My thoughts, such as they are, on TV panel game shows.

I didn't really have any thoughts on TV panel game shows. But then the Evening Standard asked me if I had about 150 words of them. Actually, to my great surprise, it turns out I have approximately 200 of them (197 to be precise). So here, before they get edited down to 150 again, they are.


TV Panel game shows may not be cheap but they are certainly safe. Frankie Boyle is exiled, the speaker in Stephen Fry's ear will never run out of facts or quips and anything controversial or just plain unfunny will be edited out of the hours of recording.

And why so many celebrities on the shows? Unless celebs are having the rise ripped out of them, all they do is show how actual less famous comics, like that little beardy bald dwarf guy, are actually good. It's through questioning celebrities on We Need Answers that the talented Tim Key and Alex Horne have really broken into TV, but I'd rather see them developing their own material in sketch or themed shows than dicking about with Kelvin MacKenzie. That programme's host Mark Watson is often on panel game shows, but has himself commented that the bear-pit atmosphere doesn't let comics with a self-effacing style get a word in.

Come on TV executives, even if they're getting more clever, and generate instant repeat fees on Dave, let's have less ephemeral, celebrity obsessed panel shows – develop more seminal, lasting treats like Paul Merton's 1990s show, 15 Stories High and Cowards.


Richard Tyrone Jones will be hosting Stony Broke Fridays at the Cross Kings on Friday.

Twitter: @rtyronejones

I'll be blogging on my funeral soon but I have to go and take the coffin back tomorrow, so the story is not quite yet over....