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Re: OT: Unbelievable Truth panel game

Messages in this topic: 12 View All
kj.naughtonApr 19, 2009
 

 
Hello Dean,

I think you picked possibly the weakest episode of the two-and-a-half series it's been on. A bit like judging JaM having heard one Janet Brown episode.

I'd recommend you listen to a couple of the others - you may change your mind a bit. I have the MP3s if anyone is interested. Even the pilot was better than that show and pilots are notoriously weak. Take the "Clue" pilot as an example.

This show does have a good pedigree as it's created by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, two of the forces behind "Clue".

We all have our own preferences, of course, but I'm actually quite a fan of the newer Radio 4 panel games. "Banter" is pretty good and I quite like "Heresay" now Victoria Coren has taken over as host. Whilst not a panel show, "I've Never Seen Star Wars" is also excellent, although it has now moved to TV.

Cheers

kJ

--- In just-a-minute@..., Dean Bedford <dbedford@...> wrote:
>
> 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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