The Generation Game
Mel and sue on reviving The Generation Game and original their admiration for host Sir Bruce Forsyth…
EASTER Sunday / BBC1
‘Good game, good game!’ The Generation Game was a Saturday night fixture in my house back in the 1970s. This Easter, Mel and Sue revive the show. But did they do well? They reveal all…
Rumours about a revival of
The Generation Game have been swirling around for years, with Paul O’grady making a pilot, and reports suggesting that Miranda Hart had been signed up to host a new series.
Now the moment is finally here – former Great British Bake Off hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins have been hired, and it’s time to start up the conveyor belt as the game show finally returns to our screens this Easter.
If you’re struggling to remember how it works, don’t worry, TV Times is here to jog your memory…
Teams of two family members, spanning different generations, join forces to play silly games or take on tricky but hilarious tasks, be it making balloon animals or sitting behind a pottery wheel to sculpt a very wobbly vase. One team will make it through to the final where they must remember as many prizes as they can from a conveyor belt of treats that whizzes past them in a flash… see kids, you don’t need fancy technology to have fun!
Here, Mel and Sue reveal what we can expect from the new version and whether they’ve been tempted to test out the games…
How does it feel to be bringing The generation game back nearly half a century after it first aired? Mel: This is one of the most cherished entertainment shows
and we don’t take that lightly. sue: We’ve stayed true to the spirit of the original – we meet some great families and we try to give them the best night of their lives.
Were there any standout moments that made you giggle during filming? sue: We don’t want to spoil the surprise, but we witnessed some of the most graphic teapot spouts ever made on television. So graphic, some of the contestants needed counselling afterwards. It took us about an hour to stop laughing!
Were you on hand to test out the games? sue: We tried all of them, because essentially, we behave like toddlers and love to get our hands dirty. Mel: After the recordings there was barely a surface of the set that hadn’t been smeared, smashed or gunked by us.
The beloved sir Bruce Forysth hosted the show in the 1970s and again in the 1990s. What is your favourite memory from those days of
The generation game? sue: We grew up with Brucie, and they don’t make them like that anymore. He was the only entertainer we can think of who not only had a catchphrase, but a personalised silhouette – that bent leg, fist-to-forehead stance.
Mel: As soon as you saw that, you knew you were in for a good night. He was a one-off, a legend and an utter gentleman.
one of the best bits of the show is watching the legendary conveyor-belt game and trying to memorise all of the prizes. How many items do you think you could remember?
sue: Out of 20? We think we could safely remember four. Mel: Anything after the heated towel rail and the mind goes blank to be honest. sue: We love a heated towel rail.
if you could choose just one prize from the conveyor belt to take home, what would it be?
Mel: It’d be too easy to say the cuddly toy. sue: In truth, we’d be tempted by the fondue set, having always wanted to be those people who sit around dipping a courgette into hot cheese.
Finally, how would you sum up the new series? sue: Four words: Clay, sausages, Danny Dyer.
is previewed on pages 42-43