The barrel has been well and truely scraped. To compare this to anything i was scrolling through the channels late on on Saturday night and in the early hours on Challenge tv it was the semi finals of Showbiz darts with Johnny Vegas vs Keith Chegwin and Michael Le Vell vs Major James Hewitt. Soon Alan Partridge's dream of monkey tennis will be realised.
Inner City sumo Cooking in prison Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank Orienteering with Bill Oddie Knowing M.E. Knowing you A Partridge amongst the pigeons.
The show itself and the 'competition' is actually pretty good. The format of the show however is absolutely awful. On the one hand you get people like eddie the eagle who has clearly put a lot of effort in and learnt to dive like an expert which is really impressive. On the other hand you get the likes of linda barker who have stood on a platform and fell off head first. I know children who can do that. There are usually around 7 dives and it takes 90 minutes to show them with the remaining 89 minutes taken up by awful filler material and the same 'stunt' diving routine shown every single week. A better show would have been to show celebrities doing 5 dives each per week and cut the filler. The idea is ok, the execution isn't.
Arm Wrestling with Chas and Dave "Alan Attack!". Like the Cook Report, but with a more slapstick approach.
You'd be better off comparing it to dancing on ice or strictly come dancing as all three shows are about celebrities with no previous abilities training with experts and competing in a physical arts based competition with comments and scores given by expert panel and then voted on by the public.
I would actually like to see all of Mr Partridge's ideas commissioned by ITV. I think "Alan Attack" has potential.
[Tony Hayers has told Alan that although there won't be another series of his chat show, he'll still be open to any other ideas in future, so Alan seizes the opportunity to pitch his ideas for programs] Alan Partridge: [Opening a file] Right, OK. Shoestring, Taggart, Spender, Bergerac, Morse. What does that say to you about regional detective series? Tony Hayers: There's too many of them? Alan Partridge: That's one way of looking at it, another way of looking at it is, people like them, let's make some more of them. A detective series based in Norwich called "Swallow". Swallow is a detective who tackles vandalism. Bit of a maverick, not afraid to break the law if he thinks it's necessary. He's not a criminal, you know, but he will, perhaps, travel 80mph on the motorway if, for example, he wants to get somewhere quickly... [Tony shakes his head] Alan Partridge: Think about it. No one had heard of Oxford before Inspector Morse. I mean, this will put Norwich on the map. Tony Hayers: Why would I want to do that? Alan Partridge: Yep, fair point.
