T h e   L e t t e r   L e t t e r   R o u n d
        
        All obscure game show references are better than none, even if they
are only things like naming your letter column. At the death, I got one letter
for publication this time. Evidently you'd rather have your letters answered
by Stretchy doing his half-baked James Hardy impression than by me. Never
mind! JOHN COLLEGE in EDINBURGH writes:
> I see you have started a sub-zine in O.M.R. and as a fellow sub-zine
> editor I feel it is my duty to rustle together a few orders for your new
> games. [...] By the way, can I just make sure that you are not Tony Saib
> in disguise? He calls his railway company in RR GIT, you see. I would hate
> to think he was trying to recapture his youth by pretending to be half
> his age.
Last time I looked, I was still me. But you're never alone with schizophrenia.
Thanks for the letter, John. (I won't be thanking everyone individually for
their letters, but when you only get one...)



    Hey! It's the biggest game-show related space filler in the world ever!

        Well, if you will leave me space to fill on my lettercol, expect me
to do something naughty and baleful with it eg long and self-indulgent game
show articles. It's either that or letters. Well, that and/or letters, really.
        The most recent new game show on TV in the UK as I write (the day
before MidCon) is Channel Four's WANTED. Descriptions of "a cross between
Treasure Hunt and The Running Man" are rampant, and not far from the truth.
Three teams of two Runners roam the country trying to avoid being caught;
each team has an experienced, trained, savvy Tracker after them. Britain is
divided up into a grid of 10km x 10km squares, and Runners must move at least
one square a day. Once they leave a square, they can't return to it. Every
day they have a task to perform bringing them into the public eye (like
washing car windscreens, going to see a film, or talking to staff at a
football stadium). For every day they perform their task they win 1,000
pounds. While the live show takes place on Wednesday evening they have to
stay in the 'phone box of their choice. Should the Tracker catch them live
on the show, the Runners are out the game and lose that week's prizes.
       What an outrageous concept! This is truly the most original and
innovative idea for a TV show for years (actually, since Interceptor in '89).
Thankfully, the way they've realised the show, it fulfils its potential.
The show works. It starts with introductions to the Runners and Trackers
and a recap of the rules. The main part of the show deals with the teams
proving they have performed their weekly tasks with film evidence, and also
footage of the Trackers' chase after them. This is fascinating, though they
often don't show enough of the detective work. Much of the rest of the time
is spent with the Trackers trying to find them in person - going through
towns scouring the cityscape as they search. Richard Littlejohn, a talk show
host of note, hosts, and it's quite a tough assignment for him as the show
is live and all slips go straight out to the public.
        However, it's quite an ugly show, based on fear all the way through.
The Runners are afraid of getting caught all through the week, with mainly
their wits to survive on. And frequently they quake and tremble in their
phone box for the hour - you can see and hear them looking between edgy
and petrified... but powerless. Still, the potential rewards are high, at
a possible thousand pounds a day for up to eight weeks with good choice of
hiding-places. Littlejohn was very abrasive on the first show to the point
of being callous; one team dropped out even by the end of the first week,
affected by a combination of influenza and paranoia, and he rubbed it in to
a great degree, saying they "bottled out" and "threw in the towel". Lots of 
people in the UK TV related areas of the Internet noted this and complained,
and in the second show, he was a lot less brazen.
        The show looks and sounds wonderful. It takes place in a circular
studio with an audience above (if I can get tickets for it live, I'm going)
and the air is of an intelligence organisation. Technology is well used and
the graphics, motifs and style are consistent and neat. The theme tune is
understated but appropriate. There are lots of neat touches, and the voice-
over man has a voice you'll recognise from lots of adverts. After just two
shows, Wanted has become a must-watch in our flat. Definitely the show of the
year for me, and well up there with the very best of them. However it must
say something about our society when we have a show which bills itself as a
24-hour-a-day 7-day-a-week manhunt, and the public lap it up...