Dick and Dom

Well the first show of the new series has just finished and here are some thoughts...

The Garden - presumably this replaces the ceiling. It looks like a nice new addition and has some potential.

Rachael Stephens - argh! This goes against one of their main points to the show being that it was their bungalow with no celebrities. Also I noticed that she whimped out of 2 of the games (the messy ones). Will celebrities in the bungalow work? it depends on who they choose and whether that person will get fully involved.

Sundays - The Sunday edition has been reduced to only 1 hour. Not entirely sure why, as I think it ended up being mainly recorded 'as live' after Saturday's show. Prehaps they overdid the budget on having a celebrity.

Overall, I think it's a case of first show teething problems, which they'll hopefully iron out.

Isn't Bogies supposed to have gone? If so, they've lost a viewer.

It looked to be Celebrity Bogies this week, with Chris Moyles

Celebrities aren't usually paid to make apperances like that, and if they are it seriously wouldn't be so much that it would mean there wasn't enough money to make an extra hour of programming!

According to their appearance on Chris Moyles yesterday, the celebs are paid.... one significantly more than the others.

DnD have always had celebrities of course, just not taking part in the games

Like I said, it seriously won't be THAT much, certainly nothing compared to making an hour of TV (think about the cost of crew and facilities alone!).

I assumed that it replaced the basement - I can't see there being enough room for the garden and basement sets

That's correct, the basement used to be located roughly to the left of the lounge. It's possible the attic is still there but given that the garden is directly adjacent there probably isn't the space.

I always thought that the attic was actually where it was supposed to be, the transition between the kid and Dom going up the ladder to the attic itself was far too slick for it to be on the same level.

Oh, no the attic really was where it seemed to be, but it extended over the back of the set. To be honest I'm going on someone else's anecdote here but I'm fairly sure of the layout.

Surely if it is in Studio 6, thats 8000 sq ft, surely there must be room somewhere for the basement set as well.

I quite like the most of the changes that they've made, such as the bungalow heads introduction, it's now quicker and free's up a lot of the show.

I'm still not sure that I like the idea of the Celebrity Bungalow head. If they were to have one, I'd have personally liked to see them use lesser known or older celebrities, such as the ones that used to be in the cage.

I liked todays show as it was really a new testing ground, parts of it felt worse than the early shows on the CBBC channel.

It should be a good series though, especially to see how it progresses.

Not if they did a live hour and then did a Saturday Show Remix-type thing!