Once upon a time (that is to
say in the 1970’s), daytime telly on ITV consisted of schools programmes in the
morning, pre-school shows at lunchtime, an Australian soap, the news, something
farm house and kitchen like, Crown Court,
something else, another Australian soap, kid’s programmes and then a quiz
show.Then in the late 80’s it all
changed and the schedules were inundated by sofas (introduced earlier in the
decade by the advent of Breakfast TV.Learn more about that here), property shows and cookery programmes.One genre that hung on in there though was
the game show.The first programme to be
screened on Channel 4 on November 2nd 1982 was a game show, Countdown....and it’s still hanging on in
there.All the major channels have their
own daytime game shows and while they may not have the prizes or status of
their primetime cousins, boy do they
have a loyal following.
One of the BBC’s earliest
forays into a lunchtime game show back in 1987 was Going for Gold hosted by the genial Henry Kelly (“You’re playing
catch up in the two zone”) where the big prize was a trip to the 1988 Seoul Olympics
(Going for Gold...a gold medal, get
it...good).That worked well for series
one, but the producers seemed to have overlooked the fact that the Olympics
only take place every four years, so there was either going to be a big gap between series
one and series two, or they would have to come up with some other gold related
prize, which they did with a trip to the gold coast of Australia. (Neighbours was also the cornerstone of
the new BBC 1 daytime schedule and teenagers were obsessed with all things
Australian, including adopting that awful upward inflection at the end of
sentences making every statement sound like a question?)
Today there is a plethora of
game shows around teatime (which is defined as anytime between 4:00 – 6:00 pm
if you live in the South, when it then becomes dinnertime.In the North dinner is between 12:00 and 2:00
pm and teatime can run all the way up to suppertime, which can be as late as
10:00 pm.Supper in the south runs from
8:00 – 10:00 pm and generally consists of more than a bowl of Corn Flakes
whilst watching News at Ten.But most TV channels are run from the South
so we will just go with their timings).Tipping Point is one such show that can
only really be enjoyed whilst consuming a hot beverage and a chocolate Hob Nob
(other biscuits are available).Many
game shows are simply the reworking of existing games.Crosswits
was basically just doing a crossword; Gambit
was Blackjack and Celebrity Squares is noughts and
crosses.Tipping Point is the TV reimagining of the Penny Falls, the game
that has infuriated generations in seaside amusement arcades.(Come on admit it, you’ve given that machine
a good nudge once or twice haven’t you?Thought so.)
Proceedings are overseen by
Ben Sheppard who tries to instil a sense of drama and strategy into a game that
is essentially potluck depending on where the coins fall.On TV the game isn’t played around a machine
with contestants looking through glass that has been smeared with ice cream,
burger grease and frustration; Tipping
Point has a massive 15 foot high machine which drops coins the size of
Dominos pizzas. The whole machine looks like a cool piece of engineering and the
dropping somehow always impresses me, even though I know that in reality the
coins are just being shoved in by a stage hand wearing baggy shorts and a black
T Shirt.There are some general
knowledge questions, but this game lives or dies by how the coins fall.
The Chase on
the other hand has a LOT of questions.The premise of this game is that a team of four contestants take it in
turn to face “The Chaser” i.e. a right clever dick.The chasers are all expert quiz players who
are just too big (in The Beast’s case, literally) to play as part of a team
like they do in Eggheads.The Chasers all have nicknames that come
across a being more derogative than threatening.Mark Labett is 6 feet 7 inches tall and
weighs 380 lbs so is nicknamed “The Beast” (I think the PC brigade would call
that borderline bullying, but there you go); Anne Hegerty is nicknamed “The
Governess” because of her austere appearance (bit hash) and Shaun Wallace is
called “The Dark Destroyer” because he is....errrr...welll....yeah I think you
can guess.Perhaps the comic book
nicknames are designed to lull the contestants into a false sense of security
as this bunch are international professional quiz contestants.The drama in The Chase is actually when a Chaser gets an answer wrong, which to
be honest, this rarely happens.Nothing
quite beats the feeling of getting an answer right when they get one
wrong.Especially if I’m dunking a
biscuit at the same time.That is
effectively multi-tasking.
The other star is host Bradley
Walsh.He is genuinely personable and
can’t help but corpse at vaguely rude question or answer.Don’t believe me? Then watch him here...or
here...or here for that matter.If you
like a straight forward pub quiz with a David and Goliath battle thrown in (oh
blimey I’m doing it now.They are not
Goliaths because of any physical attributes; just because they are really,
really clever.Good.Glad we got that cleared up), then The Chase should be your game show of
choice.If on the other hand you like a bit of a
survey, a bit of general knowledge and you can actually work out the rules,
then Pointless may be more your cup
of tea (and biscuit.Don’t forget the
biscuit).
The basic premise (I think)
is that 100 people are asked a question such as “Name one of the Angels in Charlie’s Angels”.The trick is to give the correct answer that
no one else has given.So everyone would
have said Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith or Cheryl Ladd...but what about Shelly
Hack or Tanya Roberts (Who????Exactly!). Various rounds with
slight variations on the theme are played until the end game when they have to
get a pointless answer to win the game.The prize money isn’t as good as on The
Chase, but they do have to pay for two presenters; Alexander Armstrong
(comedian, actor, presenter and singer) and Richard Osman (TV exec, game show
creator and really tall person...unless he is stood next to Mark Labett in
which case he is just a normal sized person, or Greg Davies, in which case he
is a short person).They have a bit of
forced, posh boy banter but keep proceedings bobbing along and the chats with
the contestants are ok if not that riveting.
Like we concluded the other
week with cookery programmes on TV (see here) it depends what you want out of
your game show.If you like living in an
oversized amusement arcade, then Tipping
Point’s your fella; if obscure answers float your boat, then Pointless is for you; if you like loads
of questions and occasionally smutty breakdowns, then head on over to The Chase.At the end of the day, you pay your money,
you take your choice.Actually, that’s given
me an idea for a game show....
Once upon a time (that is to
say in the 1970’s), daytime telly on ITV consisted of schools programmes in the
morning, pre-school shows at lunchtime, an Australian soap, the news, something
farm house and kitchen like, Crown Court,
something else, another Australian soap, kid’s programmes and then a quiz
show. Then in the late 80’s it all
changed and the schedules were inundated by sofas (introduced earlier in the
decade by the advent of Breakfast TV.
Learn more about that here), property shows and cookery programmes. One genre that hung on in there though was
the game show. The first programme to be
screened on Channel 4 on November 2nd 1982 was a game show, Countdown....and it’s still hanging on in
there. All the major channels have their
own daytime game shows and while they may not have the prizes or status of
their primetime cousins, boy do they
have a loyal following.
