Let’s Do The Show Right Here

 

Episode Summarised by Emma Shane

 © 2004

 

Overall just the kind of quiz show I like, I only wish I’d heard more of it.

It has a lovely theme song by Denis King and Dick Vosburgh. Mark Styen actually makes a good job of hosting it, not too insulting, and his wit is well matched by those of his team captains. The nature of the quiz is just the mixture of seriousness and light heartedness that I really like in a quiz show. It is serious in that the questions are real ones, and taken seriously, they matter, and by and large determine the points awarded, in a clear cut manner (something which Dick Vosburgh especially benefits from). Yet quiz is light-hearted enough to award the odd point for artistic interpretation, and wit (something which very much benefits Louise Gold. But the quiz is still serious enough to deduct points for plain silly behaviour. Quick witted answers are acceptable, but plain silly ones are not. And then the subject matter, is such a wonderful one. Truly I’m sorry I didn’t hear more of it.

 

 

 

 

 

Episode Broadcast on  18th November 1994

 

Sing along Overtures: Starts with Dick’s team singing: First Dick sings Stairway To Paradise, then Jessica Martin comes in much more sweetly with One Kiss, followed by Dick singing The Best Of Times and not badly at all, finally Jessica finishes with It’s Alright With Me, which she does justice to and includes some adlibs. Michael Roberts seems to get most of the answers, and that it’s a French them. However Louise identifies “one Kiss”, as “One Kiss In Paris”, they both think it might be from Gigi, until Mark explains its a much earlier era, at which Louise shrieks the correct answer “The Three Musketeers”. Louise’s team’s turn to sing consists of Louise singing Spring Spring Spring with a great American accent (which I didn’t realise at the time, actually sounds rather Muppety, perhaps a bit of Annie Sue pig got into that one), followed by Michael singing I Love You Samantha, then its Louise gives her brassy pipes a bit of exercise with a burst of The Trolley Song, which is just typically her and jolly good too. Finally Michael concludes with The Night They Invented Champagne which he does rather well with a nice touch of a French accent. Jessica correctly notes none of them were originally stage shows (they’re films), Dick says “They were all written by teams of two except one”, which doesn’t get him anywhere. Mark has to explain they are all from MGM film musicals subsequently adapted for the stage. Score: Louise’s team has a slight lead.  (? Dick, 4: Louise, 5)

Act 1, Scene 1: Cue For A Song: In this game one team performs a dialogue scene, the opposing team has to guess and sing the number following it. But the artistic interpretation given to the dialogue scene may be different to the original. Start’s with Dick’s team doing the dialogue. Louise gets the song almost immediately launching into It’s Never To Late To Fall In Love. Unfortunately she starts laughing in the middle of it, however she contrives to continue the tune, even if the lyrics end up as “boumty boumty boum”. Michael doesn’t join in singing, but identifies song, show, and composer. Mark offers them a bonus question “Who wrote The Girlfriend?” Louise realises its a much earlier show, but their efforts degenerate into too much guessing, for any points. Louise’s team do rather a good job with their dialogue scene. Dick gets the song straight away as We Kiss In A Shadow, and Jessica joins in the singing. Mark not only gives them two points, Louise’s team get an extra point for artistic interpretation. Dick’s team have a bonus question too, to name the two actors who turned the role of the king of Siam down. Dick names Noel Coward and Alfred Drake, but doesn’t name Rex Harrison, (but gets two points for the two he did name).  Score: It’s a tie (Dick, 8: Louise, 8)

Act 1, Scene II: Three Little Words: Pianist, John Gould, plays a medley of three songs. The teams have to identify the songs, and take a word from each to get the name of a musical. First up its Dick’s team, and Dick gets the answer straight away, it’s Call Me Mister. The songs were: Have An Egg Roll Mister Goldstone, The Indian Love Call, and the first one was Love Me Tender, which he admits he “didn’t recognise and Jessica did”.  Louise’s team find it harder. As the notes die away Louise confesses all she has is “The Lady Is A Tramp”, Michael says he doesn’t know the middle one at all. Mark tells Louise that she must know the first one, because he’s heard her sing it. “Give me another” she exclaims, and he obligingly gives her two clues, the song is by Irving Berlin, and then he starts humming it, at which point she recognised Be Careful It’s My Heart.  Michael then gets the show, Lady Be Good Mark tells them the song they didn’t identify was What’s Good About Goodbye, and, then starts singing Be Careful It’s My Heart.  Which Louise vehemently insists she now remembers. Score, the teams are still even (probably: Dick, 10, Louise, 10)

Intermission: This is a quickfire round, a metaphorical bar where they see how many singles they can down. All contestants can answer any question by buzzing. If they get the answer right they win 1 point, but 1 point is deducted for an incorrect answer. There are seven questions. Although any contestant can answer, it is the team captains who stand out. Dick shines in this round for knowing so many of the answers. However, whenever she actually knows the answers, Louise’s nimble fingers are quicker on the buzzer than anyone else’s. Dick correctly answers five questions, but Jessica looses him two points, one for an incorrect answer, and one for dragging US politics into the conversation (by mentioning Bill Clinton). Louise correctly answers two questions (one on a show she was in - Merrily We Roll Along, and one on a show she saw - Girlfriends by Howard Goodall). Score, Dick is in the lead (probably, Dick 13, Louise 12)

 

Act 2: Scene I: It Seems To Me I’ve Heard That Song Before: One team captain reads a song lyric, which the opposing team has to identify. The contestants shine. First Dick reads. Michael correctly identifies the song, Slap That Base. Then it’s Louise’s turn to read. Jessica correctly identifies the song, It Ain’t Necessarily So, despite Louise accidentally on purpose misreading one of the lines. Louise was so convincing, I only guessed she probably did it on purpose, when Mark deducted a point for “that mishap, that blatant attempt to mislead” and she retorted “You’re absolutely right, I apologise profusely, I’m terribly sorry”. Score, Dick is winning (probably Dick, 15, Louise 13)

Act 2: Grand Finale: A Turkey Trot: It seems to be customary for the finale to consist of one team singing a song from a flop, which the other team has to identify.  First up Dick’s team sing Chase Me Charlie. Louise gets it at once, she says “It’s Chase Me Charlie, its by Noel Coward from the musical Ace Of Clubs and it was written for Pat Kirkwood”. As this was so easy for her (she had recently appeared on stage with Pat Kirkwood), Mark offers her a bonus question, to identify who out of Dick and Jessica was singing the role of Spade. Louise replies “I don’t think either of them would want that revealed on the radio”. She probably didn’t know the answer, but her response is so witty she gets her bonus point anyway. Now it’s Louise’s teams’ turn to sing. Mark remarks on how he likes this week’s flop songs, “Not when we sing it you won’t” retorts Louise, It’s complete irony, for when she and Michael duet Isn’t It A Pity, her big strong voice dominates, but she sings very nicely. Jessica identifies the song as being from “Pardon My English by George Gershwin”. We are not told the score at this point. But, one might assume Louise gained 4 points plus her bonus point, since she not only identified the song, show and composer, but also who originally sang it on her team’s question, whereas Jessica only got song, show and composer, thus giving Dick 3 points making the score (Dick, 18, Louise, 18)

First Night Notices: Before the final score is revealed, one more game to play. Mark reads out a couple of reviews, the teams have to identify the show its about and where its from (they never manage the latter). First Dick’s team: “For Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber to have promoted this musical comedy from the fringe to the West End, is about as justifiable as opening a Woolworths in St James’s.” Jessica wonders if this is Jeeves, but Dick correctly identifies Eurovision (Though somehow the identity of that musical’s actual composer, Jason Carr, doesn’t get mentioned). Then Louise’s team: “The book is sufficiently downmarket to include jokes about willies and bums, never mind that neither English euphemism means anything in New York where the show is supposed to be set”. If her previous efforts at using her wit to get out of a hole are anything to go by, then she probably doesn’t know the answer, for the team captain says: “I don’t go to see show’s like that. I’ve no idea, and I don’t want to talk about willies and bums.” Given her reputation as a comedy performer, she is surely joking (she helped to set up Spitting Image for goodness sake). However, Michael correctly identifies the show as Barry Mannilow’s Copacacabana.  We are never told the actual score, but Mark says that the final score is an absolute tie. If you’ve been listening carefully, then it sounds as though both teams got around 20 points each. So it probably is the case. Mark then jokes that there’s only one prize, a pair of tickets to see Copacabana. Louise takes up the joke with “You can have them”. And thus concludes a very enjoyable quiz show.

 

[Side Notes: The review of Eurovision was by Nicholas de Jongh, in the Evening Standard on 14 November 1993]

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Webmaster's footnote: The reason only one episode of the quiz is reviewed on this site is due to a lack of relevant information, the reviewer didn’t actually hear the earlier episodes.

 

 

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