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Richard Osman’s House Of Games is an early evening gameshow which Osman says is something he’s been wanting to get on the box for some years, but as he constantly reminds us, he only ever thought of himself as a TV producer, and never a presenter. However, it’s the success of BBC1’s Pointless which has brought him to our screens after the trialled it with two people, whilst it was in the planning, and he stood in for whoever might’ve been cast, but… it turned out to be him.
Since that airs on BBC1 at 5.15pm each afternoon, this will follow, straight after, but on BBC2, and for the next ten weeks, so plenty of opportunities for the gibbering continuity announcer to shout to us about it each day.
Each week, the same four contestants will take part. Sadly, they’re not real people, but they’ve resorted to the usual Z-list celebs that turn up on everything, so for its first week, there’s pop star Jordan Stephens (Rizzle Kicks), actress Sally Lindsay, comedian David O’Doherty and the most annoying woman ever to have sat on the BBC Breakfast sofa (since Natasha Kaplinsky left), Naga Munchetty, forever sporting a ridiculous LEGO man haircut.
The first two questions both led to answers that rhymed, and the answers were James Blunt and Bargain Hunt, and so it went on. Even if you could only get one of them, the other was a piece of cake, as a result.
Later rounds included putting answers in chronological order, guessing song titles from the initials of the chorus popping up in time to how they came up in the song, point to a country on a map, and a round based on mixing up two answers to oh-so-hilarious questions, such as ZZ Top and topsoil being ZZ Topsoil.
And don’t forget the canned applause from the absent audience.
The quiz was just over five minutes old when I realised I was losing the will to live, and falling into a coma. I can’t award this any score other than that it doesn’t deserve.
Given how much Osman was enthusing about this on last week’s BBC Breakfast, I figured this was the very first episode, but it’s actually the second series. The first run lasted for 3 weeks, and this one runs for ten. So, yes, FIFTY episodes! Why must we suffer?
Note that I couldn’t find a trailer for this series, but the first episode from series 1 can be seen below.
Richard Osman’s House Of Games continues tomorrow on BBC2 at 6pm, and will never be available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but and you can watch each episode on BBC iPlayer for 30 days after transmission.
Episode 1 Score: Pointless
Director: Ollie Bartlett
Series Producer: Stephen Lovelock
Presenter: Richard Osman
Panellists: Jordan Stephens, Sally Lindsay, David O’Doherty, Naga Munchetty
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.