Hilarious Fashion! (Challenge TV)

Member Name: mreyre

Product:	Challenge TV
Date:	17/03/02 (1537 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nothing like a bit of Bully, Winner Takes All, Loser Gets Nowt, Anneka Rice's bum

Disadvantages: TV Scrabble, dizzy blonde presenters, Anneka Rice's bum

We’ve had Sky TV for a couple of months now, and although there is a plethora of hundreds of different channels, I don’t know about you, but I find that there are only enough hours in the day to watch a few channels regularly.

My 3 year old is addicted to the Cbeebies channel, and my wife usually has UK Gold on, in fact, she’s currently watching re-runs of “Upstairs Downstairs”, which have been being shown on the Hallmark channel at 8 a.m. weekdays.

However, being a bear of very little brain, I like to watch TV programmes which don’t require a lot of thinking – this is why Challenge TV is such a great channel for me. I’m sure if Bob Monkhouse had to choose his favourite channel, it would be this one, too.
Basically, it’s a channel devoted to quiz shows, 24 hours a day. To give you an indication, here’s a timetable for a typical day:

6.00 3-2-1
7.00 Gladiators
8.00 Under Pressure
9.00 Interceptor
10.00 Winner Takes All
10.30 Celebrity Squares
11.00 Beadle’s About
11.10 Blankety Blank
12.00 Family Fortunes
1.0 Strike It Rich
1.30 Beadle’s About
2.00 Crystal Maze
3.00 Global E-Missions
3.30 Who Dares Wins
4.00 Gladiators
5.00 Under Pressure
6.00 Family Fortunes
6.30 Blankety Blank
7.00 Strike It Rich
8.00 Crystal Maze
9.00 Stars in Their Eyes
etc, etc, etc!

The problem is with this channel, is that you definitely need to look beforehand when the decent quizzes are going to be on, as there is an awful lot of pathetic quizzes.
One such quiz (not on the timetable above) is “TV Scrabble.” Now, we all like playing the odd game of Scrabble at Christmas, or when you’ve had a few drinks, trying to make as many rude words as possible with your girlfriend, but a TV quiz?? No, not really. What makes this programme twice as worse is that it is presented by Toby Ansti
s of Children’s BBC fame. Need I say more? Just one thing – you would have thought that the contestants have never even played Scrabble before, as they are completely useless. Richard Whiteley, here we come.

However, some of the quizzes bring back such incredible nostalgic memories, it really is worth tuning in.

Occasionally, old episodes of “Treasure Hunt” are shown, worth watching for shots of Anneka Rice’s bum getting lost in the streets of Norwich (or something.) Also, marvel at the pace of technology in the spin-off series “Interceptor”, hosted by the 80’s answer to Ulrika Johnson, Annabel Croft. This programme involved 2 gullible contestants who failed their Geography “O”-Level to run round Yorkshire, (or other such county), one with a suitcase with £1000 strapped to their back, and the other with an empty suitcase, trying to find each other’s key. In the meantime, a mean-looking bloke in a black helicopter shouting “cackle, cackle” swoops down, virtually knocking their head off, trying to “zap” their suitcases shut with a highly advanced lazer beam. Cue “false” screams from Annabel….

Another great quiz shown on this channel is “Bullseye.” (Nothing in this game for two in a bed, Nothing like a bit of Bully on a Sunday…etc.) Laugh at Jim Bowen’s attempt at presenting prime-time telly, and chortle at the contestants vain attempt to win a speedboat.
“You managed to score 4 with 3 darts, you need 97 with 3 darts to win the star prize..” Clunk – missed
Clunk – treble 1
Clunk – 1
Neeeeee-ooooooooo-wwwwwwwww-mmmmmmmmm
“Let’s look at what you could have won….”

Another brilliant trip down Nostalgia Avenue brings us to Noel Edmond’s Telly Addicts. Now, the questions are often quite challenging, and the rounds are quite enjoya
ble. However, the examples of eighties fashion on this show are just unbelievable. It is so hard to believe that women actually used to wear these clothes! Not just that, the plastic dangly earings and huge “Su Pollard” specs. In fact, I am often laughing so much at the fashion that I keep missing the questions!

Crystal Maze is another great programme on this channel, and truly laugh a minute. Richard O’Brien baffles the contestants so much that they forget what they actually came for in the first place. More recent shows feature Edward Tudor-Pole who is just far to eccentric to be allowed anywhere near a TV camera.

The programmes are linked together by a dizzy blonde presenter, who looks as though she has been stuck in a cupboard in front of one of those blue screens. In fact, she probably has. She makes a very feeble attempt at introducing the programmes, and reading various very “sad” e-mails that have been sent in by saddos like me who haven’t got anything else better to do!

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