It isn’t really that difficult to make a decent, quite watchable quiz game show. However, making a good quiz game show, well, that’s a different story. I’m delighted to say that, in BBC1’s new “Bridge of Lies”, I think that they’ve done just that.
I saw the contestant calls for this one on the Contestant
Hub on Facebook, but never thought about applying myself. So I did know a tiny
bit about it before I watched it for the first time. Like many good quiz games
show, the mechanics of “Bridge of Lies”are relatively simple. Like ITV’s
Tenable, this is a non-adversarial show, whereby a team competes to try to win
cash, and then earn the right to take it away with them. In order to do this
they have to cross a giant board. The board is filled with circles. The aim of
the game is to cross the circles, building up a bridge of them across to the
other end. So our host, Ross Kemp, announces a category. The team consists
of people, one of whom they must
nominate to try to cross the board. Then Ross explains the specifics of the
round. So, for example, the general category might be Harry Potter, while the
specific requirement is to find the names of actors who have appeared in at
least one of the Harry Potter films. The two nearest circles to the bottom of
the board light up with actors names. At least 1 will be true, the other might
be true or might be a lie. The contestant must step onto a true circle. This
then reveals more circles, and basically, the idea is to keep stepping on true
circles. Once the contestant has stepped on 3 lies in the game, then he or she
is out. Making things a little harder is the fact that a contestant only has
five minutes in which to cross the board.
The team does have one lifeline. If they think one of the
first three of them is not going to cross the board successfully, they can push
their panic button. This means that team member goes into the final, with the
amount of money they have won at that point the button is pushed. The team
member doesn’t know if the button has been pushed until they complete their
bridge, or until they step on their third lie.
Those who complete their bridge go on to play in the final.
This time the board consist of lines of circles with ‘facts’ – only one of
which is correct. The first team member steps forward. If they step on the only
true fact, they play on to the next line. The moment they step on a wrong’un,
they’re out and the next player takes over. Run out of players and you leave
with nothing, and I’m afraid that’s what has happened on every show I’ve seen
so far.
One of the strengths of Bridge of Lies is hat the game play
and questions are strong enough that you don’t need the host to over-egg the
pudding. Ross Kemp gets it pretty much spot on, I’d say. I did worry that we
were going to get another cockney-geezer-fest along the lines of Danny Dyer’s
The Wawl, but no. And the choices aren’t all easy either. There’s certainly
enough to keep you going if you like playing along at home, which is one of my
two main reasons for watching a TV quiz game. (The other, I’m sorry to admit,
is shouting “NO! Not that one, you numpty!”) In fact the only real criticism I
have of the game is that although the title is a nice pun on the film “Bridge
of Spies”, and on Venice's Bridge of Sighs, strictly speaking it’s just plain wrong, since the point of the game
is to AVOID the lies, and build a bridge of trues. Build a bridge of lies and
you’ll be out in three steps. You’d think someone would have noticed!
No comments:
Post a Comment