Success is within the contestants’ grasp
If you touch the prize, you win the prize! That’s the very simple premise behind this new game show, Can’tTouchThis (Saturday, BBC1, 6.10pm), hosted by Zoe Ball and Ashley Banjo. Catapulted into a giant obstacle course, 16 contestants have to battle their way through fiendish challenges while trying to touch prizes that are tantalisingly just out of reach. But in the end, only one of them will win the chance to take home their prize haul. They could also be driving their prizes home in the car of their dreams, but first they have to take a giant, heart-stopping leap in order to touch the vehicle. Full of epic fails and big wins, Can’t Touch This promises to be fun for the whole family, as the two hosts explain: And, according to Ball there is one more special ingredient that makes this show even more fun – Sue Perkins’ commentary. “She is so funny,” she says. “She makes me laugh out loud but that is why she is a genius. A god-like genius.” The contest gets under way tonight, as a father from Cardiff, a belly-dancer from Hull and a man called ‘Mr Grumpy Pants’ tackle the course. And both of the hosts have huge respect for those brave enough to take part. “I think I’d be lucky to make it out of the first foam pit,” Zoe admits. “I think I’d be alright until it got to the travelator. Then if you get dunked it’s so impossible to run and I’m not a graceful runner anyway.” However, Ashley disagrees and thinks his co-host is actually more suited to the course than he is. “I think Zoe would do much better than she says she would, and I would do a lot worse than people think I would,” he says. “I’d like to think I’d do great but I’d probably be really bad at it.” So what are the highlights of this obstacle course that is essentially like a life-size mousetrap for humans? “The catapult,” Ball says. “I love the catapult! It looks like so much fun. I quite like the chairs that dunk you down the slides.” But Banjo prefers the ropes. “If I was taking part they would be at the bottom of my list, but as a viewer, I think the ropes might be my favourite,” he says. The final element of the show’s winning formula is the big prizes – this is prime-time Saturday night TV after all. So there you have it – the holy trinity of Saturday night game shows – contestants, obstacles and prizes.