Hole in the Wall (UK game show)

Hole in the Wall
Genre	Game show
Presented by	Dale Winton ; Anton du Beke ;
Starring	Anton du Beke ; Darren Gough ; Austin Healey ; Joe Swash ;
Voices of	Peter Dickson
Narrated by	Jonathan Pearce
Theme music composer	Simon Darlow
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	21 (inc. 1 unaired)(list of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Talkback Thames ; BBC Scotland ;
Distributor	Fremantle
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	20 September 2008 –; 12 December 2009
Chronology
Related shows	Brain Wall
External links
	Website

Last updated May 08, 2019

Hole in the Wall is a game show that aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom. This game was an adaptation of the Japanese game Brain Wall (also known as "Human Tetris") in which players must contort themselves to fit through cutout holes of varying shapes in a large polystyrene wall moving towards them as they stand in front of a swimming pool. Each week, two teams of television personalities competed for £10,000 in prize money to be donated to their chosen charity.

BBC One is the first and principal television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution. It was renamed BBC TV in 1960, using this name until the launch of the second BBC channel BBC2 in 1964, whereupon the BBC TV channel became known as BBC1, with the current spelling adopted in 1997.

Brain Wall is a component of the Japanese game show The Tunnels' Thanks to Everyone. Video clips from the show proliferated on video-sharing websites and the concept was eventually adopted by several countries. It became popularly known to non-Japanese speakers and YouTube fans as simply Human Tetris or Hole in the Wall, named for its involvement of the physical body and a supposed close resemblance to the rules of the video game Tetris.

Tetris is a tile-matching puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Soviet Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov. The first playable version was completed on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the Soviet Union in Moscow. He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport. The name is also used in-game to refer to the play where four lines are cleared at once.

Dale Winton served as the original host while Strictly Come Dancing ballroom dancer Anton du Beke and former international cricketer Darren Gough were the team captains for the first series. Additionally, Jonathan Pearce commented on the replays and Peter Dickson provided the opening voice-over. The wall was activated by the presenter shouting Bring on the wall!.^[1]

Dale Jonathan Winton was an English radio DJ and television presenter. He presented the shows Dale's Supermarket Sweep from 1993 until 2001 and again in 2007, the National Lottery game show In It to Win It between 2002 and 2016 and the 2008 series of Hole in the Wall. Winton also presented Pets Win Prizes (1995–96) and The Other Half (1997–2002).

Strictly Come Dancing is a British television dance contest in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored out of 10 by a panel of judges. The format has been exported to over 40 other countries, licensed by BBC Worldwide, and has also inspired a modern dance-themed spin-off Strictly Dance Fever. The Guinness Book of Records has named Strictly to be the world’s most successful reality TV format. The show is currently presented by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.

Anthony Paul Beke, known professionally as Anton du Beke, is a British ballroom dancer, singer and television presenter, best known as a professional dancer on the BBC One celebrity dancing show, Strictly Come Dancing, since the show began in 2004. His professional dance partner since 1997 has been Erin Boag.

On 3 July 2008, the BBC announced that the show had been commissioned for BBC One. A second series was confirmed, with Anton du Beke giving up his captain role to take over from Dale Winton as host, and new team captains in the shape of former rugby player Austin Healey and actor Joe Swash. Anton du Beke announced that he might be a guest as well as hosting on the last show of the series.^[2]

Austin Sean Healey is a former English rugby union player who played as a utility back for Leicester Tigers, and represented both England and the British and Irish Lions.

Joseph Swash is an English presenter and actor, best known for his role of Mickey Miller in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders and various presenting roles with ITV2.

Format

The game was split into four rounds as well as the final "Great Wall" (known as "Mega Wall" in the first series).

The first round was "Solo Wall" which saw each team's guest players take a turn to face a wall just on their own. For each wall, 10 points were given to the player for a pass while a fail could be given up to 5 points depending on the host's whim.

Next was the "Captain's Challenge" or "Captain's Mate" which could be one of a number of games:

Doubles - The captain and a chosen teammate of his choosing (usually, the one they are encouraged to do so by the studio audience) both attempt a wall. A maximum of 20 points was on offer.
Props - The captain must complete the wall with a prop. This round made its first appearance when Anton Du Beke successfully cleared a wall on a space hopper.
Mirror Wall - The captain must attempt a wall backwards (facing the swimming pool) leaving his two teammates communicate to him about the shape he needs to make.
Blind Wall - The captain is blindfolded and his team members have to instruct to him the shape he needs to make.

The third round was "Mystery Guest or Killer Question", the team leading being offered the choice of which game they wished to play and the currently losing team playing the other challenge. A maximum of 20 points was on offer.

Killer Question - Two players face a wall without cut-outs with a question written at the top and two answers marked as doors. The "door" with the correct answer on it, is perforated on the reverse side and so gives way. The players must pass through the correct door.
Mystery Guest - One of the team attempts a wall with a mystery guest (or several).

The fourth round was the "Team Wall". All three players face the wall with a maximum of 30 points on offer.

The programme's finale was the "Mega Wall". The leading team got to choose to attempt the wall or nominate the opposition. All three players on the team attempt the wall, which travels at double speed - if they clear the wall, they win the show (and the £10,000 to donate to a charity of their choice), while if they fail, the opposing team wins.

Hole in the Wall used a specialised crane made by Street Crane Company of Chapel-en-le-Frith to move the wall.

Chapel-en-le-Frith is a small town and civil parish in Derbyshire, England.

Series 2 changes

Series 2, which started on 26 September 2009, contains all new challenges. Solo Wall returned with the Captain's Challenge changing its name to Captain's Mate, as now the captains had to be blindfolded. The Mystery Guest section was eliminated (although, it made appearances in Anton's Twist). Killer Question was now named Wonder Wall (with both teams now playing it as opposed to just one team), and a new challenge named Anton's Twist debuted. Team Wall also returned. The Mega Wall was renamed the Great Wall.

Anton's Twist, according to Anton, involved walls he'd invented with a twist. Variations could be any number players with various twists (such as placing leg braces around the legs of team members commonly used in three-legged races), or the appearance of a mystery guest. Notably, one episode had Anton announce a mystery guest for Joe Swash's team, and Joe asked, "Is it my mum?" It turned out it was his mother, but the two failed the wall (although they still scored points for the team).

Production

Series 1 was recorded at BBC Television Centre in London, with series 2 seeing the show relocating to BBC Pacific Quay in Glasgow as part of an out-of-London production plan. For series 2, the show was also shot in high-definition.^[3]

BBC Pacific Quay is BBC Scotland's television and radio studio complex at Pacific Quay, Glasgow, Scotland. Opened by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 20 September 2007, the studios are home to BBC Scotland's television, radio and online services and the headquarters of the BBC in Scotland.

Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland, and the third most populous city in the United Kingdom, as of the 2017 estimated city population of 621,020. Historically part of Lanarkshire, the city now forms the Glasgow City council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland; the local authority is Glasgow City Council. Glasgow is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as "Glaswegians" or "Weegies". It is the fourth most visited city in the UK. Glasgow is also known for the Glasgow patter, a distinct dialect of the Scots language that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city.

High Definition Television (HDTV) is a television system providing an image resolution that is of substantially higher resolution than that of standard-definition television. This can be either analog or digital. HDTV is the current standard video format used in most broadcasts: terrestrial broadcast television, cable television, satellite television, Blu-rays, and streaming video.

The first series had the entire audience off to the left side (from the perspective of the cameras looking straight at the wall), with the team benches on the other side, and the scoreboards by each bench. Winton, Du Beke, and Gough (as well as their teammates) would emerge from the left side when introduced, while the mystery guest(s) emerged from a platform below stage that rose to the top when introduced. For the second series, the audience was placed on three sides of the set, and the scoreboards were placed on the floor, hence Anton's catchphrase: "The scores on the floor are..."

Episode guide

-- Won by red team (Anton du Beke/Joe Swash)

-- Won by blue team (Darren Gough/Austin Healey)

Series 1

Episode	Original airdate	Anton's team	Mystery guest(s)	Points	Darren's team	Mystery guest(s)	Points	Mega wall
1	20 September 2008	Dave Myers Zöe Salmon	-	49	Andi Peters Sherrie Hewson	Dancing Dollies	39	Anton's team clear
2	27 September 2008	Vic Reeves Vanessa Feltz	The Cheeky Girls	27	Nancy Sorrell DJ Spoony	-	22	Darren's team fail
3	4 October 2008	Phil Tufnell Nell McAndrew	Glenn Ross	43	Iwan Thomas Josie D'Arby	-	42	Anton's team fail
4	11 October 2008	Amy Lamé Sam Nixon	Nouska Hanly	40	Siân Lloyd Mark Rhodes	-	43	Anton's team clear
5	18 October 2008	Marcus Brigstocke Sarah Cawood	Neil Fingleton	36	Bobby Davro Michelle Heaton*	-	43	Darren's team clear
6	25 October 2008	Vanessa Feltz Joe Swash	-	39	Alex Wotherspoon Angellica Bell	Pat Warner	62	Anton's team fail
7	1 November 2008	Phil Tufnell Nancy Lam	-	49	Carrie Grant Tony Marshall	Brian Big	54	Anton's team clear
8	8 November 2008	Christine Hamilton Martin Offiah	-	47	Neil Hamilton Lady Isabella Hervey	Ross Brewer	37	Anton's team clear
9	15 November 2008	Jennie Bond Rav Wilding	-	32	David Spinx Emma Rigby	-	33	Darren's team clear
10	22 November 2008	Ninia Benjamin Dominic Littlewood	-	39×	Cleo Rocos Scott Mills	London Wasps Women's Rugby Team	38	Anton's team fail
11	20 December 2008	Best of Series 1 Retrospective

* In episode 5, Michelle Heaton managed to remain dry by not failing a task but this resulted in teammates Darren Gough and Bobby Davro pushing her into the water.

× In episode 10, Anton's team were docked two points for cheating (shouting an incorrect call) during Darren's Captains Challenge (Darren being blind folded).

Series 2

This series started on 26 September 2009, presented by Anton du Beke.

Episode	Original airdate	Joe's team	Points	Mystery guest(s)	Austin's team	Points	Mystery guest(s)	Great wall
1	26 September 2009	Comedy Dave Anne Diamond	35	-	Sophie Anderton John Altman	50	-	Austin's team fail
2	3 October 2009	Kristian Digby Alison Hammond	65	-	Graham Cole Gemma Merna	27	-	Austin's team fail
3	10 October 2009	Lil' Chris Kelly Dalglish	27	-	Matthew Chambers Gemma Bissix	44	-	Austin's team clear
4	24 October 2009	Ian 'H' Watkins Linda Lusardi	80*	-	Ricky Groves Abi Titmuss	65	-	Joe's team fail
5	31 October 2009	Rufus Hound Ninia Benjamin	48	-	Dennis Taylor Jessica Taylor	82	-	Joe's team fail
6	Wasn't broadcast	Danielle Lloyd Mark Foster	58	-	Debbie McGee Ben James-Ellis	34	-	Austin's team fail
7	14 November 2009	Annabel Croft Sam Nixon	70	-	Beth Tweddle Mark Rhodes	69**	Erin Boag	Joe's team fail
8	21 November 2009	Kate Lawler Jonathan Ansell	45	-	John Partridge Siân Reeves	85***	-	Austin's team fail
9	28 November 2009	Zaraah Abrahams Simon Rimmer	45	Kiffy Swash (Joe's mum)	Toyah Willcox Barney Harwood	77	-	Austin's team pass
10	5 December 2009	Martin Roberts Verity Rushworth	39	-	Ben Clarke Caprice	85	-	Austin's team fail
11	12 December 2009	Best of Series 2 Retrospective

* In episode 4, Joe's team were docked ten points because Joe attempted to push Ricky Groves into the water as Ricky was struggling to stay on his feet after going through Team Wall.

** In episode 7, Austin bounced a ball on Anton's head, and then, he admitted it was meant to bounce on Joe's head, which because of that, 1 point was deducted.

*** In episode 8, Austin's team were docked 10 points because Austin pushed Jonathan into the pool when he was helping Kate and Joe go through Wonder Wall.

× Due to the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, Episode 6 was not broadcast originally. It involved Danielle Lloyd and Mark Foster playing for Joe and Debbie McGee and Ben James-Ellis playing for Austin. The episode eventually aired some 8 years later on Challenge TV in 2017.

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References

↑ "BBC - Press Office - Hole in the Wall commissioned for BBC One".BBC. Retrieved on 2008-09-16.
↑ Leigh Holmwood. "Hole in the Wall gets second series on BBC1". the Guardian.
↑ "BBC - BBC Internet Blog: HD Masters Conference Keynote Speech, 23 June 2009". bbc.co.uk.

External links

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[1] "BBC - Press Office - Hole in the Wall commissioned for BBC One".BBC. Retrieved on 2008-09-16.

[2] Leigh Holmwood. "Hole in the Wall gets second series on BBC1". the Guardian.

[3] "BBC - BBC Internet Blog: HD Masters Conference Keynote Speech, 23 June 2009". bbc.co.uk.