BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

Exactly - was easy and reliable schedule filler and something that could be put in and out of the schedules as required.

They do seem to be focusing on post-watershed Saturday drama at the moment with Taboo, Gunpowder, Hard Sun and Troy - clearly going to cost more than a lottery game show but probably better the BBC focus on their strengths rather than put the money in light entertainment. Also think just as they get away with repeating Mrs Browns Boys in the slot they could probably use the slot for drama reruns there - Peaky Blinders would fit well in that slot for example.

But on the other hand they can sell it abroad, repeat it and flog DVDs which will bring in a fair bit of money, which they can't do with the lottery gameshows (well, Challenge have repeated some of them I guess).

Nick Knowles may not be flavour of the month anymore, so unless there is some left in the can we might not see the return of this show.

Pretty sure there is a full series to air.

True, and think most of the dramas in that slot have been co-productions. An original game show format though can also be a money spinner, but I think BBC produced formats have been few and far between in recent years - most seem to come from 12 Yard, now owned by ITV.

That's a good point about the lottery gameshows. I still think it was criminal they axed Winning Lines; alright 75% of the show wasn't exactly up to scratch, but the final round was genius. Tense music ahoy.

Winning Lines felt partly recycled from Talking Telephone Numbers to me. Same production team, wasn't it?

Primetime gameshows have died a death. Before long the only primetime gameshow on BBC One will be Pointless Celebs. Nothing new seems to stick now hence why there is talk of a return of The Weakest Link & Millionaire.

That'd look far, far better than the stupid idents we have today - it'd make a good screensaver too. Do we have more technical breakdowns/poor continuity than in previous times?

It's mainly because with the recent spate of primetime gameshows they are formats designed for daytime and have a format that could easily fill 30/45 minutes but try to stretch it to fill one hour.

ITV's new effort with Anne Hegerty has no studio audience, only lasts half an hour, and has no big money jackpot which can't really make its mark in the primetime schedules nowadays.

Primetime gameshows can still work, they just need to tick all the right boxes with the format, host and prizes and have faith from the broadcaster. Famously ITV were so confident in Millionaire when it started in 1998, they commissioned it instantly on the basis for it to be stripped across the primetime schedules for 10 nights. It was unheard of even for it's top dramas in those days for them to do that, let alone a gameshow.

The National Lottery gave the BBC the opportunity to have their big prize gameshows like Jetset and Winning Lines which is a shame now the partnership is effectively over.

Peaky Blinders wouldn't do well on BBC One, it's very much a BBC Two shows and in the age of boxsets and streaming, repeating dramas would be considered a no no.

Winning Lines probably did have one or two series left in it when it ended.

However, it *was* pretty expensive to produce - and it also ended at a time when Lottery game shows were about to move away from containing things related to the draws in some way (although of course In It to Win It continued right up until the draws left BBC1).

And while the Wonderwall *was* brilliant, it probably wasn't going to remain exciting forever...




Yep, good old Celador.

Shades of Everybody's Equal in the first round, too. And there were shades of Millionaire in the Wonderwall (the more questions you got right, the bigger your prize) and the music (Keith and Matthew Strachan really were geniuses).