It’s been a while since the BBC announced a new big-budget game show, but it’s about to throw up a hefty one called The Wall with Danny Dyer taking the reigns like a cockney Jimmy Tarbuck. It’s described as being wildly unpredictable, so the theme tune and music is bound to be pretty intense, taking its cue from the likes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Pointless on the BBC and The Cube on ITV.
The Beeb is also promising “heart-stopping jeopardy”, so this is probably going to be a bit more fast paced than Eggheads or Countdown. It may not quite be the return to the wonders of Saturday evening gameshows of yesteryear like The Price Is Right or 3-2-1, but it does sound like it’s going to be pretty heavy hitting with big wins, eye-watering near misses and more rhyming slang than Victoria Park Market.
When is BBC’s The Wall on?
No air date has been announced as of yet, but the BBC has confirmed that it will be on later in 2019, taking on a Saturday night spot on BBC 1. The commission only covers six episodes as of yet in series 1, but each episode is 45-minutes long, which adds to the potential weight of the show. If The Wall turns out to be as solid as the BBC is building it up to be then it could well go on to be a recurring series, so you might need to brace yourself for Danny Dyer overload.
How do contestants play the game?
Contestants will play the game show in pairs as they make it through a number of rounds combining strategy, knowledge and a certain amount of luck to advance. Questions will be fired at them by BBC Nine O’Clock News legend Angela Rippon, and the duos will need to get the questions right to climb higher up the wall to increase their prize pot.
The luck side of the equation comes in the form of drop zones above the pin board wall where green or red balls fall to the elation or heartbreak of the contestants. As you can probably guess, green balls add to the prize pot, while red balls subtract from the tally, so teams can win big or lose out on an excruciatingly large amount of money.
You can see more details on how the game show rules are played out throughout the rounds on the Wikipedia page.
Theme tune
The theme tune for The Wall is bound to be high drama gravitas in the extreme. The music for the original US version of the show was composed by Michael Lord and you can take a listen to an intro to it in the video below. It sounds like it comes from the score from a Hollywood epic. His other theme tune creations include One Tree Hill and Spin The Wheel and you can see more from the composer on his official website.
Where did The Wall originate
BBC’s The Wall is inspired by the NBC game show of the same name, which has already been syndicated to a number of other European countries, including France, Germany and Italy. It’s hosted by Chris Hardwick in the US where it’s in its third season and airing 20 episodes per series following the success of the opening ten-episode season.
