Tipping Point ... The saviour of Peak Time Telly??

Imagine my surprise as I sat down with my tea to watch mediocre early evening television to be greeted by Ben Shepard standing in front of an oversized 2p shover and four contestants that had been overdoing the blue smarties in the green room vieing to win an possible £10,000 from answering questions and putting disks into the aforementioned machine.

At first I was just weeping with sadness that near prime-time telly had reached a new low, but then after about 10 minutes of watching found myself hooked.  I was rooting for people to win (usually the underdog) and cheering when the cocky one made a fatal flaw by selecting 'zone 1' instead of 'zone 3' and winning jack poop.

I was more surprised when someone actually won the £10k out of the machine at the end.  Could this be possible?  I had after all spent about £20 one day trying to win a knock off Pokemon character out of one in Corrigan's "Slots of Fun" only the day before and failed miserably.

This made me think.  If they can do this with a simple premise of a 2p shover then surely the possibilities are endless.  So I sat in my quiet space (or naughty step as everyone else in the family calls it) and came up with a new winning formula that I'm hoping ITV will like and pay me millions for the concept.  It's simple, but I would stare at, zombie like for a whole hour - even taking in the adverts for PPI mis-selling, accident helplines and cash for gold companies along the way.

So my idea goes like this.  Howard Brown (aka Howard from the Halifax adverts) would front a show called "Chicken Point".  It would bolster his waning career and would also bring a much needed change from the tired line of usual suspects appearing as presenters on other quiz shows currently on TV.  Now I'm not saying he will ever excel over the mighty (and in my opinion) god of the quiz show Bradley Walsh, but he will come a very close second.

The game involves contestants who must refer to the host only as "Howard from the Halifax" with pockets full of 20p coins taking it in turns to answer questions and the correct answer gives them the opportunity to slot and get an egg from "The Chicken Machine" (circa 1980).  The chicken will cluck, rotate and pop a little egg out into the little hatch at the bottom of the machine.

Excitedly, the contestant will take the egg and bask in the glory of the prize before them.  At that point they have the chance to gamble ... do they want to open the egg to see if it contains a prize they want (say for instance a waterproof hair hood or a plastic whistle) or wait and see if it contains the special banded strip of tickets which they can exchange for greater value goods - an example would be 500 tickets equating to an eraser with the ITV logo on it, or 20,000 for an ornamental saucy PVC lifeguard.

The contestants would quiver with excitement, the audience would continually give awed hushes as fortunes are won and lost on the life changing decisions before them.

Eventually, the last contest goes forward to the mega-chicken.  They have to answer as many questions as possible within 60 seconds with every correct answer equating to a golden 20p that can go in for them to win prizes like oversized soft toy cows and barely passing inspection toys from Korea that look something like characters from television shows and computer games.

Then after the final piece of glitter falls from the ceiling it is left to Paul Sinnha to answer sensible questions while chasing people down a grid winning real cash on a serious and worthy quiz show that in my opinion should just have a channel of it's own.

And that is it really.  The future of television quizzing is in our hands.  Do we want banal and indecipherable quizzes on our TV like "GoldenBalls" or do we want simple Arcade based quizzes that involve risk, 20p's and witty banter amongst contests and views alike!

Continuing from yesterdays ramblings

So, as I said yesterday, we went a bargain hunting in York.  I was amazed at the children's toy section at the rubbish they try to punt off to us unsuspecting parents.  It seems that there is some suit in a factory pawing over the piles of unsellable junk on pallets pondering on how best to market it and ship it out to the laps of kids world wide.  At the start of the aisle you are subjected to the well known stuff ... Moshi Monsters, Spongebob and Hello Kitty.  But then as you go down the aisle you start to find yourself in a mire of slightly dubious merchandise.  I noticed that there was a lot of Amazing Spiderman toys, most were unrelated to the movie or character.  There was (see picture above) an electronic keyboard with The Amazing Spiderman on it.  Now I struggled to get my head around why Spiderman would indeed want a 25 key, 5 tone keyboard with his name on it.  Could it be that his alter-ego is actually Andy McCluskey from OMD or Vince Clarke from Erasure/Depeche Mode/Yazoo?  Or is this as I suspected just an opportunity to empty warehouses and fill our litterbins with unwanted lazy branded crap?
Worse still was the "Sensational Spiderman" stuff.  That's even lazier than actually trying to use an established brand.  It's like the junk shops selling Ondrex toilet paper (ooh, we shall change just one letter and it will be enough to fool the peasants into buying this low quality knock off).
Therefore, I feel that opportunites have been missed by the marketing staff of Garbage Inc. and am giving to the world the first look at the new improved line of children's toys.  Today I offer up "The King's Speech" Electronic Keyboard.  It is backed by a globally successful movie that won Oscars and BAFTAs.  It is based on fact, thus it can be classed as educational.  However, I must warn you not to use the notes F or F# unless you want fragile ears to be forever ringing with the swearier parts of the movie.
We will see how this marketing campaign works.  I'm thinking of following it up with a range of Scary Movie V crayons and maybe Olsen Twins retainer gum shields.  The possibilities are endless.

So.  Many people who hit the "midlife crisis" buy sports cars.  I'm not that material.  Instead I shall just plump for blogging instead.

First time blogger.  I'm not sure how this thing works so I apologise in advance for the ramblings on this first blog.  I hope they will get more structured in the future!

So, a little about myself  ... that's a good place to start. 

I've just hit 40.  For some it's a milestone, to me it's just a number.  People get depressed about their age, I don't.  You buy a car with 100k on the clock and some wince, I just look and see it has history.  I have history, albeit a bit dull, but a history nonetheless.

I'm very happily married with a 16 year old son who seems to be bucking the trend on the teenager thing.  He hasn't turned into Kevin (or Perry) (yet).  I work as a postman in our local village, and am the captain of a fundraising group called Wonkey McDonky.  So that's not mad in the least is it?

I shall start this first blog by telling you about my week.  This week saw a momentous occasion, a week off.  So we had an opportunity to do things that without the restrictions of the corporate shackles around us.

Monday and Tuesday saw myself and Debbie having the house to ourselves as Steve was at work.  We just whiled the days away playing Candy Crush and looking after our neighbour's dog whilst they had a couple of days away from the world.  Bow the dog is a nutjob.  She is lovely but is a very bouncy black Lab.  I have now successfully learned every move there is in the doggie tango set.  I would walk in and would have to do a merry dance as I negotiated the hallway.  She is great, but taking her for a walk reminded me why I would never own a dog ... the pesky "pick up after drop off" thing.  Eugh!

 Wednesday we went to the Beamish museum up in Chester-Le-Street.  A most excellent day out.  I say this because I charge my 'fun time' out at £10 an hour, and the families tickets cost £45 - we were there for 6 hours.  I class that as a win on my behalf.  The added bonus is that I also possess the mighty power of visiting the museum for the whole year for free now.  That's money in the bank every time I walk through their gates!

Thursday we went out for a meal to the Dacre Arms in Brandesburton.  A meal I cannot fault.  The food was out of this world, the staff were tremendous and the setting was beautiful.  We followed that with one of those little crazy moments by going to the theatre in the cinema!

Pellow falls from his Pedestal!

We are not one of the fortunate families that live in the hub of cultural madness.  We live in Scarborough.  OK so we have the world famous Stephen Joseph Theatre and the Open Air Theatre, but when it comes to seeing anything big we have to travel a great distance being on the bum end of the A64.  So when I found out that Jeff Wayne's The War Of The Worlds was going to be screened on cinema screens around the UK I just had to get a bit of that big boy.

For us to go and see the show live it would have cost us in excess of £300 with tickets, travel and hotels and with superficial things like heating, lighting and food bills to pay this was a bit of a no-no. So having seen Genesis live many years ago at a cinema we thought this would be a great experience to see at the cinema.  We were not disappointed.

Aside from the fact that we had only spent £28 on tickets (which is a bit of a bonus), the show also had a close-up view of the whole of the show.  We didn't see the full hologram of Liam Neeson in it's splendour but that was a small price to pay.  The show was just EPIC.  The only thing that spoiled it was Marti Pellow.  He completely destroyed "Forever Autumn" - the seminal classic which most of the non-TWOTW fans know.  I am not here to destroy people's careers, because I am not that kind of person.  Needless to say, that early Wet Wet Wet stuff was good.  "Love is All Around" is one of my top 5 most hated songs ever - purely because of the length of the song and the fact that it was at the top of the chart for about 50 years.  But when he came on stage and over-egged the performance I was bitterly disappointed.

However, the redeeming factors of the show have to have been Ricky Wilson (aka Mr Kaiser Chiefs) and Jason Donovan.  JD actually moved me like I have never been moved before.  I have known people who have been so demented by their beliefs and have seen his performance played out first hand in reality.  If he doesn't get put forward for an Ivor Novello then I quit this whole congratulatory back patting that the celebs do once a year!

We walked away from the experience on a high.  It is repeated only once more today (14th April) and if you read this in time I beg you to go and see the technical spectacle that is TWOTW.  Amazing.  (It's on blu-ray in november ... The perfect gift for Christmas!)

Friday ... Oh a lot happened that day!

 So I was invited to listen into The Scary Guy Radio Show by Gary.  He told me that it's the place to be.  Sadly it was the day of my 'surprise' party to celebrate my 40th birthday (the 'surprise' bit I will keep for another time).  I duly sent him a message on facebook saying that I was listening to which he responded that I should call them up and speak to them about how meeting The Scary Guy had changed my life.  I tried to ring but got told by the automated lady on the phone that the number was oversubscribed and I should try again later.  I messaged him to tell him this and he told me to ring NOW!  So I sucked in my breath and did as he said.

As the phone was picked up, I got straight through to Scary.  The radio had them just talking away so I thought that maybe they were recording me and were going to edit the conversation down so they could use soundbites.  I discussed the fact that I didn't have the statutory "aye up" speak that us northerners are portrayed as having and then went into a massive 20 minute discussion about how Scary had changed my life.  After the convo on the phone I replaced the receiver and walked back into the front room to hear my voice still going on the radio show.  Had I known there was a 2 minute delay due to digital lag I would have maybe have chosen my words more carefully.  I have been assured that I came across well and didn't use any inappropriate language (which I don't when speaking publicly thankfully).

I went on the chatroom afterwards and just saw a wall full of "Respect to Trev" and "Loving Trev" on the wall.  It choked me a bit.  To know that I had been inadvertently broadcast around the world without me knowing and getting messages from people in Germany, Australia and the USA was astounding.  I wasn't expecting that at all.  Needless to say I was shaking like a dog having a poop when I realised that I had gone out live globally!

After that I had a 'surprise' party to celebrate me hitting a milestone age.  Debbie had organised this event via the magic of Facebook.  She told me that there would be no surprises (under my rules and regs of the marriage vows) but there would be some people there I hadn't seen for a while.

The first surprise was blown when a friend in Lincoln send me a PM saying that he and his girlfriend would not attend (that's one for another blog).  I then found out on the day that my sister-in-law would be attending and then answered the door to a surprise birthday cake from a friend.  I get the feeling that the surprise fairy was on my side that day!

We had a great evening with some unexpected guests arriving and reminiscing about the time I was a bitter and twisted digital printer.  The music (chosen by myself) was a bit of a cheat because I had just taken the playlist from our Christmas party and taken all the festive songs out.  It was a bit of a surprise when Chocolate Salty Balls and The Chicken Song came on to be honest, but that's how my head works!

Saturday was just a 'chill out day'

Disturbingly I woke up without a bad head or anything like a hangover after the festivities the night before so we decided to take a trip to York to have some retail therapy (which involved me buying new trainers, a box of Smarties and getting a burger from the van at Monk's Cross).  However my Dark Passenger(more to be revealed at a later date) allowed me the opportunity for badness at the shops around the shopping precincts!

Firstly I had bad flatulence from the fodder and beverages that were bestowed upon me from the night before so I could leave carpet slippers in the aisles of shops that would make the devil himself weep, but it gave me carte blanche to behave badly in the stores and cause people to look at us all in a strange way.  Once again I shall share these stories with you at a later date (once I have worked out adding photos et al). 

Needless to say this has been one of the greatest weeks off I have had in years.  My Auntie Fay reached a point in her life where she did the old 'what the hell' thing and I'm getting that way myself.  I always do it without intentionally causing offence, but I like to do it in style.  I am here to give love and have fun, and I hope that my meanderings with both inspire you and not cause aforementioned offence. 

I'm signing off now as I promised Debbie I would be in bed 35 minutes ago and I have no doubt I will be in the dog house for the next 24 hours, which will be a bummer as it is my 40th birthday after all!

Thank you for being patient with this drivel I have spouted.  I hope you've enjoyed it, if not please let me know, but please don't be offensive ... I don't like any nastiness, just constructive criticisms.  There will be a weekly blog from now on, but on special occassions there may be further meanderings from my slightly warped mind.
Spread the love!
And for those who want to know more about the garbage I've spouted tonight please visit:
http://www.wonkeymcdonky.co.uk
http://www.thescaryguy.com
http://www.heyzradio.com/shows/scary-guy-radio/

Thus ends my lecture tonight.

Much love
Trevski xx