You Are The Weakest Link: Goodbye (Sat, 3.45pm, BBC1)
The wheel has turned away from Anne Robinson’s quiz show phenomenon. Where once TV delighted in cruelty, now the BBC is earnestly churning out documentaries about bullying and has bet the farm on a talent show which is so lily-livered that we have to pretend that it’s all about The Voice, rather than picking the contestants who are going to make the biggest spectacle of themselves. So after 12...
more You Are The Weakest Link: Goodbye (Sat, 3.45pm, BBC1)
The wheel has turned away from Anne Robinson’s quiz show phenomenon. Where once TV delighted in cruelty, now the BBC is earnestly churning out documentaries about bullying and has bet the farm on a talent show which is so lily-livered that we have to pretend that it’s all about The Voice, rather than picking the contestants who are going to make the biggest spectacle of themselves. So after 12 years and 1693 episodes, the Queen Of Mean is calling it a day; but not before welcoming back her favourite nine contestants for a final show. ‘The Weakest Link’ really has been a TV phenomenon: the show’s catchphrase has been used in Prime Minister’s Question Time, by Blair to Hague, and it averaged five million viewers at its peak, unheard of for BBC2 daytime. Contestants welcomed back include drag queen Mandy Gap, portly student-turned-wrestler Phil Green and Archie Bland, the unfortunately named chap who is now a successful broadsheet journalist. Expect Anne to reduce him to a quivering mess once again. Jeremy Paxman was considered as the presenter in the early days: he’d be a pussycat in comparison.
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