That’s Yer (Pi)Lot: Battle of the Ages

Thanks to @TeamXander1 for the following report on what must be about the 36th pilot of Battle of the Ages:

It was in the Eldon Road section of Elstree Studios. Quite a nice green and yellow set, non-shiny floor, large hanging pictures of things meant to represent different generations – Andy Pandy, Angry Birds, a draper’s shop, smartphones, etc etc. The audience sit all around the set. Can’t imagine those behind the panel got much of a view. The teams’ desks have video screens in the front, and I assume the players also had screens on their side. I will speak more of these later.

There were two teams, the Older Generation (captain Dave Spikey and guest Billy Pierce) and the Current Crop (captain Jo Brand and guest Rufus Hound). Alexander Armstrong hosted. I can’t remember the names of the rounds, so I’ll give them my own names.

When I were a lad:
The teams are given a topic and each in turn has to explain why their generation had it worse than the other. The topic here was Holidays. The funniest individual wins the round.

Duel:
Two players (the two guests this time) take turns trading jokes on a given topic for 2 minutes. Every time one of them gets a laugh, a buzzer goes and the other takes over. At the end of the 2 minutes, the one who has taken up the shortest amount of time getting their laughs wins the round. Two different topics were recorded.

Envelopes:
Each player has a choice from 3 envelopes. They then have to do standup for 1 minute on the subject in the chosen envelope. The one who gets the loudest laughter wins the round.

=== COMMERCIAL BREAK ====

Putting the world to rights:
Each player in turn says what they would get rid of or change to improve the world. The funniest wins the round.

Duel:
Same as before, but this time the team captains. Two topics again.

Buzzer round:
Players buzz in with short jokes on a given topic. Several topics during the round.

I think this has the makings of an entertaining show. The Duel rounds were particularly good.

I was really bothered by the screens though. It felt as if someone had designed a set with screens in, then they’d desperately tried to think of something to do with them. In the whole show, I think we saw 2 still photos and 1 video, none of which were essential. One of the photos wasn’t even relevant, as far as I could see. They either need to integrate the screens far more, or just bite the bullet and get rid of them.

Recording started at 7.30 and we were out at 9.45, the time we’d been promised. Not bad at all for a pilot.