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Re: OT: Unbelievable Truth panel game

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Dean BedfordApr 18, 2009
 

 
You always write such interesting notes Clitheroe.

The panel on the show I heard was Jeremy Hardy, Fred MacAulay, Jack Dee,
David Mitchell and Will Self - all people I enjoy. So for me, the cast
wasn't the problem. Maybe they needed a Nicholas type in the chair to
keep things flowing.

On Sunday, April 19, 2009, at 12:08 PM, Clitheroe Kid wrote:

>
>
> I'm an un-fan(?) of this new panel game.
>
> You have to like the people who are on the panel, or like the chairman,
> in
> order to stay with a show for 40 years, as we have with JAM. A format
> alone
> is not enough.
>
> I began listening to JAM simply because I liked Kenneth Williams. I
> enjoyed
> "rooting for him" in the shows, and over a couple of years I gradually
> got
> to know and like the other regular players.
>
> Likewise, I enjoyed watching Call My Bluff because I liked Frank Muir.
> And I
> enjoy Brain of Britain (which has *no* regular panellists) because I
> like
> Robert Robinson.
>
> I don't think you can like the format of a show, and follow it just
> because
> of its format. The format is just the pretext for getting the people in
> the
> show together. If the people are not interesting, the show won't
> capture the
> involvement of the audience.
>
> JAM worked because Kenneth Williams had lots of interesting things to
> say,
> and was very witty with it. Derek Nimmo, Peter Jones & Clement Freud
> were
> also people with a lot of experience, who could tell a good anecdote.
> Paul
> Merton is a first class stand-up comedian.
>
> If these people had been dull - if they had not had interesting
> personalities in real life - it would not have mattered that they were
> great
> actors when given someone else's script: the radio show would have
> failed.
>
> You can't build a success out of a spontaneous panel game format, which
> needs wit and improvisation and intelligence, without panellists who
> have
> those qualities. That is why JAM and Clue have succeeded, and why other
> panel games tend not to last.
>
> Stephen

 
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