Lottery Cock up

A lot of the gameshows aren't produced at TV Centre, even the last series of Jet Set moved to BBC Scotland. As for the main draw studio that's in the Arqiva studios at Gerrard's Cross.

I agree with you about Saturday night's on TV, there isn't the same atmosphere that there used to be, but times change I guess.

Times do change, but I think the audience did tire quite quickly of the original format for the Lottery which involved a large studio production with audience, live pop acts, showbiz draws, a chance for a member of the audience to 'push the button', fireworks when the Lottery Machine was revealed (!), Mystic Meg (!!) ...

But then, Saturday Night Takeaway and Strictly have both proved that live family entertainment do still work on Saturday nights. I reckon if ITV or the BBC could be bothered to do anything other than Wannabes trying to impress Cowell or Celebrities being humiliated they'd get the audience share they need.

There was no advantage to GMTV closing their phone lines early. They still did it.

The BBC just do the draws very badly - even when it's just a 5-10 minute show including just the draw they still make it excruciatingly painful to watch.


And the idea that every Saturday lottery show must be a gameshow is pathetic - they need to take more risks.


Personally I'd incorporate the draws into shows like Strictly and the Maria/Joseph shows - basically as a ten-minute break around 8pm in between the performances and the results.

Euromillions is shown though, both on a digital channel and by others across europe. It doesn't matter where it's shown as long as it's shown for viewers who are interested to see.




They wouldn't have to fidle with the balls if it wasn't going out - just decide what numbers they want drawn and then send them to the BBC. Not that I'm saying that they would, but some peolple are very suspicious and would accuse them of it
I take your point about the daily draws, but that would be a bit too much I think (don't they record them for their website or something?)

I've never heard of Gerrard's Cross before. Just had to Google for it. Could've been anywhere in the whole UK for all I knew. Just found out it's in south Buckinghamshire, just outside Greater London. Bit of a "nowhere" place for TV studios (I'd always assumed that being located in Cities (or maybe Major Towns) was as-good-as mandatory for telly).

And I've never heard of Arqiva either. But it's probably never heard of me, so that's okay then...

Talking of the old big studio days...that clip always reminds me of when it was all about revealing camera work, light effects and mechanical doors. Also I used to love the old lottery theme...but of course, traditional brassy theme tunes are seen as dated now. A sign of the times indeed.

I remember that. guess you would call it the national lottery dead

Some people I know still think that the big button really starts the draw, although it can be clearly seen that the draw master presses a button behind the machine and gets it going.

As for that clip, it reminded me of how good Bob Monkhouse was and what a shame it is that he's no longer with us. It was also nice to see the credits without being squeezed into a postage stamp sized box and an announcer simply saying 'the lottery draw will take place in fifty minutes' as opposed to the usual waffle of what's next, what's later and then some information about the programme we've just watched.

You want to get yourself a bigger telly, mate.

Do you think they will actually use that BIG RED BUTTON again, now that it has been proved that it doesn't actually do anything?

Probably. This isn't the first time something like this has happened.

I can't remember the guest but for some reason I am thinking it may have been Meetloaf, he pressed the button said "Good luck" and then pressed the button again.

I remember it being explained either on next weeks show or maybe Points of View or something that the guest had pressed the button twice, which is why the first ball appeared to come out before he pressed the button. This was when the guest had a real button.