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Richard Whiteley Memorial Service

and latest news about Countdown (September 2005)

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JO
Johnr
Square Eyes posted:
MalcyB posted:
Apparently according to the below item this afternoon it still hasn't been decided yet!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4258344.stm


Well, there was *BREAKING NEWS* on Calendar tonight, and Des Lynam has been officially confirmed as the new host of Countdown. There is supposed to be more from Des on tomorrow nights programme.

So I suppose it begs the question, when does filming start, when will it air on Channel 4, and will they keep the previous set.


Filming will probably start fairly soon - I've heard the new series will start on the 10th October. They won't need too many episodes, as over Xmas I think they are planning to show some RW episodes from the archive?

It'll be strange seeing Des on Countdown, but it would also be strange seeing Noel etc. Any replacement is going to look out of place on Countdown for a while, IMO they will just tweak the old titles a bit but still leave some Richard bits in. I can't imagine it would be too hard to tweak the titles.

Doubt the set will change
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Johnr posted:
Doubt the set will change


I'd be very surprised if any part of the production (apart from the presenter, obviously) was to change because of the new presenter. Okay it'll never be 100% the same after Whiteley, but the programme works well.

I just hope they don't take it down the "Des Lynam's Countdown" route.
BR
Brekkie
Johnr posted:
Filming will probably start fairly soon - I've heard the new series will start on the 10th October. They won't need too many episodes, as over Xmas I think they are planning to show some RW episodes from the archive?

It'll be strange seeing Des on Countdown, but it would also be strange seeing Noel etc. Any replacement is going to look out of place on Countdown for a while, IMO they will just tweak the old titles a bit but still leave some Richard bits in. I can't imagine it would be too hard to tweak the titles.

Doubt the set will change


Well, with Richard they filmed in blocks of 5 per day, 3 days a week - and as they were due to begin filming guest hosted shows after Richard died with just a week before broadcast, they can certainly get them on air pretty quickly.

As for Christmas - a tribute or two would be appropriate, but I think C4 need to let Countdown move on. If they were really going to capitalise on archive episodes, I believe they would have screened some while awaiting a decision on a new presenter.


I hope it is a new set and new titles, rather than Des literally sitting in Richards chair. It may sound harsh, but to secure the long-term future of the show they have to move on - and though I imagine there would be a mention of Richard Whitely on his first show, they can't afford to go down the nostalgia route. It's always the beginning of the end for a programme when it constantly looks back!
PT
Put The Telly On
Yes, I'm hoping for a new set. It would feel as though Des and the crew were in Richard's shell and I wouldn't like that.
IS
Inspector Sands
Neil Jones posted:
I'd be very surprised if any part of the production (apart from the presenter, obviously) was to change because of the new presenter. Okay it'll never be 100% the same after Whiteley, but the programme works well..


I suspect they might rearrange the set so that Des isn't sitting in Whiteleys position on the right.

As for the filming - the 5 episodes a day routine was only really possible because the team had been at it for so long they could do everything quickly with very little turn-around. I suspect things might be a bit diffrent at first until Des is up to speed

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