ICQ (Mole, The)

Member Name:

Product:	Mole, The
Date:	27/01/01 (4 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting

Disadvantages: Only to the losers

The latest “game show” to hit our screens is “The Mole” on Channel 5 on Fridays at 8.00pm and is unlike anything that has gone before. It has an element of The Weakest Link about it whilst at the same time there is more than a hint of Fort Boyard in there as well, with a sprinkling of the Krypton Factor thrown in.

Nine volunteer contestants plus ‘one other’ have been billeted on Jersey for a number of days with the sole objective of taking on psychological and physical tasks for a prize of £200,000. The objective is quite straightforward. Complete the tasks and the team gains the reward. Don’t complete the tasks and the team gets nothing although each individual task has a cash value for the kitty.

The ‘one other’ is a plant who is there to sabotage their efforts without revealing him/herself. Whether the saboteur is also a contestant who has been well briefed or an actor I do not know but it is up to the remainder to uncover him/her as well as to complete the set tasks.

At the end of each set of tasks the contestants are asked 20 questions about their fellow competitors and their answers are inputted into the computer. Somehow the machine determines who is furthest away from identifying the Mole and as each contestant’s name is typed in it comes up with an answer. A green screen means that they live to take part for another day. A red screen and s/he is whisked off immediately to return to England and carry on with their lives. There are no goodbyes, just named and gone leaving the remainder sat in silence. At the end of the first set of tasks the tension seemed real enough but after the third set a couple of contestants seemed to be acting the part of being relieved it was not they who are sent home penniless. Maybe I was looking at the Mole.

The tasks range from doing a tandem parachute jump to running a Punch and Judy show on the beach and all the contestants MUST tak
e part. If anyone chickens out then the money for that task is lost. The rules for each task are strict and unambiguous as was demonstrated when one of the contestants drove the wrong way along a oneway road. The team had completed the task within the time set and would have gained £10,000 but because of this one error they got nothing.

Presented by Glen Hugill (Who? Yeh! I’ve never heard of him either) the programme is scheduled to run for nine weeks. It has not been revealed what happens if someone names the Mole in between times but being scheduled to run for nine weeks I can’t see that happening for the first six or seven. It has not been revealed what happens to the money that the team do not win. Maybe the Mole gets it. That would be fair. After all it takes a certain amount of skill to be an undetected saboteur.

This is a game show worth watching through to the end whether you want to identify the Mole yourself or just like to find out who it is by watching. A second and maybe a third series would hold a viewing audience but after that, well I would probably give it a miss.

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