Jason Manford looks set to continue diversifying his comedy portfolio with the addition of new game show First And Last, which will hopefully follow his recent sitcom success with a strong theme song and music categories included in the mix. It’s coming soon to BBC, which is kicking a couple of new gameshow ideas out of the back of its big white van doors with the F&L announcement coming closely after Take Off With Bradley And Holly.
AdvertisementThe idea seems pretty simple on the face of things as contestants compete against each other in a series of rounds where the main aim is to finish neither first or last. The show starts with eleven players taking part in a combination of silly, daft and funny challenges in a bid to be the middle of the road champ and walk off with the £10,000 show up for grabs in each episode.
However, to do that they’ll also have to face the end game challenge, so while the prize is big there’s going to be a lot of near misses and sad faces at the end of it. It may not be quite as harsh as the “look what you could have won” moment at the end of a failed Bullseye episode, but with a definite prize pot it’s not too far off.
The initial run of First And Last will be six episodes in total with each one 45-minutes long. It seems like a relatively short burst, but maybe there’s an element of testing the water with the new game show idea. Although it could also just be down to Jason Manford’s busy schedule with the likes of Scarborough and his UK tour of musical whodunnit, Curtains. You can see more from the BBC on its Twitter page at https://twitter.com/BBC.
What to expect from the theme song and music
We’re expecting something special for the First And Last theme tune, maybe even a total throwback to the heyday of game shows in the 1970s and 80s. You don’t get too many shows that use existing songs with the exception of Have I Got News For You, so it isn’t likely it’ll go down the same route as Scarborough, which has a very short snippet of Rotterdam (Or Anywhere) by The Beautiful South.
Instead, it’s bound to be an original song created for the show, and then it’ll all come down to weather or not it has lyrics introducing the show. There hasn’t been a game show with genuinely catchy lyrics in a couple of decades, but this has definitely got the potential to shake things up a bit.
AdvertisementMore details for First And Last
The First And Last air date hasn’t been confirmed as of yet, but Jason Manford describes the show as “classic early Saturday evening telly”, so that gives us at least a little to go on when it’s on. You can also apply to be one of the contestants on the show using this link to get the application form for the show.
F&L has been created by Zeppotron (part of Endemol Shine UK) and as a brand new show it could well go on to be syndicated around the world if the opening six episodes are a big hit in the UK. It’s a pretty clever format, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it comes together.
The BBC has announced a series of new game show in recent months with the existing format of The Wall getting the Danny Dyer treatment for the UK and the one off new show, Take Off With Bradley And Holly mentioned above.
