out of po-faced dating shows like Paddy McGuinness’s and UK Living)’s . Just the sort of television experiment the BBC does and commercial channels don’t.
> Thalia Zucchi
AH, so that’s who it is! I was racking my brains about it and for some reason didn’t see the credits.
And yes, the ref is fantastic.
Just watched an episode. Crikey, it’s subtly didactic. Additionally, the male-focused humour and presentation mixed with the overt empowerment of female participants is – but shouldn’t have to be – subversive. This is, stealthily, far more Reithian than most dating shows.
I’m not sure the narrative works completely; there’s a tradition of dating shows engendering a sense of “will they ever see each other again?” that is missed here. There’s an argument that it would be thematic to award bonus points to men who sufficiently attract the ladies to the point where the ladies are keen to see them again, but perhaps that would make the story too much about the actual friendships that might or might not be generated on this occasion, rather than about the practice of dating.
This week on Cube Ukraine, a daring contestant makes a bold decision with a surprising result. Full episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKsOElb-b8
Tremendous episode, particularly for those who want to hear the music clearly. I’m also glad that the UK version has better taste than to focus on young kids’ reactions. (It’s tacky enough when it happens in other ITV shows…)
*ponders* I know there’s a way to link to a YouTube video so that it starts at a certain point. Is it possible to create a playlist with a couple of dozen entries, all of which point to different points in the same video, just so that we get all the killer without the filler?
if you add #t=(Minute you want it on)m(Second you want in on)s after the url you go straight to it.
For example, if the cool thing happened at 2:02, just append #t=2m2s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKsOElb-b8#t=2m2s 🙂
True, but I am not aware of (and would love to be informed about, should one exist!) a counterpart way to specify an end time for the part of the clip you want to view within YouTube itself. Is there a better way than Splicd? I haven’t tried Splicd myself, being rather put off by all the adverts, but it may well do what I need.
I suppose the real better way is to download the clip via DownloadHelper or somesuch, excerpt it to my will offline with some standard video editing software or other, then reupload it.
Both of the people who’ve done that in Ukrainian Cube have both been called Oleksandr. Coincidence?
“I’m also glad that the UK version has better taste than to focus on young kids’ reactions. (It’s tacky enough when it happens in other ITV shows…)”
I think with all the faces Schofe pulls, they don’t need young kids to get big reactions from!
One word to describe that episode – EPIC!!!
I’vealso snagged myself a clean copy of that awesome music that played on the game where he had to carry the box with the ball in. I’m pretty sure it was that same music that played on our version where the woman played Construction, did it on her Trial Run, then lost both lives in actual play.
They first played it when Tom off McFly was on the £100k game. Now they seem to dig it out as the ‘last life’ music.
Can’t fault them, best track of a fantastic soundtrack.
Can’t argue with that!
What did people think of episode two? I thought the maths was better, but the gags weren’t as good.
I felt more engaged, but I didn’t think it was funny particularly. In fact I think it doesn’t quite know how comic it wants to be, various people in the production (not least the host) play up and play down how funny the show is meant to be usually within the same paragraph.
I think the biggest flaw is that the atmosphere is deader than even Only Connect. It looks like they tried some laff track last week but this time it was almost like an Open University lecture. Bit of a shame really.
Yep, like I said last week, needs to be a bit more boisterous.
Are there any vids of the Takeshi original, does anyone know? Takeshi’s University of Practical Mathematics didn’t yield much last time I looked.
Cant find anything myself, but I think it was Comaneci, rather than Takeshi in the title.
I can find this though, something about one of the specials:
http://www.ampedasia.com/forums/kim-jung-hoon-wins-japanese-math-quiz-show-t-8270.html
I did write a comment pointing to some stuff on this, but the spam filter appears to have eaten it, any chance of fixing it up?
Sorted, thanks!