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Family Fortunes 2020 with Gino D’Acampo – is it as brilliant as the white on his teeth, or a load of (wrong buzzer sound).
Yes, it’s now hosted by supposed chef Gino D’Acampo, as camp as Christmas as he goes prancing up and down the set with his overacted attempt at broken English.
On the plus side, this programme actually uses real members of the public again, rather than Z-list celebs like so many prime-time quiz shows. It also has the original ‘X’ sound effect when someone gets an answer wrong.
Quite why 30 minutes needs to be stretched out to 60, I have no idea – other than to fill a schedule gap. Then again, the prize money is now a ridiculous £30,000. I wonder if you can still win a Lada? Watch and find out…
Well, I can answer part of this – the time is stretched out by giving us ‘story’ videos that introduce the families, and when you watch both of these, just one word comes to mind: TWATS!
To fill the hour, there’s more questions, things get more drawn out in general, and the production team have done a stirling job in finding as many contestants as possible who are thick as a brick.
My favourite bit of the original show was always the final round, as I tried to play along to see if I could answer the five questions in the same amount of time. Back then, it was 15 seconds for the first contestant, and 20 seconds for the second – the extra time allowed in case they duplicated an answer. This time, it’s 20 and 25 seconds, respectively.
As for who wins and who loses, you’ll find that out in the first episode tonight at 8pm on ITV.
Overall: You’re better off with the old repeats on Challenge TV.
Family Fortunes 2020 begins tonight at 8pm. It’s unlikely to ever be released on Blu-ray or DVD.
After broadcast, each episode will be on the ITV Hub.
(not the official channel, but then ITV haven’t uploaded one)
Director: Diccon Ramsay
Producer: Richard Mittell
Music: Marc Sylvian
Presenter: Gino D’Acampo
Voiceover: Penny Layden
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.