Over the past 2 years we've had the pleasure of working with a number of well known faces that help to make our i-shows what they are. We were a little nervous entering the world of celebrities and agents. After all, we're a firm of game developers and tech heads, so what would the agents make of us?
We decided to let our work do the talking and went to initial meetings armed with a laptop and a preview of We Dig TV, an early glimpse of what was to come.
Sure enough all the agents loved the i-show concept and were only too happy to commence the enjoyable wrangle of client negotiations. We are happy to say that all of the celebrities we approached threw themselves into the project as if they were part of the team.
First up was Tony Green of Bullseye fame. What a pleasure it was to work with Tony. He came down to the offices with a keen attitude towards what we were aiming for. He gave us 2 hours of brilliant voice over including his infamous call of "Innnnnnnn one!" and "It's a Bullseye!".
Flushed with confidence we then approached Roy Walker for a voice over on our i-show version of Catchphrase. Both Roy and his agent were most obliging and off Patrick went up to Blackpool to meet the great man himself. We hired a studio up there and Roy gave us a brilliant performance and some great anecdotes to boot. If only we could get Roy in the studio to film him on set but alas Catchphrase is no longer recorded for prime time TV although it's a regular cable re-run favourite.
That's the main obstacle with the older, classic shows. We can't get into the studios so we must make use of the masses of historical footage, carefully using relevant clips to remake the shows in a form applicable to the i-show vision. It's always an enjoyable trip down memory lane, watching the tapes of old shows and in some cases a revelation. Who knew that Bullseye's original category board featured the subject "The Bible!"
Things changed though, as we now found ourselves developing a show that is still being filmed, and broadcast to a huge audience every weekday. This time we had to agree terms with three presenters. Namely Des Lynam, Carol Vorderman and Susie Dent. Feeling bullish, we also ended up hiring the whole Countdown crew for a bespoke filming session up at Yorkshire Television.
Brimming with confidence and hobbling on a knackered ankle, we took a trip up to Leeds and sat in the Directors box during the filming of three shows to get a feel for things. Again, all the production team were very encouraging and gave us total support in our venture. All we had to do now was arrange a time to hire the whole Yorkshire TV studio and crew whilst ensuring Des, Carol and Susie were all on hand and not too tired to deliver their performances. Two weeks later we'd cracked it and we were on our way to filming. With their help, we've managed to recreate the show in it's entirety, check it out, and let us know what you think!
Next came the classic, and apparently immortal The Price Is Right. An obvious target when we began We Dig TV, our endeavours were blessed as ITV launched a brand new series. This meant we were back on set, up in Manchester with Joe Pasquale and the crew.
Again, once Joe's agent had seen the quality of what we were pushing towards he enthusiastically arranged for Joe to spend a day with us at the Granada Studios up in Manchester. More helpful production team members, brought us into the fold, and introduced into the processes that create these shows. Once again, their efforts, their experience and their patience made life so easy. We're looking forward to finishing the game so you can see for yourself.
Family Fortunes came next. We met up with Jan, Vernon Kay's agent at their offices. Once we had shown the demo's Jan very quickly agreed to mention our project to Vernon who subsequently agreed terms with us. Ideally we would have wanted to film Vernon in the studio but by the time we acquired the rights to the show, the filming had ceased. A shame, but we're still hopeful that we might get to film Vernon in the spring of 2007, should the show be recommissioned.
For authenticity we approached Lisa I'Anson to replicate her announcements during the TV version of the show. Lisa obliged and joined us in the sound studio for a good two hour session in front of the microphone.
Blockbusters will always remain a firm favourite within the team and the prospect of meeting and working with Bob Holness quickly became something of a competition in the office. Who can forget (those of us that are over 30!) returning home from school and sitting down to the theme tune to the TV show and the prospect of egg and chips for tea? Ros Holness, Bob's daughter (and formerly of hit 80's band Toto Coelo) was an absolute star for us and gladly arranged for Bob to be with us for a couple of hours one Wintery afternoon in Soho. Bob was brilliant and really threw himself into the project. We even had time for a chat with the first ever James Bond (he confirmed it for us in person!) and all were sad to see Ros and Bob leave the studio.
Of course we have a hit list of presenters we hope to work with (subject to agreements) in the not too distant future including Des O'Connor, Bruce Forsyth, Noel Edmonds, Ant and Dec and Les Dennis. We're looking both forward and back, to old classics, and new developments, to bring you both, the memories, and the excitement that only gameshows can offer.
We'd like to thank all the presenters, their agents and the crews and staff that produce the shows, that we've met and worked with over the past two years. We'd also like to thank Paolo and Rob at zoomedia for their contribution to the site design and development of our WDTV logo; a celebrity in it's own right.
