sir_quirky_k (![[info]](http://www.iziblog.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sir_quirky_k) wrote,@ 2007-09-05 15:59:00 |
Compare, contrast, despair
A futuristic, in-the-round, dimly lit television studio, October 2000. DUNCAN and CHRIS are sitting in chairs facing each other, with a monitor in view of each. It is displaying an arcane trivia question to which DUNCAN thinks he knows the answer.
DUNCAN: Is it worth gambling?
CHRIS pulls a stony face. Nervous laughter from the audience surrounding the pair.
CHRIS: You've got £250,000 at this moment. You lose £218,000 if it's wrong. (pause) It's worth half a million.
DUNCAN: It's only money, isn't it?
CHRIS pulls a face of seeming horror.
CHRIS: It's quite a lot of 'only money'.
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A wood-floored television studio with spotlights on exposed brick walls, July 2007. JON has sold a box of indeterminate value for £20,000. Subsequently, it has been discovered that this box contains either £5 or £250,000. He has already been told that he could have won £25,500. NOEL has just fielded a call on a Bakelite phone informing him of the offer that would now have been made.
NOEL: He would have added £50,000. Seventy five and a half... thousand pounds. (pause. Slowly) If you had just hung on that little bit longer, and just had that little bit of extra self-belief. (pause) Ooh, think what you could have done with £75,500. (makes odd growling noise) Now...
JON: Gutting.
NOEL: It is, isn't it?
Shortly afterwards, the box is opened to reveal £250,000. JON places his head in his hands slowly, while the audience groan.
NOEL: (forcefully) You blew it big time. (slight pause, JON sighs oddly. Only slightly less forcefully) You had the quarter of a million all along. (JON sighs again) Jon!
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The dissonance between the two is simply frightening. (There is some convergence between the two in the fallout, which I have omitted: suffice to say they both involve the hosts saying how they had a strong feeling that the respective jackpots were about to be distributed. Bear in mind here that Bickley was pre-Keppel.)
These actions were not in the least bit atypical of the two hosts. No surprise which one I prefer.
Ideal scenario: Channel 4 abandons NOEL'S GAMBLING PARTY at the earliest opportunity, ITV1 buys the format from them, replaces NEW MILLIONAIRE with it, and throws the host of that format in to replace the eponymous host of GAMBLING PARTY. In turn, the show reclaims its nominal title DEAL OR NO DEAL, and ITV have their biggest primetime hit game show in a decade.
A futuristic, in-the-round, dimly lit television studio, October 2000. DUNCAN and CHRIS are sitting in chairs facing each other, with a monitor in view of each. It is displaying an arcane trivia question to which DUNCAN thinks he knows the answer.
DUNCAN: Is it worth gambling?
CHRIS pulls a stony face. Nervous laughter from the audience surrounding the pair.
CHRIS: You've got £250,000 at this moment. You lose £218,000 if it's wrong. (pause) It's worth half a million.
DUNCAN: It's only money, isn't it?
CHRIS pulls a face of seeming horror.
CHRIS: It's quite a lot of 'only money'.
---------------------------
A wood-floored television studio with spotlights on exposed brick walls, July 2007. JON has sold a box of indeterminate value for £20,000. Subsequently, it has been discovered that this box contains either £5 or £250,000. He has already been told that he could have won £25,500. NOEL has just fielded a call on a Bakelite phone informing him of the offer that would now have been made.
NOEL: He would have added £50,000. Seventy five and a half... thousand pounds. (pause. Slowly) If you had just hung on that little bit longer, and just had that little bit of extra self-belief. (pause) Ooh, think what you could have done with £75,500. (makes odd growling noise) Now...
JON: Gutting.
NOEL: It is, isn't it?
Shortly afterwards, the box is opened to reveal £250,000. JON places his head in his hands slowly, while the audience groan.
NOEL: (forcefully) You blew it big time. (slight pause, JON sighs oddly. Only slightly less forcefully) You had the quarter of a million all along. (JON sighs again) Jon!
---------------------------
The dissonance between the two is simply frightening. (There is some convergence between the two in the fallout, which I have omitted: suffice to say they both involve the hosts saying how they had a strong feeling that the respective jackpots were about to be distributed. Bear in mind here that Bickley was pre-Keppel.)
These actions were not in the least bit atypical of the two hosts. No surprise which one I prefer.
Ideal scenario: Channel 4 abandons NOEL'S GAMBLING PARTY at the earliest opportunity, ITV1 buys the format from them, replaces NEW MILLIONAIRE with it, and throws the host of that format in to replace the eponymous host of GAMBLING PARTY. In turn, the show reclaims its nominal title DEAL OR NO DEAL, and ITV have their biggest primetime hit game show in a decade.
