Nick R

[Nick R]

> and if there’s no Sam Tyler appearance in the finale I will be most surprised.

That’s a given. The real question is whether David Bowie’ll appear. :)

[Nick R]

Up-to-the-minute satire!!!

[Nick R]

Yes, I really like it. But a quick word of warning: when I downloaded it from their website the other day, the wav download was fine, but the MP3 file cut off abruptly a minute too early, missing off the outro solo (which is possibly the best bit of the song!). Maybe their webmasters have corrected that by now.

[Nick R]

[Nick R]

Steven Moffat BBC blog post talking about the next two episodes, with a short clip that’s just as good as the other one that’s been released so far. Spoilers! ;)

Eurogamer and Guardian previews of the adventure games. The Doctor and Amy talking about the Beatles? A trip to Skaro? I’m in! Instant-death stealth sections where you use a point-and-click interface to negotiate the Doctor around Daleks with Commandoes-style vision cones? Uh-oh…

[Nick R]

Only if you can pronounce it too.

[Nick R]

14-minute Steven Moffat video interview:

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/steven-moffat-interview-doctor-who.php

Very interesting – but I was a bit surprised by how many hints he gave about certain things (including something about the 2-parter coming up), so don’t watch it if you don’t want any hints at all about what’s in store.

The interviewer does mention the 1990 date on Rory’s hospital badge, and Moffat gives a surprisingly definite answer about that… BUT DO WE BELIEVE HIM…?

When asked about the scale of the series finales (“season finales – now more intimate than ever!”), he gives some vague-ish hints about how grand the scale might be for both this series and what he’s sort-of got in mind for series 6 – another thing I was surprised he said anything about at all! But this line will be very promising to those who thought that RTD’s finales were undermined by their universe-in-peril ambition:

“It’s dramatic if you’re threatening the universe – it’s equally dramatic if you threaten one person. It has to be huge for the characters.”

He’s also asked about the possibility of companions from other time periods, and mentions that RTD was very close to introducing a Victorian companion. I’m not sure if that’s ever been revealed before (haven’t read The Writer’s Tale).

[Nick R]

> We got a bunch of goodbyes and another crack in space/time (and this, sadly, is getting so repetitive it’s becoming redundant…Bad Wolf, it aint).

The crack patterns are far more blatant than Bad Wolf’s early appearances, but there seems to be another, more subtle mystery building up around the date discrepancies. It’s not just the hospital name badge and Amy’s memories of the Daleks – if I can quote a couple of other people’s posts from over on the xkcd forums:

The Doctor has been landing in the wrong time on every Tardis trip so far. Twice with Amy (12 and 2 year errors), and 1 month late for Churchill. And now I decided to check The Beast Below, and the years don’t add up there either. At the beginning the Doctor says the Earth was fried in the 29th century (800 years in the future), and later estimates that Liz 10 is 300 years old. So he thinks he’s 1100 years in the future, but the computer in the voting booth says Amy is 1306 years old. 200-year error.

You know, it seems like the Tardis is being drawn to the cracks in time rather than the other way around? I mean, that’s why it keeps missing I think. Like trying to throw darts with a big magnet a few inches to the side

I like that theory…

[Nick R]

Your link “shit articles and editorials, like this one” link doesn’t work either…

I’m of the opinion that the last decent game journalism outlet was Amiga Power

Not quite the last decent outlet: Ed Lomas’s contributions to C&VG, Sega Saturn Mag and Official Dreamcast Mag are more recent than that! :)

I think there’s lots of good games writing out there, although the ratio of good stuff to nonsense-rumours-and-reworded-press-releases is probably worse than it is for films and music.

Edge magazine’s “Time Extend” retrospectives are consistently great – because they have the benefit of hindsight, they’re far more insightful analyses of what a given game got right and wrong than almost any release-day review. The Escapist’s themed issues can also be very good. And there’s the occasional good bit of games writing that doesn’t fit into the standard news/previews/reviews categories, by publications that aren’t solely videogame-focused – like this Duke Nukem Forever postmortem from Wired, for example.

Also, I’m going to mention Kieron Gillen before Seb does. :)

[Nick R]

As well as the weird shot of Shaz with the background turning black, I was also intrigued by the final moments of the episode – another shot of the disfigured police officer, followed by a quick flash of a weather vane that looked a bit like either a hunchback or a man carrying a heavy pack.

[Nick R]

Blur have been in the studio recording new material!

…But it’s only one new track, released on vinyl and limited to 1000 copies.

[Nick R]

I get the distinct impression that the Doctor did notice it, and he?s making a sort-of mental catalogue of such cracks following the Multiform?s criticism of his ignorance on the matter.

In addition to the shot of the monitor in the episode itself, in the “Tardis Tour” video on the website you can see that when the set designer shows off the monitor, the crack pattern stretches all across the screen (rather than just appearing within the oscilloscope bit):

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/5396/tardistourmonitor.jpg

[Nick R]

Kissagrams and internet porn? erm?

Bow chicka wow wow.

[Nick R]

It was very good!

Though I think Mr Miles will find a few more things to add to his “Moffat Times Table”. :)

Complaints? Ummm… the “Cribs” thing in Confidential went on a bit too long?

Dr Who, Ashes to Ashes, Goldfinger on Radio 4, Jonathan Creek… almost as good a lineup as the stuff that was on last Easter weekend. ;)

EDIT:
> and the middle eight sounds like it?s gone from the closing theme.

I just checked iPlayer, and it wasn’t in the credits, but it’s there in the “Hear the new theme tune!” box at the bottom of this page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rs6t7

[Nick R]

Just noticed that the latest PS3 software update has disabled multi OS boot too, so no lovely linux anymore, good old Sony.

You can blame this guy for that.

Anyway, Sonic 4! It’s not looking good:

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/2885/4042.mp4
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5511/1111.mp4
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/58/622.mp4

The core physics of the way Sonic handles seem quite off, something that, if anything, should be more important than the level design. (The fan-made Sonic: Project Mettrix engine seems a more accurate recreation of the way Sonic 3 felt to play.) Also, they’ve gone for the Sonic Adventure 2 system of having Sonic uncurl in midair, meaning he becomes vulnerable so you need to use the homing attack on further enemies instead of just landing on them. Nothing against that system in principle, but it does kinda go against their stated intention of going back to the series’ 16-bit roots.

Then there’s this: a whole act based on racking up a high score in a tiny little pinball table. Unless this video clip is of an optional “challenge” mode, it doesn’t look a very fun section to play:
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/955/25547673.mp4

But worst of all, there’s this mine cart level. It sounds an interesting idea at first glance, but looks really awkward (in this player’s hands, at least):
http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=4AtXI6JI7G%2Fu9zpA5xz3d4h4l5k2TGxc

[Nick R]

I know that Scott Pilgrim’s overlaying of videogame graphics is taken from the comics, I just meant it ties in nicely to the “Daisy Steiner wins” that Wright had done previously. And the Street Fighter KO reference was to the sound effect.

What am I missing? :-/

Edgar Wright’s also reposted this frame-by-frame analysis done by Gamervision. Seems a little bit spoilery, in its listing of exes’ names and the origin of Scott’s sword…
http://www.edgarwrighthere.com/2010/03/frame-by-frame-scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world/

[Nick R]

The best film of 2010? I dunno, this is the year that Kick-Ass, Four Lions and Inception come out…

I read the first volume of the comic earlier this week. (I’d actually only requested an inter-library loan of it, but they decided to buy it to add to their stock. Which was nice.) Really enjoyed it, and I hear the comic only gets better after that…

Also, remember this? In the same way that Shaun of the Dead was an expanded version of Spaced’s Resident Evil scene, maybe Scott Pilgrim’s fights could be seen as the logical conclusion of that scene’s use of videogame iconography? (The “KO!” is straight from Street Fighter Alpha 3!)

Can’t comment on the casting of Cera as I haven’t seen any of his other films. In fact I haven’t seen any of this recent batch of post-Juno movies (the likes of (500) Days of Summer) which cause people to derisively throw around terms like “quirky” and “hipster” and “Sonic Youth”… ;)

[Nick R]

Speaking of Spaced, this was on last night: Lizzie and Sarah, a comedy pilot written by and starring Jessica Hynes and Julia Davis, with Mark Heap and Kevin Eldon in it too. I haven’t watched it yet, but here’s a Guardian TV blog post about the bizarre time it was scheduled.

[Nick R]

That reminds me, the Top 51 Episodes of Red Dwarf page doesn’t work any more – just gives an access denied message. :(

[Nick R]

> Ah, the good old days? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg-E2jXVx5k

Hah, I came across that exact clip not long ago! I remembered that just before I got my Mega Drive for Xmas ’95, I saw the Scorpion on sale in a local indie games shop. (I actually briefly considered getting it instead of the MD!). So a while ago I had a look online for information about the Scorpion, and that Bad Influence clip was one of the first things I found.

Off the Telly interviewed Andy Crane a few years ago.

> SO how bout everyone else? Were you a CITV loyalist? A CBBC patriot? Or one of those fence sitting channel hoppers?

CITV. Mainly for the Warner Bros cartoons – Taz-Mania, Tiny Toons, Batman, Animaniacs and Freakazoid. Of the home-grown cartoons, they had Treasure Island, Captain Zed, and The Dreamstone. Of the live-action kids’ programmes, I think Rolf’s Cartoon Club, Woof!, Knightmare and Art-Attack were pretty much the only ones I watched.

I remember I started watching weekday CITV not long before they replaced the on-screen presenters with just voiceovers…

[Nick R]

> But the title is surpassed by at least this.

http://www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/defoe.moll.shtml

[Nick R]

> God, I hate that movie.

:-(

I thought The Blues Brothers was one of those films that everyone likes!

(Whereas the sequel is one of those films I have no intention of ever seeing. Ever.)

[Nick R]

Loads of Easter eggs in the trailer:
http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/02/12/toy-story-3-trailer-easter-eggs-revealed/

I like the wooden block Lightning McQueen toy. But best of all: Totoro!

[Nick R]

Yeah, those banner picture choices are great. Encountered some nice header quotes too (Lawrence Miles lol).

Got any articles/retrospective reviews planned, or is it mostly going to be commentary on news items until the new series starts?

[Nick R]

It’s looking a lot more promising than any Sonic game has since… well, since the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog was announced with a trailer that likewise gave the impression it was back to basics with just the original character, and we all know how that turned out.

Still, at the risk of being taken in by The Sonic Cycle once more (confession: I say “once more”, but other than a brief go on a Heroes demo pod, I haven’t actually played a new Sonic game since Adventure 2…), I’m hopeful. Those few seconds don’t show us much, but I like the way the 2D games’ parallax scrolling has been recreated!

Unrelated to this new game, I found these videos quite funny. The Labyrinth Zone one is the best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIseg6zeBA0

[Nick R]

> Also a major switcheroo in tone considering the comedy a the start of that scene. Correcting a piece of insulting graffiti. Heh.

Very reminiscent of his shouted correction of the “peedos” graffiti in series one!

> It is odd as I saw the door in the last series as a reward. In this it seems malevolent somehow.

IIRC the word Hell was mentioned at one point – by the lying-still Annie doppelg?nger, I think. I think that’s the closest the programme has come to specifying exactly who these “gatekeepers” are who want her to move on.

[Nick R]

John Hoare:
> Odd things going on with Rock and Chips, anyway – the BBC One broadcast had a film effect, and the BBC HD version didn?t.

I caught a bit of the BBC1 signed repeat in the early hours of this morning, and that didn’t have the film effect.

[Nick R]

[Nick R]

In lighter news:

http://www.holymoly.com/sites/default/files/imce/doctor-who-facebook-page.jpg

Superb.

“The Master likes this”
“…”

EDIT: The same person’s also done one for the Master! Love his sixth friend…
http://the-hellish-gnome.deviantart.com/art/The-Master-s-Facebook-Page-148491314

[Nick R]

Aww, I was still holding out hope that Gaiman would be on that list. :(

I really liked “The Unicorn and the Wasp” (buzzing vicar aside), so as bad as “Planet of the Dead” was, I’m not too disappointed to see Gareth Roberts listed. (Checking Wikipedia, I’ve only just learned he also co-wrote two episodes of the second series of the Vic & Bob Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). I loved the first series of that at the time, but the second was a big disappointment… but from what I remember, Roberts’ two episodes were the best of a bad bunch.)

[Nick R]

I’ve also wondered which episode Patrick Stewart was referring to. A clip of “Gunmen of the Apocalypse” was shown at that point in the Red Dwarf A to Z, wasn’t it – is that the only reason his comment is associated with that episode?

[Nick R]

I liked the early series 1 episode about the fairies in the garden. A couple of years ago I read an online chat transcript with Terry Pratchett, in which he said that that episode had been his favourite thing about New Who and Torchwood so far. I was actually quite surprised that he’d pick something so close to a subject he’d covered himself.

Also, “Countrycide” had a brilliant title – can’t remember much about the quality of the episode itself, though.

I stopped watching series 1 not long after that. I think I saw the first couple of episodes of series 2, and they were an improvement, but I didn’t keep up with it. The LHC radio show last y… I mean, in 2008, didn’t really make a big impression on me.

I regret missing Children of Earth, though.

[Nick R]

Congratulations!

We named our daughter Chloe, after Chloe Annett!!!

“Your second daughter? What did you call your first?”
“Annette. After Chloe Annett.”

Ba-dum tish.

[Nick R]

It?s such a shame that people are seeming so flippant about RTD wanting to celebrate the last 5 years, and to close his chapter by filling in the blanks. I thought it was perfect, and needed. A thank you to the faithful fan base who had helped it become the success it is.

Conversely, you could argue that it was letting the real-world circumstances of the show’s production intrude in-universe, to the detriment of the story.

I wouldn’t go to that extreme: I do agree there should have been some element of acknowledgement that it’s the end of RTDOBE’s era – just that maybe it shouldn’t have been so neat, or so long.

Maybe instead of the Doctor surviving for long enough to go round visiting all those people, then while he was curled up in the chamber being hit with the radiation, there could have been a montage of flashes of all those supporting characters’ current situations. Then he’d regenerate in front of Wilfred.

That would have had the same effect of reminding us of all the characters introduced by RTD, but preserved the tragedy of the Tenth Doctor being unable to say goodbye in person. The fact he was able to do so really diluted the idea of him going when he’s not ready: he said he wasn’t ready, but everything being so neatly wrapped up meant that we, the audience, were.

Having said that, I must emphasise that though it had its problems, I really did thoroughly enjoy the episode!

[Nick R]

Didn’t Seb say in the nearly time:) thread that we’d have a separate thread for part 2? ;)

The new Doctor seemed ok? a bit exciteable and i can see him getting very annoying if he?s like that all the way through.

He did seem to whoop a lot in that short scene. He was alone, though, and the secene wasn’t really long enough to judge properly.

Speaking of which, when he mistook himself to be female I momentarily thought he?d said ?I?M A GOTH!!?

Haha, so did I!

Also, the “Cactuses!” – “That’s cacti!” – “That’s racist!” bit was funny.

[Nick R]

“There’s a phrase of great power that brings consolation to the soul in times of great need…
HAKUNA MATATA
… No, sorry, that’s The Lion King.”

That’s what he should have said.

Anyway, I enjoyed that. Although it kinda diluted the tragedy of his death that rather than regenerating in front of Wilfred alone, he had time to go round saying goodbye to all of RTD’s supporting characters. The equivalent of Trinity surviving for just long enough to give Neo a complete farewell speech before she pops her clogs.

[Nick R]

The Steve Coogan documentary was good. Nice to see Vic & Bob in character – having watched Bang Bang It’s Reeves & Mortimer on DVD a few weeks ago (for the first time since it was first shown), I kept half-expecting to hear “We are having fun, aren’t we?” and “Is it giro day?”

I liked 2009 Unwrapped with Miranda Hart last night. Sort of like Time Trumpet (with things like the remixed politicians’ speeches, Piers Morgan interviewing himself, and the endless Jeremy Paxman question) meets Star Stories (because it’s really silly but I couldn’t help but giggle at it). Adam Buxton’s bits bits dragged one joke out a bit too much, though.

[Nick R]

“The Golden Eggcup” was better than last year’s Royle Family special. Neither of them were awful, but they were nowhere near as good as “The Queen of Sheba” special, which was the perfect example of how a long-absent show can live up to expectations, and was probably my favourite TV programme of 2006.

But no comedy this Christmas has been truly spectacular. Even Screenwipe wasn?t his best (although still contained some terrific one-liners).

Barry Shitpeas’ comments on Noel’s HQ and Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time were fantastic. The Peaches Geldof, Michael Jackson S?ance and Gary Glitter programmes were easy targets, but he got some good jokes out of them (“Come on. Come on. Come on, come on…”). And bonus points for ending the show with Modern Warfare 2’s “No Russian” level!

[Nick R]

David Tennant was on Desert Island Discs today.

One of his selections was Tim Minchin’s new Christmas song… which he also played when he (and Catherine Tate) hosted Jonathan Ross’s Radio 2 show yesterday.

How many BBC appearances over Christmas does that make? I count…

– Dr Who (x2)
– Hamlet
– Those BBC idents
– Catherine Tate’s Nan’s Christmas Carol
– QI
– Never Mind the Buzzcocks
– “Who On Who” (next Tuesday)
– Jonathan Ross’ radio 2 show
– Desert Island Discs

Good for him, I say – very few actors can even dream of being in the public eye that much (and for their work rather than tabloid Sleb gossip, at that).

[Nick R]

[Nick R]

The Master?s return was shite, it was magic, it wasn?t sci-fi in anyway, they fucking used the word potions.

I quite liked that – presenting it as a mystical fantasy ritual, and then throwing in the “biometric signature” phrase at the end.

Lawrence Miles’ review – I mean, blog post, written before he watched it – is up, and is typically upbeat.

The chase over the waste ground near the start was far too long, but I thought the Master’s jumping effect was pretty good. More convincing than Morpheus’ leap in The Matrix ten years ago.

The fact that RTD is shaking things up a lot (or applying a reset button?) before Moffat takes over reminds me of Brian Bendis ending his Daredevil run by putting Matt Murdock in jail before handing over to Ed Brubaker. Seb could probably think of dozens of other examples from comics…

Someone posted this over at Rllmukforum:
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u101/gbfc/Shodai/TheMasterYEAAAHHH.jpg

[Nick R]

A very weird episode. Started off all portentious and epic and doom-laden with all the nightmares/resurrection-science-spell/final-showdown-in-a-shipyard/wistful-talk-in-the-cafe scenes, and then settled down enough for a little bit of comedy (“Welcome aboard!”; “Cactus!”), threw in a nod to Saint Obama, and finished with a double-whammy of a cliffhanger that was utterly amazing in a WTF batshit insane sort of way.

Great fun!

[Nick R]

John Hoare
> I probably would if I was writing it, mind, but then my writing is full of ridiculous qualifiers most of the time!

I think that for the most part I find that in my opinion I generally agree (although having said that, your mileage may vary).

[Nick R]

Here’s a 27 minute interview with James Cameron about the special effects. Some interesting stuff in there – like his discussion of why he thinks that scanning faces at higher and higher resolution (as the Matrix sequels and Superman Returns did) is the wrong path to go down, and his explanation of the problems they faced stopping the motion capture markers from interfering with the set lighting.

The impressions of the film I’ve heard so far seem to be split completely down the middle: those who think that the characters (both alien and human) are fleshed out and their relationships are convincing, and those who think that it’s a too-simple story with awful dialogue. Those who think this is a real step forward for 3D, and those who think it’s a blurry mess.

I’ll find out for myself next week! Not sure if I’ll be seeing it in IMAX 3D or Cineworld’s 3D yet, though. I’d prefer IMAX for the full Sensory Overload Event experience, but it might be hard to get seats towards the back/centre (The Dark Knight is the only IMAX film I’ve seen, and I was far too near the front for that). Also, after Coraline, I’m a bit worried about how comfortable it will be to wear the 3D glasses over my own for 3 hours (that’s including the trailers).

[Nick R]

Reviews (or at least Twitter comments) are starting to appear, skirting the NDAs in creative ways:

@slashfilm I’m not allowed to say anythng about what I thought of Avatar, but saw it in a screening room with neill blomkamp, who didn’t sign an NDA. He loved it… I will say this, it’s hard to disagree with Neil :)

This one stands out though:

@simonpegg Avatar …………………… tweetless. Just tweetless in the best possible way.

[Nick R]

> Maybe they could do like ?Have I got news for you?, And have loads of Guest Hollys.

[Nick R]

WATCH THIS.

This making of video is also worth watching, and the website has more stuff including the Crysis level itself.

That Monkey Island level isn’t quite the coolest thing that’s been done with CryEngine, though:

Great Scott!

[Nick R]

Petetranterssister:

The things that let it down for me were that i never feel the Dr works particularly well without a sidekick

What did you think of “Midnight”?

Where had this strange cocky Dr come from? It would have been understandable if the Dr had been changing into this throughout the recent specials but it was completely out of the blue and i think they have shoved it in there just to fit in with some storyline coming up and because David Tenant is leaving.

I thought it made sense. His rant about how being Last Of The Time Lords puts him in charge of the laws of time came across as both his way of justifying intervening, and also psyching himself up to think of a way out. (It’s also a nice little example of what I believe TV Tropes refers to as a “Crowning Moment of Awesome” – or at least it would have been if his shouting hadn’t been drowned out by the music!) And then his cockiness afterwards was smugness at the fact that this way of thinking had worked, and glee at the thought that he can now go back and intervene in all sorts of other disasters that he’d previously regarded as “fixed”.

OK, his use of the phrase “little people” wasn’t the most subtle way of getting across the point that a Tenth Doctor with that much power and that reckless could become a very dangerous character, despite his good intentions. But generally, the Doctor’s behaviour in that bit didn’t bother me.

No, it was a different bit of the ending that didn’t add up. Adelaide’s logic for committing suicide was to minimise changes to the future timeline. But no matter what story the two other survivors told, getting from Mars to Earth within a day of the accident (without any trace of the spaceship they used) would prompt some pretty big questions. And having a mother who committed suicide on Earth rather than vanishing on Mars could have some big effects on her daughter’s desire to explore the universe.

All in all, not a very reliable way to ensure that future history stays intact…

[Nick R]

I Screamed When I Saw Your Final Destination Was Another Shitty Saw Movie Last Summer versus Jason

[Nick R]

Well, that?s basically it. BBC themselves don?t own the format, it?s originally from a US show called College Bowl.

A show that (according to Wikipedia) hasn’t even been broadcast for a very long time. Presumably the company that owns it is making steadier money selling the rights to international versions than they would making a programme themselves…

So yes, I was a bit annoyed at the absence of Universe Challenge on DVD. Although I watched my videotaped copy of Red Dwarf Night to death, so (like Can’t Smeg Won’t Smeg) I’d really only want it on DVD for completeness’ sake, rather than to watch it much.

I recently read this blog by one of the members of the University Challenge team that ended up the lowest-scoring of the Paxman era (they got demolished by Gail Trimble’s later-disqualified team). It’s an interesting read:

When we were waiting for the knockabout questions to start, I tried to talk things up in my head. I looked over at the Corpus Christi team “You can’t be that great, you look just like people to me.” This is in retrospect like an Amish Luddite threatening Terminator with a stick.

Differences between the show in life and at home.

It is harder. A lot, lot harder. And a lot more fun. If you want an idea, pick a team next time it’s on. In life you have no choice who you’re with, so you should probably flip a coin. Take something vaguely buzzer-shaped and place your finger on it. When a question is read out, push it when you want to answer and then answer within two and a half seconds. You must push it a *clear half-second before* Roger Tilling announces anyone’s name, else another player got there before you, and that’s you out. Also, if one of your chosen ‘team mates’ answers and happens to get it wrong, that’s you out. For extra spice only answer those bonuses that you or one of your ‘team mates’ get the starters to – so as to experience the frustration of hearing easy bonuses that the other team fails to get. ‘Playing at home’ is *comparatively easy*, you can hold back answering until Tilling’s voice kicks in. Figuring out for yourself when you’ve heard enough whilst listening to the rest of the question whilst assessing where the question is going whilst assessing your potential answers whilst wondering if one of the people next to you has a better idea, is a lot harder. If you end up guessing incorrectly more than two or three times, consider how much that would dent your confidence, and how much you’d be letting down the team. If you keep getting questions right despite all this, get on the show ASAP.

The ‘wild guesses’ that you can throw at the TV at home are generally a no-no in the studio. Twice on our episodes I would’ve guessed Tchaikovsky for starters because he’s one of the few composers I know. It would’ve been the right answer twice, I would’ve ‘got that’ at home. But on TV I wasn’t nearly confident enough to waste a potential chance for a team mate, and it was the right decision, I think, not to buzz.

I never really judged people that harshly before being on it, but now I’m all the more sympathetic to contestants on screen. It’s harder than it looks, and you have to be very good indeed to get more than 3 or 4 starters in an episode.

[Author]

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