Bring on the wall! (you never know, you might get a few laughs from this) (Hole In The Wall)

Member Name: IzzyS

Product:	Hole In The Wall
Date:	02/12/08 (178 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quite amusing, esp. Anton and Darren

Disadvantages: None really, though some may say the lycra suits lol

Hole In The Wall is a light entertainment/game show thats shown on BBC1 on Saturday evenings before Strictly Come Dancing.

My first introduction to Hole In The Wall, if you can even call it that, was on Richard and Judy's old Channel 4 show, where Rufus Hound used to have his own segment whereby he would show clips of silly/funny TV shows that are shown in countries around Europe. One week, one of the clips shown was of a game show where the contestant stood by a pool of water as a large styrofoam wall with a shape cut out of it, moved towards them. The contestant rushed to form the shape needed so that s/he would fit through the wall but alas, s/he failed and instead the wall pushed the contestant into the pool, soaking them.

I did think, at the time, that it was a rather silly and dumb idea for a TV show, oh those daft European shows, how silly, we'd never stoop to such levels... then fast forward a few months and Hole In The Wall appears, which turns out to be the same game show format. Not only that but its shown on good ol' auntie, ie the BBC and I guess you could argue that it contains celebrities too but not particularly a-list ones.

So, its European tosh then? your probably thinking... well, maybe, a bit but as well as that, it is also quite amusing! of course its not to be taken at all seriously but its good enough Saturday evening TV 'fodder' to watch and get a laugh from.

I don't think it would work as well if it didn't have the team captains, which are Anton Du Beke (known from Strictly Come Dancing) and Darren Gough (a cricketer I believe, though I know nothing about cricket), who are both really quite camp and who clearly enjoy taking part on the show, along with the also camper-than-camp host/presenter, you guessed it, Daaaalllleee Winton (he tends to talk in that sort of way lol!). As well as those three, there are two other members to each team, the two teams being the red team (Antons team) and the blue team (Darrens team) and these other members change every show. Some of the celebrities who have appeared so far include Nancy Lam, Vanessa Feltz and DJ Spoony, among others.

One of the best parts of the show is at the start, when Anton and Darren first appear on stage and they do this camp little sort of 'ta-da!' dance and poke a bit of fun out of each other in doing so.

So yes, the game show consists of a contestant from one of the teams being picked to stand in the players area and watch as a styrofoam wall approaches with a shape cut out that they have to fit into, so that they don't get pushed into the pool of water directly behind them. They get 10 points for managing to make the right shape and avoid getting a soaking, otherwise they fail and get no points (obviously) and the winning team, (the one with the most amount of points) is awarded £10,000 to be donated to a charity of choice.

Apart from the regular walls (which, by the way, are introduced by the host Dale, who always bellows 'bring on the wall!!' before it appears, after the contestant has taken place in preparation for it), there are a couple of extra segments in the show to watch out for, those being 'Mystery Guest or Killer Question', where the team can choose between having the use of a mystery guest (so far it tends to be a record breaking sports person or someone similar) or, if they choose killer question, then their faced with a wall of a different type, one that has a question written on it and two potential answers. They have to pick the right answer from the two provided, if they do so then they'll find that the answer automatically breaks up as it touches them and it doesn't push them into the pool, however if they select the wrong answer and stand by that one, it does push them into the pool.

As well as this, there's also the 'mega wall', which appears near the end of the show. The difference with the mega wall is that it speeds towards the contestant at double the usual speed, giving them even less time to react and make the correct shape.

So, what do I think of it overall, is it worth watching and if so then why?

Well, I think its a good bit of fun, nothing more, nothing less. I like that the teams clearly enjoy playing the game, the audience tends to get quite carried away with it and it is kind of addictive in a way, once you've seen it a couple of times, maybe you'll find yourself shouting 'bring on the wall!!' as you wait for the show to be broadcast on Saturday evening!

So yes, everyone seems to enjoys playing the game and taking part in the show, there is a fair bit of mickey-taking between Anton and Darren which is quite amusing (particularly at the start of the show) and Dale is ok in his role as the host of the show. Oh and one other thing I haven't mentioned so far, the contestants all wear metallic looking skin-tight lycra suits, yup thats right, skin-tight lycra, so I'd definitely say this isn't a show for homophobes, I guess its fair enough to say that... although Dale gets away with not having to wear one of those suits, he stays on dry ground as the host, lucky for him!

The 'unfiorm' just adds to the daftness though and it really is quite daft and silly but as I say, everyone seems to enjoy it and there are quite a few laughs during the show, so you don't feel too bad for laughing along with them. Its hardly intellectual TV, by any stretch of the imagination but its good fun entertainment that works well enough for a Saturday evening.

Yes its worth watching, if it sounds like the sort of thing you might get a few laughs from, you probably will. Some clips from the show have been poked fun of by Harry Hill on his TV Burp show, which has added to the viewers of the show on BBC now I believe and I read that it was potentially going to get axed by the BBC but given the upsurge in ratings (presumably at least partly because of its mentions on TV Burp) its re-comissioned, or likely to be re-comissioned.

Well, what more can I say than bring on the wall!!

Summary: A game show where contestants have to fit themselves into shapes cut out of styrofoam 'walls'