The Crystal Maze returns to C4

Fort Boyard France I'd say is more of a hybrid of The Crystal Maze with some fantasy elements, but not necessarily GoT. Both shows have regular characters, although Fort Boyard contestants will also do challenges with the characters in addition to the Crystal Maze type fare.

I take your point about good casting, regardless of them being civilian or celebrity, but my point still stands that celebs are going to be more of a draw than civilians. The civvy version of Fort Boyard in France lasted for two years, then the celeb version has been on since 1993, with a one-off tweaked civilian series in 2010.

A mix of civvy and celebs may work for The Crystal Maze, but I can't see a full civvy series, considering C4's obsession with celeb shows. The Jump anyone?

They did do a civilian 15-to-1. I think that they would be incredibly silly not to do a civilian series; doing a celebrity special now gives them an excuse to get rid of Stephen Merchant if he turns out to be cack.

To be fair, they've only confirmed he's hosting a one-off charity special. There's leeway for them to replace him even if they do keep to celebrity contestants.

Took me a little while to figure out that it was Stephen Merchant rather than Mulhern - for a while I was horrified! I think Merchant will be quite good though - there's one episode of Modern Family where he plays a strange English butler so I reckon he could pull off being the slightly strange host of the Crystal Maze.

Stephen Merchant isn't weird enough to be the host. There was something wonderfully weird about Richard O Brian and it added a lot to the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U68PUwXUoQ

Some outtakes/gallery audio so you can see/hear what the cameramen used to do.

Obviously there were some pickup shots after the main game to do as well.

That's nothing, my first thought was to wonder why the executive producer of Doctor Who was trying to be a presenter.



He's weird enough, he's just the wrong sort of weird for the show. He's awkwardly, if amiably, weird - that's his schtick - rather than, as you say, the wonderfully weird Richard (or, to a slightly lesser, slightly more forced extent, Ed). Bill Bailey? He'd be good at the musical interludes when things are getting dull.

Which is just about their only celebrity reality series they air all year, although they are doing The Celebrity Island for SU2C as well. Other than four Celebrity 15 to 1 episodes a year and 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown, which is just a panel quiz with comedians on the whole anyway, they really don't go overboard on the celebrity shows.

Sadly I suspect if it went to series it's inevitably they'd be celeb specials attached to it - but if it's one a series that's fine. I really don't think the show is one that needs celebrities - or wannabee celebs - to show off it's strengths, so really don't think C4 would dump civilians in favour of celebs. For a one-off though it's completely understandable why they want to go the celebrity route.

I have mixed feelings about a civilian series. In an ideal world, yes, and they'd be casted along the same lines as the original series were, which on the whole produced teams who were there simply to play the game.

That's not how things are done in 2016 sadly. Did anyone see that 500 Questions on ITV the other week? A good if not particularly revolutionary format utterly ruined by a cast of contestants who seemed to be recruited primarily from social networks intended for aspiring/failing actors to get work. Unwatchable.

I want to know the name and occupation of a contestant, and then I want to see them play the game. I don't want to know about them - I certainly don't want to know about any 'mission' they might be on or any tough life events they are trying to get past.

Last week I was watching one of the first episodes of Gladiators and the contestant mentioned almost in passing that his wife had died a while before. That was it, no elaborate mopey montage - nothing. Compare and contrast that to the interminable contestant bios on the Sky 1 revival.

If The Crystal Maze is to follow a similar trajectory in its revival it'll be much to its detriment.

I'd also be wary of them attempting to take team applications (like Fort Boyard did) - then 'banter' and the chanting is annoying, Fort Boyard gets away with it because of the split 'nasty and nice' roles of the presenter/professor and Boyard. One combined 'guide' type role (ala The Crystal Maze) and a team of mates jeering at him/her would not be good viewing.

Recognise that theme tune…? That’s right, @TheCrystalMaze is BACK for a #StandUpToCancer special very soon… pic.twitter.com/QaUw6teVjQ

— Stand Up To Cancer UK (@SU2CUK) September 28, 2016

Bit of a preview of what TCM titles will look like visually, on this Twitter page. Interesting it's very much based on the branding of the live experience, what surprising is it's audio from ETP rather than ROB's more famous "start the fans please line".

Seems the team will be five members strong rather than six, not surprised by that given the shorter run time these days of hour long shows.

*THIS IS NOT A DRILL* Our 5 celebs are ready to enter #TheCrystalMaze. But can you guess who they are? pic.twitter.com/Jq3LmR3o00

— The Crystal Maze (@TheCrystalMaze) September 28, 2016

Think the end one is Josh Widdecombe kind but then I had a feeling he'd be in the line up.


Read an interview from Broadcast with a couple of the producers and it seems they're hoping for a full series, and they'll be a slight twist which I take as a positive as it suggests genuine interest in the format and it won't just be some comedy homage.

According to (ugh) Newsbeat ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37505639/crystal-maze-here-are-the-contestants ), Rio Ferdinand and Josh Widdicombe will be "competing against" (?) Jonnie Peacock, Sara Cox and Michelle Keegan.







I hate you so much right now, Newsbeat...

So now there's two teams instead of one and one has 3 celebs and one has 2? Why the hell are they messing with a perfectly fine format to create something stupid? Jesus wept, is nothing sacred these days?