The Summit takes us to New Zealand for a new gameshow, hosted by Ben Shephard, where 14 members of the public who have never climbed a mountain before – and probably shouldn’t – do exactly that in order to mount the titular summit.
Oh, and note that this review is spoiler-free.
Amongst stunning locations, of the 14, there’s a posh woman called Afton, a man with a goatee, someone with some ill-advised plastic surgery, and pretty much everything inbetween with a crazy, diverse cast, including former Gladiator Ace, from the original series, who’s now a Minister.
Afton, who is the daughter of poo patroniser Gillian McKeith, doesn’t exactly look pretty in pink as she goes climbing in a Barbie-coloured outfit, rather than some more suitable attire.
One of the ‘men’ calls himself “Dockers”, a Beta male who calls himself an “Alpha” and has a shaved heard. Clearly an absolute dickhead. If he makes it to the top, I hope they push him off… Along with everyone who goes LOW on The Chase, these days. I’m getting bloody sick of that.
Still, money talks and the winner of this series will trouser £200,000, and they each get to carry 1/14th of the cash up to the top. Whoever reaches the summit will take a share of what makes it to the top, while those that don’t… get nothing. However, surely those at the top will each just take their 1/14th that they’ve carried? And the rest goes back into ITV’s safe?
Well, there may just be something to add to that, but I’ll leave you to discover that….
They all have 14 days to do this, and have to go up as a group. Plus, the Interceptor helicopter is following them. It’s made to look menacing, and will “force them to make tough decisions along the way”, even though it’s hardly going to kill them…. Oooh, that would be interesting!
Seriously, though, it does remind me of the accident on the set of The Twilight Zone: The Movie, in 1982, when actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were killed by a helicopter falling on them after its rotors failed.
As for another aspect of the show, it also has the clunky hashtag #TheSummitITV. Nah, people will be using #TheSummit. Or having to use both!
Since I don’t like heights, I’d pass on day one’s rope bridge. Still, it takes them so long to get anywhere in this programme that they’ve only done two tasks in the opener. And they’ve all got bloody sob stories. I wonder how many more will after watching this, about the hour or so they won’t get back… 😉
Thanks to our friends at ITV for the screener prior to release.
The Summit begins tonight on ITV at 9pm, then continues tomorrow at the same time, and again next Tues & Wed. Not sure when the finale will be aired as of yet. Once aired, each episode will be on ITVX.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
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.