Golden oldies’ power to a-maze

CORDEN’S ON BAWL ST

There was good news and bad news for Channel 4’s entertainment department late last week.

The good news was the triumphant return of its old game show The Crystal Maze on Friday night. The bad news was that it came 24 hours after its great hyped hope Host the Week bombed so badly in the ratings I’m already wondering if it will last the week.

Hopefully, Scarlett Moffatt’s career prospects won’t have taken too much of a hit. It wasn’t her fault it flopped. It was just a really confusing format. However, Host James Corden is raking in the dollars thanks to The Late Late Show but he admits he’s rubbish when it comes to money.

The star and the gang from Sky 1’s A League Of Their Own: US Road Trip are heading for Wall Street tonight.

Their challenge is to trade on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to see who can when new shows are greeted by shrugged shoulders across Britain it’s no wonder TV networks are reviving so many golden oldies right now.

It can only be a matter of time before BBC1 gives up on lame singing shows on a Saturday night and simply revamps the likes of It’s A Knockout and The Generation Game instead.

If that does happen then I hope make the most cash. But James can’t cope and storms off, yelling: “I’m freaking out. I don’t even know what stocks and shares are. When people say, ‘Oh, the share price rose’, I can’t even work out how it’s real money.”

Luckily his competition isn’t looking too clever. Freddie Flintoff admits: “I got sacked from Woolworths for giving stuff away.” the Beeb takes note of what Channel 4 has done with The Crystal Maze – or rather what it has not done.

There has been no meddling from frustrated creatives.

Aside from a lick of paint here and a jumpsuit update there, the only thing that has changed is the host.

And in Richard Ayoade I would say that they have found the perfect successor to the waspish Richard O’Brien.

He certainly had the measure of the five team members on this celebrity special from the start, blaming “society” for “according these people celebrity status”.

His best line, though, was the deadpan prediction he made about Louie Spence when the dancer’s team mates finally decided to release him from a locked chamber.

How to sum up in just eight words Louie’s ability to be both endearing and irritating at the same time: “I imagine he’s going to make an entrance.”