Has Strictly Saved Itself?

0:08Hello and welcome to this episode of the Restless Entertainment Questions and Answers edition. I'm Marina Hyde. And I'm Richard Osman. Hello Richard, now how are you? Yeah, not too bad. You? I'm doing very well, thank you. I'm doing very well. I've got a question that relates almost to things that have only relatively recently occurred. It's about strictly. We're going straight in, are we? No, listen, I get it. It's been a tough new year, all of that. I get it. Let's just go for it. This is the new me. I'm super efficient. I've been in question training. I, as you see there was a slight stumble in the intro but otherwise I think I'm acing it Excellent, this is 2025 Marina She's a triple threat She's a quadruple threat So Strictly you say Sorry, I said I've got a question about Strictly Would you mind answering it?

0:58Oh I'd love to Tom Clark says Do you think the positivity of this year's Strictly has effectively put out the fire caused by the recent scandals? Huh, well that's nice That's like an opinion question isn't it? I do, I think that the scandal was very, very short-lived in the end and it didn't seem to catch fire. And so I don't think it took a lot. But this year Strictly did remind us of what it can be at its very best, I think. And, you know, certainly Chris winning gets you an awful lot of plus points. You know, it's a very beautiful piece of television. It was very, very life-affirming, very, very heartwarming.

1:32They did actually have to pull off a perfect 10 version of Strictly and they 100 % nailed it. But the thing is with Strictly is they often do. Yeah. You know, they often, you know, there's so many finals, you know, just, I mean, it's not so long ago, Rose Aileen Ellis was winning in an absolutely extraordinary way. You know, it's something that they're very, very good at. But yeah, it's one of those things. Normally, if there's a crisis on a show, there will be story after story after story after story in the tabloids or, you know, in the broadsheets. And it didn't quite seem to happen. with Strictly.

2:10There didn't seem to be that long tale of stories or problems that people were having. And I think that it was fairly quickly overshadowed by the excitement about the new series. I don't know, what's your take on that? I think the report drew a line under it to some, there was no sort of terrible smoking gun and I don't think that lots of, some things were upheld, but most of it wasn't. I think that took some of a lot of the heat out of it, actually. Yeah. And there may well be more to come. It's the truth, because often, you know, these things can come out at unusual times. But I think that they seem to have weathered that storm.

2:51Certainly, I think they showed what can be great about Strictly. One hopes they will take the complaints very, very seriously. I think they would have taken so much of that on board. I mean, as we once talked about on the show, there is a dissonance between people who are professional dancers and have trained incredibly hard and often incredibly brutally their whole lives. And people who are just sort of coming into it and who feel that you have to say you're on a happy journey. And then sometimes it can feel slightly different, certainly on down days. And clearly there will be better processes in place for dealing with lots of that and for making sure that everybody feels happy and supported.

3:29But it's definitely a question of has it put it to bed? No, because if something else comes up again, it immediately gets reignited. But it certainly made people love Strictly again. And if nothing else comes up again, it will soon go into the bottom drawer, I think. But if there are other smoking guns, then absolutely, they're not out of the woods. But it's at the moment, they don't appear to be forthcoming. Marina, David Kenner has a question for you. There have been lots of obvious and drastic celebrity transformations recently. Lindsay Lohan, Christina Aguilera, Brad Pitt, Shania Twain, Kate Beckinsale, etc.

4:07How do these get planned and executed? Are celebrities allowed to make the decision to get a facelift and do it of their own volition? Or are agents, publicists and managers involved? Good question, David. You know, I'm sure many of those above-mentioned names would say they have never done anything other than drink a lot of water. But the answer is that it's actually as old as the surgery that basically permits it. I mean, Marilyn Monroe, her agent told her to get her nose. I think she had her chin done as well. Agents and managers have always suggested things to clients and they don't even care.

4:41But I must say that stars themselves are perfectly insecure enough and feel that they have to do things that, you know, as we talked about on previous episodes. it's very difficult when your face is your fortune. It's very, very difficult to detach from not doing things. I think sometimes people, a lot of people do it and some people think it makes them less good at acting because they're just not able to use their face in the same way. I mean, I often think with someone like Nicole Kidman, I mean, I wonder why the reason that she now constantly plays an ice queen with lots of secrets is that she has, how to put this, She has acquired a face that hides emotion.

5:22She's got a resting ice queen face. Yeah, so it's difficult. It depends what type of actor you are. Equally, you get people. I never know. I mean, whoever organised the complete overhaul of Demi Moore, there was a point in her career where she did it and it completely revitalised her career. I mean, she's now starring in that sort of... Last year, she starred in that sort of grim horror satire, really good, actually, the substance about this sort of thing. but she oh my goodness she had a complete transformation finally I once asked someone who knows where all these sort of people are and I said that who was the person who did that is amazing um I suppose someone in America and he said oh no no he's in Regent's Park now I said what's he doing in Regent's Park and he said well there's there is money in LA but there's not proper money the proper money is in London now really I'm afraid that the proper money has taken flight in the last couple of years.

6:15In general, your agent might suggest things, and they do often, and they do suggest it. Even with young stars, I noticed that that buckle fat removal, which is the removal beneath the cheeks, where, I mean, there are a lot of young stars in Hollywood who have done that. And I find it really very alarming and very sad. And they look very, very gaunt and ill. I would like to think that the agent doesn't suggest it as a duty of care, but in general, historically, they might suggest. But most likely it will come, as always, with all of us from the insecure person themselves. But it's become so utterly normalised in LA.

6:56I mean, it's not even a sort of derediction of your duty of care as an agent because... The agent's had it done. You've grown up in that town and that industry and everyone's doing it all the time. So it would sort of seem like a completely normal thing to do. Yes, completely. And, you know, it could be planned. But if they go to somebody bad, that becomes a problem. And you might need to send it to send them to the brilliant person who may no longer be in Regent's Park because the money isn't there anymore. But who will correct the bad work. OK, Richard, shall we have some adverts? No, I don't think so.

7:33I don't think we should. I think we should we should push back. Oh, I'm being told. Sorry, I've got Gary Lineker telling me, yes, we'll go to some adverts. Do what he says, Richard.

7:48Welcome back, everybody. And there is a question that is only for you, Richard. Jack Lowe wants to know, if I wanted to appear on every game show in the UK, would this be permissible, assuming recording schedules didn't clash? Has anyone appeared on more than one game show? And what did they win accumulatively? when you are sort of the the casting director for a quiz show you're looking for all sorts of different things some personality you're looking for you know if you're booking couples you're looking for an interesting vibe between the two of them you're looking for what their general levels of general knowledge might be you're not necessarily looking for the cleverest people you're just looking for a mix but one of the key things will be they will ask you if you've been on other television shows.

8:34So you will always be asked the question. And if you lie, they'll sort of know because the casting people on these shows all know each other. Can I ask, did they always do that? Or in the old days, did people manage to squeak through? I mean, people do still squeak through. If you're launching a brand new quiz show, for example, if you've got a big new daytime quiz on BBC One and no one's ever heard of it, you're launching it, you were almost certainly going to have a few people who've been on quiz shows before because you you can't be quite so picky you know you and you want to have people who are smart you want to have people who've been through this before so if you want to get on a new quiz show you can absolutely do it and there's lots of examples of people who've done it but by and large if you've been on another quiz show you will be at the bottom of the list when it comes to being on this quiz show you try and have people who've not been on things before there's a whole other world of quiz shows though which is the university challenge mastermind only connect side of things where the idea is that you are almost a professional quizzer the idea is that this is something that you are very very good at like a sport and so if you have been on mastermind it's absolutely not going to stop you being on only connect and if you've been on university challenge it's not going to stop you being on mastermind quite the opposite you know but those are different those are not what sort of entertainment-y things, those are who are the best quizzes.

9:57Mark Labette is the beast on The Chase. He's been on University Challenge. He's been on Mastermind. He's been on Countdown. Countdown, another one. Just, you know, it's not about getting new people. It's about getting the best people you can find. He's been on Grand Slam, which was sort of almost like a World Cup of quiz show champions. He's been on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He's been on Only Connect. So he's been on all sorts of things. And the record that I can find is a maths teacher from Ripon called Cornelius O'Donovan. Oh, my God. Surely in your next book. Come on. Come on. He's appeared on 31 TV quizzes.

10:37Wow. Yeah. He won£12 ,500, Cornelius O'Donovan, including£1 ,000 from Two Tribes. He's sadly no longer with us, Cornelius. So 31 is where he's going to end it. But that's an impressive run. So he obviously found some clever way to beat the system. Natural charm, I imagine. Natural charm, I imagine, yeah. I love that stuff in Quiz, you know, the James Graham thing about the millionaire scandal. That whole community of people who try to get people on Millionaire. Yeah. And they had that whole sort of, you really got a sense of the sort of Quizz's underground community. Yeah. Some of which was just people just exchanging tips of how to get on these shows.

11:21and some of it just seemed to be slightly more nefarious. Yes, and with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Of course, there isn't a casting process. That's the point of it. There's ways and means of qualifying. But any show like Pointless or The Chase or any of those shows where you apply to be on, you will go along for a day and do a kind of rehearsal day and they will put you through your paces. But the absolute single thing that's at the top of the list is have you been on another quiz? If you've been on a smaller quiz that people don't really know, you'll probably be all right. But certainly if you've been on the chase, you probably wouldn't be on Pointless and vice versa.

11:54So there are things in place. But that world of professional quizzing, the Eckheads University Challenge, Only Connect World, that is different. That's like saying, you know, Cole Palmer plays, you know. Those guys are artists. Yeah, those guys are artists. Exactly that. It's like sport. They're the best at what they do. So shows that need the best at what they do, we'll look at those people. But yeah, you couldn't, I'm afraid. Jack, I'm so sorry. Marina, Simon Fee Grade has a question for you. For years I've wondered about and been irritated by film trailers being so similarly structured as it makes very different films seem very samey.

12:29I remember reading how there are agencies that make trailers and that they do indeed work from a template. Why do filmmakers and studios accept this? And how happy is Richard that the Thursday Murder Club film would undoubtedly fed into this trailer sausage machine? A bit of that question is for me, it seemed, at the end. It is some of it. Okay, well, Simon, basically trailers are advertising. and it may you know you may love the idea that they're an art form but they they they are very expensive to try and get into people's sight lines one way or the other and so they need to be concise and they need to sell the product which in this case is the film so conventions in those situations are really helpful and we talked a bit about the um the you know the trailer voiceover before which has now sort of i've noticed that that's sort of gone out of trailers now and you have these very quick cuts between things that's a big part of not putting any spoilers in because people have become so lots of trailers now the sort of template that you're talking about simon you see a lot of quick cuts between things you think i wonder how all this relates and it kind of feels mysterious and like you might want to watch it but people are so fussy about spoilers now that they're not able to do trailers in the same way that they used to you'd often in the old days see a trailer and think yeah well i think i've seen the film now yeah people go nuts about that now and there's a huge online pushback events all of it so but first of all i should say that the person who is making the trailer is not the person who as you say who is who is making the film like in the case of thursday murder club chris chris columbus will not be directing the trailer for um the thursday murder club someone who's bread and butter is directing trailers does it martin scorsese i think is doing it yeah i think yeah of course richard has got someone incredible you know but actually um and i know i mean i've had i know directors who said to me i was so angry you know they took half they basically took a really funny scene in my movie and they they used half of it so they kind of ruined my joke in the trailer but they didn't care about that because they are just advertising a product and the studios use the same people they use the same people to do voiceover that's why they do get a bit of a look but ultimately in the same way that we talk about how lots of those shows in the morning, in morning television, whatever, they have a very similar look and they tell you about what's coming up.

14:47It's because that template, people are familiar with it and they know where they are and they want to know where they are. I'm thinking of a trailer that, I'm trying to think of a trailer I saw recently that didn't follow those rules. Oh yeah, okay, I've got one. That film that didn't even end up getting a theatre release in the end with Brad Pitt and George Clooney called Wolves. I saw the trailer of that in the cinema and I had, and that was someone trying to be clever. I had genuinely no idea what genre of the film was, what it was about, anything at all. I could see that there were two people who were dressed the same and they were George Colleen and Brad Pitt.

15:20I think maybe I was supposed to laugh. It wasn't at all clear to me whether it was a comedy or something blacker or it was so unclear. And that's because whoever did that thought they were being really, really clever and they should have sent it to the normal slice and dice house where they'd done a trailer and then I would have had some clue. One of the first uses of AI in movies, when people were talking about AI and we didn't think of it as a sort of malevolent thing or a worrying thing now, 20th Century Fox had an AI programme that used to tell them what audience would most like to see a particular film based on its trailer to help them with what trailers of their own movies to screen before that film.

15:59It was so like, yeah. So they used to do that. I am a big fan of trailers where you know what you're getting and I'm sorry if that's a boring advert and um Simon then I think it's better than me sitting there thinking what on earth is this film about of wolves I'm not going to see it as it turned out even the the releases thought we can't put this in theatres but I didn't know what it was at all and you need to know yeah it is a product you are just being sold something as I you know as I say a 30 second spot is so expensive and also um you haven't got time to make the trailer if you're the director they're asking you for shots for the trailer and there are now several stages of trailer for all movies they'll have the teaser trailer and then you'll see what the fan reaction is and then it'll be retooled and you'll have the next one so it's really someone's full-time job to do all this and they need to follow conventions and in terms of Thursday murder club yeah I couldn't agree more is the truth a 30 second unbelievably snappily cut trailer which can be seen everywhere is such an incredible advert not just for the film but from my perspective for the book as well and you find when uh books come out as movies it's the it's the trailer that really shifts extra copies much more than the film itself so yeah i i don't want an esoteric kind of just like a fox hiding behind a bush and like a whisper on the wind for pensioners solving a murder yeah as i had no idea what the brad pitt and george clooney film was about if we don't realize that by the end of that trailer then then we've got a problem fan reaction and I'm going to be part of it will push back and they will have to do a new trailer yeah exactly when we realise conventionally what the movie is about yeah if it doesn't have Helen Mirren saying something cool then send it back then I'll be in the YouTube comments thank you so much for all your questions do please keep sending them in to therestorsentertainment at gmail.com and other than that I think we will see you next Tuesday See you next Tuesday, everyone.

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