It had been planned that people would meet at a certain pub close to
the studios beforehand, but I missed out on this due to last-minute packing
taking rather longer than planned, and having to carry very heavy bags. At
least I did get to the studios in the end, and more or less on time, too. It's
usual for there to be a warm-up man in residence at most TV shows being filmed
to jolly the crowd along, get them warmed up and keep them entertained, as
the process of making TV shows is very start-stop-start-stop; this was the
exception to the rule, being a live show with only two commercial breaks as
interruptions. The warm-up man for that show was rather good.
        Now it may or may not surprise you (depending on how many times you've
met me in person) to know that I tend to get fairly "into" a show that I've
gone to see live, and tend to happily play along, be part of the act and so on.
Even when this is just reacting to the warm-up man. More than once before I
have rather over-reacted to the warm-up man, even to the extent that other
people thought I had been "planted" in advance as part of the act. 
        Anyway, said warm-up man was getting us in the mood to really react to
the show, to applaud and cheer like crazy. He invited us first to give a
polite round of applause - "a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10", then a more animated
5, then "a 7 with sex, a sexy seven". This instruction confused me. I decided
that what he was after was a male version of THAT scene in "When Harry met
Sally" (over a backdrop of applause, of course). I'm not sure if that was the
right decision. I did this fairly loud and notably, and the warm-up man
picked up on it, impressed by my lack of shame, singling me out for banter.
The next instruction was for "a 10/10 with sex AND LOVE". I improvised this
to be interpreted as if I were stuck in an earthquake, and looking at all the
eyes on me, I did a comedy mock stagger-back-and-faint at the climax of the
applause. Which seemed to go down quite well at the time.
        That was, I suppose, more or less that (thank goodness that it wasn't
being filmed, really) except there were some knowing glances and references
to enthusiasm a little later on, and after the show, when he led the audience
in applause for the last time, clapping everyone and everything, he made a
point of calling for one for "The Man Who Had The Orgasm", as I became known.
A repeat performance will NOT be forthcoming (no pun intended) at Manorcon.
        After the show, a good number of the Web site users gathered together
led by Jane Hewland (who owns the firm - Hewland International - who made the
show), keen to meet us all in person, who gave us a nice quick tour behind
the scenes, despite herself taking part in the end-of-series relaxations. She
had a good chat about just what was available on the Internet, as she comes
from an Executive Producer background, not an Internet User one, and ssemed
pleased to be able to talk to genuine fans of the show. I also got a good
number of relevant signatures on the back of my T-shirt (one which I had had
specially made with the Wanted logo on the front), a fine souvenir of the day.
        It is considered unlikely that we'll get a series 3 of Wanted at the
end of the day, as it was expensive to make and got poor ratings, which is a
real shame. Then again, Noel's House Party is the sort of show which gets
good ratings, so I think Wanted has neatly ascended to play a part in the
pantheon of "cult TV". It'll also have the distinction of being one of very
few game shows to engender a sense of community among its fans. Wanted was an
experience which transcended the show; it was the show AND the web site AND
the friendships made AND the in-jokes and so much more. It'll be missed... and
it'll be one of those shows we come back to fifteen years down the line and
say "eh, does anyone remember that Wanted show?". Second best show ever.

        While it's patently obvious that at the end of the day I'd be happiest
writing not so much a games zine as a game show zine, modulo my Whittle
report on the next page, GIT is essentially a games zine, believe it or not.
That said, those on the Internet keen on the game and quiz show genre may be
interested in taking part in my latest venture, an e-mail mailing list for
discussion of the field. If you want to take part, send e-mail to:
                          majordomo@ox.compsoc.org.uk
which is a message consisting solely of the words
                               subscribe ukgs-l
and more information will be sent automatically.