There are a handful of shows that represent my childhood television viewing: Big Break, the Generation Game, Noel’s House Party, Movies Games and Videos, and Catchphrase, a clever quiz show based around contestants having to guess famous phrases, sayings or nameable films, songs etc for money. Headed up in its hay day by Roy Walker, it went downhill after he left with Nick Weir taking over, an alright host but most famous for managing to fall down the studio stairs and then by Mark Curry, which I didn’t even realise until I read the Wikipedia page just now.
I loved the show as a child and it’s still my ambition to get on the show someday, so I was very much pleased to see it return, now with Stephen “Britain’s Got More Talent” Mulhern in the driving seat.
To be honest little has really changed from the original format. There are now three contestants rather than two, with one eliminated after the first round. The graphics have been given a lick of paint and are pretty good for a television budget, even if they do resemble my first year work as a computer animation student in modelling software Maya, with a style that echoes between professional and amateur looking depending on the elements looked at. Even the opening credits are similar, just more modern looking with the theme tune given a jazzier remixing, though the lack of three catchphrases narrated during it is a sad loss. Oh, and then ‘Super Catchphrase’ is made far easier and less frantic at the end, though the money available to successful contestants is considerably more.
Mulhern makes a good host. Whoever they picked would never be able to be as iconic to the show as Roy Walker and much of the negativity on Twitter to Mulhern is misplaced because of this. He’s a likeable host, perhaps a little cheekier and confrontational than Walker was, but has a good banter with the contestants and audience, adopting the established sayings (“say what you see”) whilst adding his own, though they do seem awkward in this first episode, with his TV Burp-esque wry looks to the camera working better than anything spoken.
The first edition did open with a little bit of a misdirection. Mulhern asked ‘I know what you’re all thinking and, yes, he’s still with us’ and my mind naturally jumped to Roy Walker, but in fact he was referring to Mr Chips. A part of me, I supposed, hoped for some involvement from Walker. It’s great to see Mr Chips back after “leaving” with Walker all those years ago.
My hit rate on the catchphrases seems similar to when I’ve watched classic Catchphrase re-runs on Challenge TV so it doesn’t appear to have been dumbed down for a modern audience - and the appeal of guessing with friends and family and trying to beat the contestants to the answers remains as addictive as ever, though ITV seems to be milking the show in the modern age with it running in a forty-five minute slot rather than thirty minutes, but with seemingly a good fifteen-twenty minutes of that being adverts, with the first break coming just seven minutes into the programme. I know ITV are struggling but this is ridiculous.
Overall I’m pleased with the return of Catchphrase and it keeps the spirit of the show whilst tweaking a few elements for a modern audience. The animations are not going to win any awards but for the sheer amount they’ll have to create for the series on, no doubt a very limited budget, they’re actually pretty detailed even though they do show a certain rushed quality at times in the modelling and animation, very much resembling my so-so CGI work as a student. The catchphrases themselves are as expected in the difficulty level and Mulhern holds the show together and banters well with the audience and contestants.
Overall, I’m happy with it. Just more show, fewer adverts please ITV.
(The disappointing thing is I can’t use the phrase ‘It’s good, but it’s not the one’ as, well, I enjoyed it. Welcome back ‘Catchphrase’!)
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