h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A645176

Hi, it's me again

The other day I took part in a charity It's a Knockout tournament and I had such a load of fun that it inspired me to write this short piece about the TV series that was unmissable as far as I was concerned when I woz a lad. This was a lifetime ambition fulfilled, hopefully I've managed to capture the spirit of the show.

Tell me what you think

Orcus

I like this a lot

Maybe you could add a bit on the prizes that they won, or the little medals that they get

I found the big suits very funny indeed

Caper Plip

I agree, just a bit more on what they won, or how well the teams preformed . Its a matter of adding a few sentences.

Reall good article, apart from that. Have some flan !!!!

Er... thanks for the compliments.

Having written this article largely from memory however, I can't actually remember what they won.
Also I've got no recollection of how good the relative teams were except that we - the UK - were rather crap at it
Anyone want to help on that front?

OK, updated the article somewhat having found some more info knocking about on the web.
I wracked my brains on what the prizes given were and as I recall I think they were just give gold silver and bronze medals in Olympic games style. I hope this is correct, I can find no mention of what the prizes were on the various web sites around. I do not remember even the Jeux Sans Frontière champions getting anything but (dubious) prestige but if anyone can correct me I would be grateful.



Orcus

Well I'm not sure exactly how good all the teams were. My Dad used to work on the outside broadcasts and said something about the Italians always losing and starting fights afterwards.

Did anyone actually win anything? I don't remember that at all y'know!

PS, did like the article a lot

Thankyou

I've only seen the show a couple of times (the newer version with Cheggers), but I think this captures the spirit of it.

I have a couple of comments to make. I think that 'Jeux Sans Frontières' means games without frontiers. Whatever it is, I think that including a translation would be useful.

Perhaps you could mention the tendency now for this sort of thing to be more popular for kids. Examples include fun house, with pat sharp, which involved similar sorts of silliness to 'It's a knockout', usually involving plenty of gudge. It ran all the way through the Nineties (starting in 1990 ending in 1999), and many other similar game shows, although they all had prizes, and most of that sort of things had plenty of gudge. I don't know how popular that sort of things is know, but it certainly has been popular until quite recently.

Also I am reminded of Peter Gabriel's song 'Games without Frontiers', about it.

Also, I am disappointed to find out, at another website, (The UK game show page at qwertyuiop), that the royals werern't actually involved in the games in the Royal Version. I suppose its to be expected though. Perhaps you could give a link to that page (do a search on google), or perhaps one of the other sites that it links to.

Hi Silverfish, I did put a translation of Jeux Sans Frontières at the end of the article - perhaps it's a little subtle

This sort of thing has always been very popular with kids has it not. They were throwing s around on Tizwaz in 1971 were they not? We are the Champions was probably the closest thing to It's a Knockout for kids at the time - the final game was exactly the same as in It's A Knockout. I'm not convinced including these will add anything particularly to the article - these shows never got the mega-viewing figures of It's a Knockout and JSF.

I thought about including Peter Gabriel's song in there but wasn't sure how to include it. *ponders*

The quertyuiop site was one of the pages I used to write the article, maybe I will link to it afterall seeing as you mention it

Thanks for the feedback. An update will be done later today.



Orcus

You've got a point, kids generally do like this sort of thing. Not being around in the seventies I don't know much about what was going on then. I've got a feeling that it wouldn't add much to mention the kids programmes, although a passing mention that this sort of things is still popular with kids, but has lost favour with adults, might be worth making. Perhaps its just that any show with Creggers in will never succceed these days.

The Peter Gabrield song might deserve a mention, but I suspect it would be hard to shoehorn in.

I'm glad you are thinking about including the link.

I've noticed the mention of the translation of 'Jeux sans Frontieres'. I think it could do with being a bit more prominent, possibly in brackets after the first mention of it.

Also, I have a feeling that the name Jeux sans Frontieres should be in italics, and possible 'It's a Knockout', although I'm not sure.

The English Usage guide (http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/SubEditors-Style) gives this advice:

'Italicize names of films, TV shows, plays, books, newspapers, magazines, titles of albums, poems of book length, scientific names (such as Homo sapiens and foreign phrases (but not the ones that have been around for ages and are almost in constant use - café is a good example of this). Also, interestingly, names of ships should be written in italics.'

This seems to cover Jeux sans Frontieres as both a TV show and foreign phrases, but I'm not sure about 'It's a knockout', as that is the title of the entry.

Apart from that, I haven't really got any complaints about the entry, it is IMHO almost ready to go to the editors.

Hi Silverfish, having thought about it I've come up with cunning plans to inlcude *all* your suggestions.

Look out this afternoon. I didn't know about the italics thing. 'twill be done'

Thanks for the help

Orcus

I hope this isn't a cunning plan in the Baldrick sense
I will have another look at the entry later on when it has been updates.

Well Baldric or not, that was obviously some strange usage of the term 'later today' that I previously had not used.

Nevertheless, the update is now done.

More comments gratefully received.

Orcus

I like the new content, it doesn't interupt the flow of the entry. I have only one comment, you mispelt 'whilst' in the bit about kid's shows.

The entry does remind me of a show for adults with a bit of an echo of It's a Knockout and its ilk. The show (which I saw when we were on holiday in the republic of ireland) involves various silly games in a similar vain to IAK, with a mix of quiz rounds and a round with a number of riddles, one leading to another location with another riddle and so on, like treasure hunt. The teams would be from two different towns.

However, as this is on in the day time on Northern Ireland, it probably is safe to avoid mentioning this. If you want to know any more, try the website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/townchallenge/towns.shtml

Very nice, I enjoyed racing my little car through the maze Don't think I'll include the show in the article though - or indeed the quertyuiop site Unfortunately the article got removed by the moderators for containing that link so I've had to remove it

Anyhow, anybody who types 'It's a Knockout' onto the adress bar of IE will get a link to it.

It's a pity that they didn't allow the link to qwertyuiop, as I thought that it was a useful site for IAK fans.

I think you are right about leaves off town challenge. I only really mentioned it to show that there are some programmes with a bit of a flavour of IAK.

Anyway, I haven't got any other comments to make really. I think this is about ready to be edited.

Thankyou
I think some bits of quertyuiop are commercial - not an allowed thing in URL's here I'm afraid
Town challenge certainly sounds like it's good fun.

Some comments:

It was called "Games without Frontiers" in every other European language, but for some strange reason it was called "It's a Knockout" in English.

In the international shows, Stuart Hall had the infuriating habit of being totally biased towards the British team.

You should use a capital E for Europe and European, throughout the entry.

I think town Challenge was good fun, although it is quite a while since I last saw it. It didn't take itself that seriously, although I suspect that there was a bit of rivalry between the towns involved.