For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By kanga
#1818076
I enjoyed the themed 'Christmas specials' with returning teams; usual challenging questions with often amusing answers and good humour all round. :thumright:

[But I have to say that I was underwhelmed by the immediately following 'University Challenge' specials with teams of now distinguished alumni rather than specifically of former UC team members. I appreciate it may have been difficult to assemble teams and get them to the studio under current constraints, but the questions seemed rather easy (and some artificially so; eg Fine Arts questions when one of the teams was from the Courtauld with members still in that profession), and the failure by some of the alumni to answer them was disappointing :? And, as ever, Paxman is less 'entertaining' than Coren Mitchell :wink: ]

Others' views welcome, of course
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By JAFO
#1818080
kanga wrote:...as ever, Paxman is less 'entertaining' than Coren Mitchell :wink: ]

Others' views welcome, of course


I think that depends on whether you have the volume turned to zero or not. :wink:
By cockney steve
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1818175
Re- @kanga posts above (27 August 2019 and 16 Sept. 2020.
In which he states the BBC, that well-known practitioner of recycling "entertainment" would, once again be foisting -off re-packaged output from 2000. Obviously nobody cares, as this revelation passed by without comment.

My excuse? No TV, no intention of getting one! :twisted:
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By kanga
#1818182
To describe a new series of a quiz show (new teams, new content) as 'repackaged content from 2000' is, to me, analogous to complaint of BBC coverage of future Wimbledons (which, btw, I choose not to watch) because there was coverage (with, maybe, some of the same commentators and even players) in 2000. Or am I missing something ? In genuine curiosity, as ever.

Obviously, it's up to each what, if anything, they watch. I enjoy what to me is the best quiz show on TV, where genial amateurs have to display knowledge, lateral thinking, wit and speed. I realise that some may find these deeply unattractive. :roll:

(ISTR Reagan, as Governor of California, reportedly declined to veto a forestry proposal on State land because 'seen one redwood, seen them all')
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By lobstaboy
#1818206
Ummm...
Shome mishtake shurely?
The 2000 referred to by @cockney steve in @kanga 's posts is 8pm time of prog, not the year 2000.
I can't work out from the context if one, or the other, or both is joking, or even both being serious. Please enlighten me!
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By kanga
#1818229
Ah, thanks. I didn't think Only Connect had been going that long.

However, to my mind, a new episode or a whole new series of an established programme format is not a 'repackaged' programme, it's a new one. I like the format so I like to see such; in this case, on viewing, I liked the one series of the Christmas specials, but was less impressed by the other. Those are obviously my personal judgements; others who watched may have reached others. Those who did not will have none.

For those who watch Wimbledon, I'm guessing that similarly they are glad that the BBC coverage continues and that the format is largely unchanged, but will find some matches entertaining and even exciting, others maybe less so; but all will be new not 'repackaged'.
By cockney steve
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1818230
20.00 =8Pm 2000 = the year 2,000AD The difference is a small technicality ,overlooked by the usually meticulous and faultless Kanga. - an opportunity to tease that couldn't be passed-over! :lol: :wink:
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By Irv Lee
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#1818310
On a much lower intellectual level, Mr Osman deserves some sort of award for what, show after show, he has to listen to when dealing with answers from (usually) university students, youf TV presenters or rap DJs appearing on his various quiz shows. The really enjoyable but sadly too brief bits of University Challenge are always when Paxman reaches the cliff edge with an answer and falls over it briefly, whilst Osman just backs away from it, entertaining himself with unspoken thoughts or double edged comments out loud that he knows the contestant won't fully grasp..
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By kanga
#1818325
Ah, Paxman.. I am frequently annoyed by hearing him mispronounce a foreign word in a question so badly that it flummoxes the contestants, who might well have had an answer had it been properly articulated. He appears not to have done his homework. I don't see this analogously with Osman or Coren Mitchell, nor remember it from Gascoigne days.

[But, of course, he came from the BBC'presenter' path, not the 'newsreader' or 'specialist reporter' one. Latter tend to be well coached by the Pronunciation Unit :? Similarly, Humphrys is not as diligent as Magnusson was. It obviously matters when questions are oral and against a clock ]
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By Dave W
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1818343
kanga wrote:It obviously matters when questions are oral and against a clock ]

Yes, and it sticks in the mind when it stumbles!

Back in 1983 I was part of a team in the inaugural "Aeronautical Challenge" held between the Aero Eng degree courses of institutions around That London.

Our Question Master that year was Bill Gunston who was mostly excellent but tripped up on a question: 'Which Nation has a display team called "Blue..." <pause>'

I was on tenterhooks - finger poised - waiting for him to say the first syllable of "Impulse", or "Angels", or "Eagles" when our opponents leapt in with "Japan", which they were fortunate was the chosen one.

Still rankles, 38 years later, even though I think we won overall. :)

(The following year the QM was Raymond Baxter. :thumleft: )
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