'Pot as many balls as you can!' (Big Break)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Big Break
Date:	06/06/08 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great entertainment

Disadvantages: None really

Big Break was a largely successful Saturday evening entertainment gameshow that paired a member of the public with a celebrity snooker player and pitted them against two other like teams in the chance to win prizes galore. Jim Davidson was the host, with John Virgo his 'glamorous' assistant and resident snooker expert.

The format of the show was the contestant answering a series of questions in the hope that they will give the snooker pro enough time to perform their magic on the table and give them the edge over the other teams. One such game, which was the first in the show, was named 'Red Hot', and involved the contestant receiving 10 seconds on the clock. They then had a series of questions to answer, each one giving more time for a right answer. The snooker pro would then have the time to pot all the reds on the table, which John Virgo would look into the camera with a deliberate gormless expression and say 'Pot as many balls as you can!' in an equally bored voice.

The prizes were quite good, ranging from fridges and dishwashers to mini holidays and the like, and the winner of the game generally seemed to get decent prizes. The losers always had a chance to walk away with a consolation prize, which they won by completing Virgo's Trick Shot, where John Virgo would set up a trick shot on the snooker table for them, show them how it's done, and then get them to do it themselves. If they did it, they got the consolation prize. Sometimes, Virgo would 'coax' the trick shot to work with his hand, thus winning the loser the consolation prize anyway.

All in all, Big Break was great fun to watch. Davidson is hilarious, and his interaction with Virgo was marvellous. Both would poke fun at the snooker pros and contestants alike, and were charismatic on screen. I enjoyed watching it immensely.

Summary: Big Break