Is it not more likely that they just hadn't sold any adverts for that slot and so had to insert a filler? It doesn't sound right to forego an ad break just so they can show that sporting montage. Even if they only had one advert to air, that's better than nothing.
It’s similar to what LWT did, notably in this clip when they closed down in April 1989, the difference here is that it’s a 4 minute clip right before the end of transmission rather than another programme.
Why has it got the modern logo on it as the thumbnail? But yes, Tarrant did the pilot and (it says here) some of the contestants in the pilot appeared on the main show when Leslie Crowther got the gig.
Tarrant making sure he never hosted the full series, by wearing a jacket like that.
I can't watch Stars In Their Eyes without thinking of the withering review of the early series in Private Eye..
"A show in which bored office workers who look nothing like Cliff Richard or Madonna, go through a set of dry ice heavy doors and come out, once made up, looking and sounding nothing like Cliff Richard or Madonna"
Quite like the jacket. Joel Dommett wore an identical one on the last series of TMS.
Tarrant is obviously the wrong host. I think the theatricality brought by Matthew Kelly was what really sealed it as a megahit, lifting it above the naffness the format has on paper. (Harry Hill sort of focused on the naffness of it all).
Also a reminder that Chris Tarrant used to host everything in the late 80s/early 90s. Like the public, I wonder if he struggles to remember anything apart from TISWAS and you know what. I’m sure many modern viewers watching the movie Shallow Grave and the scene where Tarrant is glimpsed on TV hosting a show called ‘Lose a Million’, probably assume it was some sort of fake game show (pastiching WWTBAM even, even though it was several years before that) just for the film.
I’m sure many modern viewers watching the movie Shallow Grave and the scene where Tarrant is glimpsed on TV hosting a show called ‘Lose a Million’, probably assume it was some sort of fake game show (pastiching WWTBAM even, even though it was several years before that) just for the film.
Incase some viewers do not know what we are talking about...
..this, is what we are talking about
I’m sure many modern viewers watching the movie Shallow Grave and the scene where Tarrant is glimpsed on TV hosting a show called ‘Lose a Million’, probably assume it was some sort of fake game show (pastiching WWTBAM even, even though it was several years before that) just for the film.
Incase some viewers do not know what we are talking about...
..this, is what we are talking about
It’s a great format though. It’s the sort of thing I think would work better these days than it did then.
Lose a Million was very much the perfect example of Carlton's early output (with Tarrant the perfect presenter) in that it was trying to parody the conventions of light entertainment, while also being light entertainment. Fantastic Facts with Jonathan Ross was another one, all a bit arch and ironic.
It's the kind of thing you could get away with on Channel 4 and probably ITV today, but not the ITV of 1993 as it was all too knowing and post-modern for a mass audience. I think one of the problems with the early days of Carlton is that those involved had vast experience of TV, but not much of primetime ITV, which is a hard market to crack.