Looking A Little Tired Now (Big Break)

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Big Break
Date:	21/08/01 (46 review reads)
Rating:

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Who would have thought that the game of snooker could ever be translated into something midly entertaining. What the BBC have managed to do here is transform what is probably the most boring spectator sport since tiddly-winks into a quiz show which almost works. I am a fan of quiz shows. I love to hurl abuse at the screen when someone messes up a really obvious answer etc. as much as the next person. I also like playing snooker, but to be honest, I would rather take a bath in acid than sit through watching a snooker match on the television. Big Break tries to combine these two mediums into a gameshow, and succeeds mainly because of the hosts than anything else. Jim Davidson is of course something of an acquired taste and therefore obviously this isn't going to be for everyone.

In the first round, contestants must answer questions on order to gain time for their professional snooker playing partners who then go onto pot the balls and win them points to progress into the next round. The loser of this round must perform a trick shot in order to win a prize or go home with nothing - this never happens but the idea is there anyway.

In the second round, the snooker players must pot as many balls as possible in order to win money for the contestants - red £10, yellow £20 etc - normal snooker rules apply and if they miss one then the contestant has to answer a question correctly before they can carry on. The contestant with the most money can then go into the final and have the chance of winning a 'big' prize.

The final round is against the clock. They have one and a half minutes in order to pot all the balls on the table but by answering 5 questions correctly there is the opportunity to remove 5 of the red balls before they start. Prizes are won by potting all the red balls, and then for each colour upwards, the prizes getting bigger as the higher value ball is potted up to the black where you can win a really big prize. Ok thats not
strictly true because the BBC doesnt give away really big prizes - but something like a holiday anyway.

It is the presenters who carry this program really, being more a half hour of friendly banter between Jim Davison and John Virgo(and whoever the pro players are) with a little bit of a gameshow in between than an out and out gameshow. The show itself is pretty lame and would have no doubt fallen flat without these two, but they manage to carry it past that and into the realms of mildly entertaining. Of course, if you do not find them funny then there really is nothing to see here and you'll find yourself channel hopping very quickly. The show is ok, the prizes are naff as always(good old BBC) but for a piece of light entertainment its worth the occassional viewing - although it has gotten rather stale recently.

Summary: