This show should come with a health warning.

controlsurface

I hated it from the moment I first saw it. I hated it before the camera had finished panning the set and ending up on the presenter.
I don't hate the regular cast, I don't hate most of the guests. The format is silly, but that isn't the worst of it.

I hate the set.

Aside from the whole thing looking like some 1950's B Grade science fiction wheel chair - all cheap plastic chrome curves that make each contestant look like they could zoom around the set issuing evil orders to minions, it is the colours that offend me most.

Before they put up the opening sequence the producers should put up a warning to make people aware that the colours they project onto the backgrounds may cause photosensitive epilepsy. 'Lurid' is a word not often used in set design, nor is 'incandescent', or even 'effulgent', but none of these words quite cover the assault upon the retina that awaits unsuspecting first time viewers. The screens behind the host and each contestant change from a green that is somewhat more nauseating than you see on the 'green screens' used in movie effects, to a hot pink that even HM Queen Elizabeth II would refuse for a hat colour. Just when your eyes do the best they can to adapt to one colour it changes to an even more revolting hue.

I used to think that the out of focus blobs that distract the viewer from the shock of the block of colour behind the contestants were dirt on the camera lens, but since I have never seen any such thing from any BBC camera, I must conclude that is the colour screen that they project onto the backgrounds that is filthy.

Trust me, if you ever have the chance to see this show, you will wish for a button on the remote that will turn the screen to black and white. B&W won't remove the dirty blobs but it will lesson your chances of having a seizure.

score 1/10

controlsurface 8 June 2019

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4922627/