In short
Podcast Episode Notes
Podcast Title
The Rest Is Entertainment
Episode Title
The First Rule of Taskmaster
Episode Description In this episode, Richard Osman and Marina Hyde answer listener questions on various topics related to TV, movies, and entertainment, including the filming of bath scenes, the intricacies of the show *Taskmaster*, and the nature of celebrity biographies.
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Key Concepts Discussed
- Awards Season Insights
- Effort Behind Awards: The process of winning an award involves extensive campaigning.
- Industry Dynamics: The mechanics behind awards are complex, often requiring significant behind-the-scenes work.
- Filming for *Taskmaster*
- Filming Schedule: Tasks are filmed on separate days to prevent contestants from interacting prior to the studio edition.
- Production Strategy: Focus on individual filming ensures contestants remain unaware of each other’s performances, fostering genuine reactions.
- Task Execution: Contestants typically perform multiple tasks in one day, with a focus on spontaneity.
- Bath Scene Cinematography
- Real Water vs. Props: Actual water is often used, with mechanisms to keep the temperature warm; bubbles can be edited in post-production.
- Temperature Management: Keeping actors comfortable is a major consideration, often leading to crew discomfort due to heating.
- The Mystery of Celebrity Biographies
- Author Biographies: Discussion on whether knowing personal details about authors affects the appreciation of their work.
- Personal Enigma: Some argue that a certain mystique can enhance the allure of writers and actors.
- Military Equipment in Film
- Hollywood and Military: The U.S. Department of Defense has protocols for loaning military hardware to film productions, which can be revoked based on real-world needs.
- Impact of Global Events: Ongoing military conflicts can limit available resources for filmmakers, leading to creative adaptations.
- Favorite Quiz Shows
- Quiz Show Formats: Richard discusses several quiz formats he admires and would have liked to create, including:
- *Million Pound Drop*: Simple mechanics with engaging gameplay.
- *Weakest Link*: The concept of voting contestants off.
- *Family Fortunes*: Inclusive and endlessly replicable format that allows for broad audience participation.
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Key Takeaways
- Production Insights: The behind-the-scenes work in television and film is extensive and often unseen by the audience.
- Creative Challenges: Filmmakers face many logistical challenges, whether in managing temperature during filming or negotiating with military entities.
- Audience Engagement: Formats that allow viewers to participate and relate to the content make for compelling television.
- Public Perception: The public's understanding of creators can influence their reception of the creators' works.
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Additional Information
- Episode Sponsor: Octopus Energy, highlighted for its awards and long-standing reputation in the energy sector.
- Memberships Available: Listeners can join The Rest Is Entertainment Club for exclusive content and perks.
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Conclusion This episode of *The Rest Is Entertainment* provides an entertaining look into the intricacies of TV and film production, along with thoughtful insights into the nature of fame and creativity, making it a valuable listen for fans of the entertainment industry.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOIntroduction to the Episode
1:12 to 2:10
Hosts Marina Hyde and Richard Osman welcome listeners and set the stage for questions.
“car shopping shouldn't feel like preparing for a marathon of paperwork That's why Carvana makes buying and financing your car easy.”
The Taskmaster Questions
2:10 to 2:36
The hosts dive straight into audience questions about Taskmaster.
Filming the Tasks in Taskmaster
2:36 to 6:30
Richard discusses how tasks are filmed in Taskmaster, emphasizing the unique filming schedule.
“When this is AI, that's literally, we'll start it.”
Challenges of Bath Scenes in Film
6:30 to 11:00
The hosts answer a question about how bath scenes are filmed and the challenges involved.
“I would not see Joe or Catherine Ryan, who is in mine, or Doc Brown, who is in mine, or John at any point before we go into the studio, apart from when you do the group tasks.”
The Enigma of Artists
11:00 to 14:00
Discussion on whether knowing about an artist's life affects the enjoyment of their work.
“And so almost always the crew will be sweating while you're filming one of those things.”
Exploring the Mystery of Writers
14:00 to 18:06
The discussion revolves around the complexities of knowing personal details about writers and how it affects the appreciation of their work.
“And it would be like, you know, it would be honestly people, it's not literally Michael Palin, but it'd be like people, you know, Derek Nimmo, whoever it was.”
Military Equipment in Hollywood Productions
20:14 to 26:04
A detailed discussion on how military conflicts impact the availability of military equipment for film productions, and the agreements filmmakers must navigate.
“I suppose it was a question for either of us.”
Creative Influence of Quiz Shows
26:04 to 28:00
The conversation shifts towards the creative aspects of quiz shows, discussing formats and successful shows that the speakers admire or wish they had created.
“Once you've got it down, it just works and works and works.”
Analysis of Game Show Formats
28:00 to 30:13
Explore the complexities and appeal of various game show formats, including Million Pound Drop and Weakest Link.
“and suddenly things get complicated and you've got 50 different lifelines and this, that or the other.”
The Joy of Family Fortunes
30:13 to 32:01
Discover why Family Fortunes is considered a timeless and inclusive game show format.
“than those things, but I just think as a format, I love things with polling and stuff like that.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Richard Osman:This episode is brought to you by Octopus Energy.
0:03Marina Hyde:Now, it is awards season. Everyone is wondering who's going to clean up. And we tend to think awards are about that one big moment, like, oh, my goodness, that one night, that speech. I can't believe I've won.
0:12Richard Osman:But the effort that goes into winning an award.
0:15Marina Hyde:Everyone going for one of those big movie awards. It's not a coincidence that Academy members or whatever are saying, oh, did you see that thing? Yeah, I did. It was really good. there is a remorseless many months campaign and there are tens of people working on every single
0:30Richard Osman:films awards campaign i thought you're gonna say tens of thousands no no there are tens yeah there
0:36Marina Hyde:there are tens but that's quite a lot when you think of like one and it's a full-time job we
0:40Richard Osman:mention this only because we are announcing our presenting partnership with the lovely people at octopus energy who have just won the witch recommended provider of the year for the ninth time in a row and that is not something you get just by which is hard to win which is hard to win which is hard to win which is hard to win but nine in a row i would say that makes octopus energy the merrill streep of the business oh yeah that's they're the merrill they're the absolute merrill i call them merrill energy that's what i call them this podcast is brought to you by carvana
1:12Marina Hyde:car shopping shouldn't feel like preparing for a marathon of paperwork That's why Carvana makes buying and financing your car easy. From start to finish, search thousands of vehicles with great prices. All online, all on your time. And when you're ready, your new car shows up right at your door. It doesn't get better than that. Buy your car the easy way on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply.
1:38Richard Osman:I'm not an astronaut.
1:39Marina Hyde:I don't need an astronaut.
1:41Richard Osman:Audiences have spoken. Project Hail Mary is an awe-inspiring masterpiece.
1:46Marina Hyde:So, I met an alien.
1:49Richard Osman:If you've fallen out of love with going to the movies, this one will bring you back. Alien! Ryan Gosling in the first must-see movie of 2026. Project Hail Mary, rated PG-13, may be inappropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters March 20th.
2:09Marina Hyde:hello and welcome to this episode of the rest is entertainment questions and answers edition
2:14Richard Osman:i'm marina hyde and i'm richard osman a good day everybody good day marina hello how are you yeah really well i'm so up for some questions yeah that's good yeah i mean i'm in answer mode i'm going right in with one on on on taskmaster we're not so we're not like no pleasantries
2:30Marina Hyde:well we just had some pleasantries you said i'm in question mode do you know what you're
2:34Richard Osman:Absolutely right. That's on me.
2:36Marina Hyde:Proceed straight to questions. Okay.
2:38Richard Osman:Proceed straight to questions. When this is AI, that's literally, we'll start it. I'll go proceed straight to questions.
2:45Marina Hyde:This is AI. I haven't done the show for weeks.
2:49Richard Osman:You know what? I thought you were getting better.
2:54Marina Hyde:Right, Richard. Mark would like to ask something about Taskmaster. How do they film the tasks in Taskmaster? Do they film all the tasks with each contestant over one day? or do they focus on filming all the contestants doing a particular task on a particular day?
3:08Richard Osman:I think that's a very astute question because in any other form of television, you would absolutely set up the one task and have everybody do that task at the same time because the cameras are set up, you know, you've got a location or whatever it is. So you would always do that. But Taskmaster, absolutely, that is not what they do. and the reason they don't is they don't really want you to meet at any point before you go into the studio so you'll be filming taskmaster tasks for maybe i mean i did an early series where you did fewer tasks but so i maybe did eight days of filming and it's a lot isn't it it is quite a lot
3:48Marina Hyde:yeah yeah you then wait i always think it when i'm watching it this is well these days they must
3:53Richard Osman:you absolutely loads. I mean, I had it easy. I get all the glamour of Taskmaster without having to do most of the hard work. So you film maybe sort of eight days worth of tasks. You then wait a couple of months because everything has to be edited and put into order and other people have to do theirs before you go into the studio and you watch it all on that big screen. But they do not have people doing it at the same time. Purely that thing of they don't want you to talk to your fellow contestants at any point about it. And actually, everyone's very, very good about that. So, you know, in the kind of two months leading up to my taskmaster, you know, I know John Richardson fairly well.
4:31Richard Osman:And any time we would meet, we would be like, we mustn't say anything about what we've done. Even when you've just done the task, you know, you've done disastrously badly. And you just all you want to do is say, oh, my God, can you believe that thing? When we met the mayor, was that the worst thing you've ever done in your life? So you would do eight days. And on that day, so you might be down at the Taskmaster House and you would do four or five tasks on the same day. So it would be venue based, really. So you'll go along, you'll sit in the tiny little dressing room. And then at some point there will be a knock on the door.
5:07Richard Osman:And you'll be like, oh, no. And it'd be lovely, Andy Cartwright or Andy Devonshire. And they'll say, OK, Richard, are you ready? And you go, well, not really, because I don't know what I'm going to do. I've no idea where you're taking me. Are you ready? Yes, sure, I'm ready. And then you walk into a room, there'll be like some contraption there. And you're like, oh no. And then there'll be Alex Horne and he'll say, hello Richard. And you're like, I've said before, it's my least favorite bit of Taskmaster is I really, really like Alex so much. But when you walk into a room and you want to just talk to him and he's in Taskmaster assistant mode and you go, oh, everything's on the task.
5:45Richard Osman:and you go no Alex I just wanted to talk to you about how are you have you had a nice day what did you have for breakfast okay we're doing a task you know no this is awful it's like sort of if you've got like there'd be people here uh who've had distant parents yeah and it feels exactly like that which is all I want is the love of my father I've got I'm getting the task yips I can't I don't know if I can do this and I'm not getting it uh so you will do it that way around is the truth so So, you know, each person, I'll do a day where I do six tasks, then, you know, the next day, John Richardson, I'll do a day where he does six tasks.
6:19Richard Osman:And so they will stagger it in that way. But no, it's not one of those ones where, you know, the moment I've knocked a toy fox out of a tree, Joe Wilkinson comes and tries to knock the same fox out of the same tree. I would not see Joe or Catherine Ryan, who is in mine, or Doc Brown, who is in mine, or John at any point before we go into the studio, apart from when you do the group tasks. and when you do the group tasks that's like my favorite bit because because there is a alone there is a sort of weird loneliness to it you have to trust the process a little bit and you trust you definitely trust the team because they're brilliant and you know so many tasks are so good some of them you're like so you absolutely trust that they know what they're doing secondly you know it is better if you haven't discussed it with the others you know for a fact that it is better if you don't but you are you you go in there you are by yourself you walk into a room You're surrounded by, you know, this crew just going, what's this guy going to be doing?
7:14Richard Osman:This is going to be amazing. And you are by yourself at all times. But that's why that show is so great, because you get the joy of that show. It's firstly seeing different people doing the same thing in different ways. But seeing people's absolute first reaction to their competitors doing something much better than them, or doing something much worse than them, or finding a cheat that you could have done that would have saved you so much time. A question for you, AI Marina, from Georgia Cook. Georgia says, I have a question about bath scenes in TV shows and films. How are those actually filmed?
7:48Richard Osman:There are usually lots of bubbles, so I'm curious whether there's some kind of synthetic foam or blanket prop that can be arranged for coverage, or if the tub is really filled with water. If it is real water, how do productions keep actors warm when multiple takes are needed?
8:01Marina Hyde:Okay, very good, Georgia. There is no such thing as like a sort of synthetic bath bubble carpet that they kind of lay on top of a bath. Well, for various reasons, which I'll get to, you don't actually need that. But in terms of the water, if there are bubbles, if sometimes they're not bubbles in bath scenes, they always have to, because the actor will be in and out of the bath a lot of times during the takes, they will always mark on the side of the bath where it goes to be. Oh, that's an impossibility. No, just the water. That's if there's no bubbles, right? Oh, there's no bubbles. That's if there's no bubbles.
8:32Marina Hyde:That is not an impossibility. And actually, what actors will tell you is that, funnily enough, as long as the room is warm, that's the problem. So they often will have so many heaters and everyone else will be really sweating because it doesn't particularly matter. You don't have to keep putting hot water in. I mean, if there are really long scenes done in a bath, they may find a way. And this has happened. They find ways of sort of heating the tub so it sort of stays warm. But in general, people will tell you it's the outside temperature that really gets you. So in terms of bubbles, if you go and watch that scene, do you remember in the big short where they like Margot Robbie, you know, the financial crisis and the people who shorted that.
9:06Marina Hyde:and so when they want someone to explain sort of subprime loans and all sorts of things like that they get margot margot robbie in a bath tub to do it and she's sitting there she said it was one of her greatest days of filming ever they gave her vintage champagne all day took about half a day in some house in malibu the one thing i will say about bubbles is that they're one of the easier things to kind of make look the same in post people aren't they take really yeah this is not a sort of very detailed piece of cgi to do so you can make it look the same and the bubbles kind of move a bit and or you can just make them look the same so you can just take bubbles from here and
9:40Richard Osman:put them on there because you can do that you can join bubbles together you can join bubbles together
9:44Marina Hyde:bathroom scenes in general are very very interesting and why we have them there's something about it's they're sort of the bathroom is a sort of taboo space it's supposed to be a place of safety which is why they're often in horror movies yeah um it's in fact it was you couldn't show it psycho is really shocking not not because of everything that happened to poor or Janet Leigh in the shower, but because they showed a lube for the first time ever in film because it was in the bathroom and even more wild, she flushed it. So this, she throws something down at any way it's input. That's one thing.
10:18Marina Hyde:Obviously, that's sort of sexual as well, the sort of promise of what lies beneath in the, you know, that's why Margot Robbie's there with all her bubbles like that. But there is a huge amount of the idea of vulnerability. That's, it's almost always, you know, there's terror, you're stuck, you're, or opulence. There's Al Pacino. I went back and thought, oh, I must have a quick look at this bath scene. Like Al Pacino in Scarface has a huge bath with a lot of bubbles. But actually, the bubbles don't move that much.
10:49Richard Osman:Okay.
10:49Marina Hyde:And they wouldn't have had the same post-production techniques then. So they're slightly better at staying, the bubbles, than you think. But it's the water level and it's the cold that gets people. And so almost always the crew will be sweating while you're filming one of those things.
11:04Richard Osman:And it's incredibly hard to film in a real bathroom, firstly, because they're quite small. And secondly, there's loads of mirrors everywhere. And the mirror is the...
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11:12Marina Hyde:They almost always construct it. And if you see how they do it, they almost always construct it. And that's another reason why it's absolutely freezing, because it's in a drafty studio. And the thing about all sound stages that I've ever been on is they have two speeds. Either you are absolutely freezing and you're like in a refrigerator box, or suddenly it will get to April and you'll be so boiling and that's it. There was never a time, there was never a temperate five minutes. It will just switch over one day and the temperature will never be right. So they have to, but they adjust it all for the actors.
11:44Richard Osman:It'd be worth talking at some point to a cinematographer about mirror shooting because occasionally you'll see films and you think it is an impossibility that I'm seeing that angle of that person in that mirror without seeing the camera that is filming that person in that mirror.
11:58Marina Hyde:Typically many times, you know, yeah, I agree. it's very very yeah we can we'll do that if anyone wants to ask about mirrors we can talk about that another time i've got a question from lux adams who says on my recommendation lux has been reading lunches with orson which is a fantastic book which is about henry jagland the film producer and director used to have lunch with orson welles towards the end of his life and he just recorded them all and then eventually published the um the the tapes as transcripts anyway orson welles said in one of those lunches that he hated author biographies biographies because he said i don't want to keep hearing that dickens was a lousy son of a bitch i'm very glad i don't know anything about shakespeare as a man do you agree says lux are
12:38Richard Osman:actors directors and writers better off as enigmas that's like a think piece question isn't it um firstly great name yes uh lux yes i think sometimes you know i was i was weirdly i was reading some Philip Larkin the other day. And you can pick all sorts of different articles at Larkin that will tell you he's the worst man in the world or he wasn't the worst man in the world. And I choose to only read those ones that tell me that he was okay. Because that must mean that it affects me if I'm reading his work, if I think that he was a difficult or irascible or troublesome character you know his work resonates more with me if I feel there's some fellow feeling so I think in general and you know when when you work in television particularly there are some programs which are spoiled because you know some of the people who do it and oh in telly a lot you've had issues with them where you think that they don't treat people well or something like that and it makes it makes it much harder for you to enjoy their work so i think in general yes it is one of those things that like watching a horror movie through your fingers that you can if there's a if there's an artist you particularly like a writer you particularly like you can just by the vibe of a headline work out if you want to read something about them or from the blurb on the back of a uh you know a biography you know if there's for example i love michael frayne the writer so let's talk about michael frayne if someone's written a biography of michael frayne uh and on the back it said you know an intimate portrait of one of our great artists uh and where he gets his inspiration from i think great i can read that if it says well i think we all thought that michael frayne was a good guy but let me tell you i think well i wouldn't read that by the way the day mail
14:35Marina Hyde:They used to have a Saturday, almost like a recurring Saturday feature that would always begin like, he was beloved by millions. And it would be like, you know, it would be honestly people, it's not literally Michael Palin, but it'd be like people, you know, Derek Nimmo, whoever it was. And then they just absolutely, but what that hit was. And you think, do I actually want to? The thing is, I do tend to always want to know, particularly if they're in the past, because it's slightly fascinating. It does inform their work. and you know every now and then you kind of read something and you think i'd rather have not known that i do think that silence is sometimes the most intriguing statement of all and there were there are people like kate moss who never spoke and then suddenly when she started giving interviews it's like oh i think you nothing you've said at all is remotely interesting um and actually when you when you never spoke and we didn't almost know what you sounded like and you existed as an elimatic and chameleon-like image you were much more interesting than when i had to listen to you about talking about moon baths and taking you know this or that in order to sell your product range something like that is they're often with something i mean you're talking about dickens or whoever it was or awesome wells was talking about dickens the further you go back the less we know so we're always kind of on fairly safe ground with the um with with much older writers who are long
15:54Richard Osman:dead i think writers is particularly tricky because the whole job of a writer is to get out of your way you know the whole job of a writer is not to be present in the text you know that's the that's the gig really with an actor you sort of they're very in your face anyway and that you know they'll often play roles that you know have you know sort of some sort of weird moral duality or something so it's less of an issue I think I think sometimes with writers you know the less I know the better I love Ian McEwan for example he's that's one of the few examples where if I read an interview with Ian McEwan it sort of adds to how much I love his work because you can tell how much he feels and how interested he is in the world so I can sort of see there that I like to read about that person but yeah I think that the job yeah on there's some way you just think that
16:42Marina Hyde:that there's something about the law around them that's actually indivisible and that adds to even if they're sort of monsters you know or very difficult you know I think of someone like Truman Capote or Patricia Highsmith I mean Patricia Highsmith was really a monster but I I love knowing all of that. That's a very good example.
16:57Richard Osman:I think because of what she writes, it really ties into that, you know, the sort of she writes very well about evil and difficult people. You think, oh, at least you know. And someone like Donna Tartt, where the very fact that she's quite enigmatic and hides away really adds to the sort of books that she writes as well. But yeah, I think there are definitely examples where you think, I love this writer so much. I do not want to know about them just in case. I think that would be my role. actors directors and stuff I I think it's slightly different I think writers is is a is a particular thing because you they give so much of their heart and their soul to you I don't mind knowing
17:35Marina Hyde:it all with writers whereas with actors I think I wish I didn't know that you'd said that sorry I mean just that can that can be difficult yeah yeah well I suppose oftentimes when you're reading
17:48Richard Osman:about writers you are possibly reading about them through their own lens and and you would hope that they would express themselves in interesting ways even when they're telling you about themselves which maybe is less so with you know musicians or directors or or something it's a really good question yeah i'm going to be thinking about that a lot me too all right then shall we go to a break i'd love that
18:15Marina Hyde:this episode is brought to you by airbnb now everybody is talking about emerald finnell's Wuthering Heights which is in cinemas right now if you are going to stay on the auction moors because you want to drink in the atmosphere of the film my view is you've got to stay in an Airbnb you've got to stay in a house you cannot stay in a hotel it's not the Wuthering Heights like hotel
18:34Richard Osman:and spa complex waking up to misty views of the moors is very romantic a hotel car park not so much you want to wake up and feel like you're in it a snuggly night in in your own cozy living room with the entire place to yourself.
18:48Marina Hyde:Yeah, proper stone cottage, the fire roaring.
18:51Richard Osman:Yes, Wuthering Heights.
18:52Marina Hyde:Wuthering Heights. You want to be within the world of the thing.
18:55Richard Osman:Speaking of which, they've actually recreated Cathy's bedroom. Airbnb have recreated Cathy's bedroom from Wuthering Heights. It's in Yorkshire.
19:02Marina Hyde:That feels like committing to the bit in a very, very serious way and I'm 100 % here for it.
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20:14Richard Osman:Welcome back, everybody. Margaret Barnsworth. Hello, Margaret. Has a question for you, Marina. I suppose it was a question for either of us. Yeah. It's been apportioned to you by the sorting hat. Margaret says, with all the military conflicts going on in the world right now, is there a shortage of military equipment that Hollywood productions can use to film TV shows and movies? I mean, talk about keeping it topical, Margaret.
20:36Marina Hyde:I think she probably wrote that before there were even fewer pieces of hardware available to film productions, if I can euphemise what's happened over the last week. Actually, funnily enough, we also, this is relevant to our interest because we have the second half of our Top Gun bonus episode for members, which involves a lot of borrowed military hardware and the various conditions attached to it. Remember, you can be a member at the rest of the entertainment.com. Okay, let me talk to you about how this works. in the US it works differently in different countries but primarily I will talk about the US the Department of Defence has something called the Entertainment Media Office and the various different Emo Emo yeah they don't call it that sure and wouldn't get the joke and they cut deals with film productions with Hollywood and they will lend things you have to sign if you borrow existing military hardware you have to sign something called a production assistance agreement and there are tons of restrictions and you have to submit your script for review.
21:34Marina Hyde:They're not allowed to do certain things with it anyway. But they operate under what's called a mission first policy. So no surprise if they need it, whatever you're using for your kind of military romantic comedy. If they need it to actually, you know, bomb a country, they can take it back. Yeah, they can.
21:51Richard Osman:What's that called again?
21:52Marina Hyde:The Pentagon is called mission first policy.
21:55Richard Osman:Mission first. Wow.
21:55Marina Hyde:Can you believe that something's more important than showbiz? Anyway, in their eyes. Mission first policy. The Pentagon always comes first. the Department of War, as I think we now have to call it. And they can revoke the agreement at any time. So after 9-11, all sorts of things were suddenly recalled from film productions for Operation Enduring Freedom, which obviously, as you know, endured for quite some time, not the Freedom. For Top Gun Maverick, part of the reason that that took actually a long time to get filmed is because there were lots of equipment delays because they had so many really really high-end pieces of kit primarily planes that pushed that back a while transformers where you know obviously the military robots in disguise robots in disguise that became restricted i hope that's not a spoiler for people no yeah i mean that's a do you know what that genuinely
22:45Richard Osman:i've never thought of that the very slogan is a spoiler yes transformers robots in disguise
22:50Marina Hyde:just say transformer just yeah i wonder what this is about what you mean oh look at this car yeah
22:56Richard Osman:hold on it's not a car yeah I knew already because you said Transformers robots in disguise I knew it was a robot in disguise but you didn't know
23:03Marina Hyde:the character of Optimus Prime did you and you didn't know yeah
23:06Richard Osman:yeah I suppose so
23:08Marina Hyde:they've got a magic anyway I'm not going to get into it
23:10Richard Osman:but also aren't we all sort of robots in disguise in a funny kind of way wow it makes you think yeah it does make you think
23:16Marina Hyde:Transformers if I can get back to the point I had robots in disguise that became restricted because they needed hardware for Iraq and Afghanistan
23:24Richard Osman:a car that turns
23:25Marina Hyde:into a robot or a robot that turns into a car yes no i'm sorry to break it to you the u.s military is involved in the fight against the decepticons i can't believe i'm getting into this i can't look can i just get about onto this right yeah so there are also private rental companies i'm so angry about the decepticons i know so we all are we're all furious absolutely boils my blood anyway listen right okay so for mission impossible the final reckoning the crew of that were allowed on the um the uss george hw bush in the adriatic sea but it was on active duty at the time so you if if any sort of real world anything happens you just have to go you're never in control of this and everything you have to gear your production around the military also by the way it doesn't have to be war it can be a disaster response hurricane whatever anything the war in ukraine has significantly impacted the industry um moss film which is russia's largest film studio they had to donate lots of their prop tanks from the back lot to be used by the Russian military to bolster their armoured vehicles
24:29Richard Osman:Can you imagine a grimmer meeting?
24:32Marina Hyde:Well it's not really a long meeting You are donating your kit Lots of productions have had to move out of Eastern Europe which remember before this was a particularly attractive I mean parts of it still are but a particularly attractive filming destination. The most famous of course in some ways is Francis Ford Coppola making Apocalypse Now he struck a deal with Ferdinand Marcos the Philippine dictator to borrow their military helicopters because he needed loads and loads for Apocalypse Now and I think it was$100 a helicopter per hour and the Philippines was under martial law at the time but Marcos was simultaneously using those helicopters to put down an insurgency so when the Filipino pilots would fly onto the set every day they'd have to quickly be the plane for helicopters we have to be quickly repainted in philippine color in u.s colors and then sometimes they would just be pulled off the set and it would have to go back um but marcos did it because he thought it was prestigious um and imelda went to set imelda while marcos is sort of dreadful wife went to the set and asked coppola to the palace but primarily he did it because it allowed him to be paid in hard u.s currency which was was appealing to him so yes it makes it really affects things and there will be things that because of what's happened um in iran lots of things will have to be kind of uh recalled pieces of kit things you wouldn't imagine were particularly even pieces of kit um which is why some people like to just kind of fake it like that i don't know if you saw that alex garland movie warfare which they did they shot off it was an a24 thing which they i think they shot that somewhere off the m25 which is about a sort of seal team raid that goes wrong um in the iraq war in 2006 during the insurgency they created all those vehicles they would not have been allowed to use them because the film is essentially quite negative about the whole experience as it were although it's supposed to be sort of like a real-time thing but they wouldn't have that you would not have got that script approved at all oh i'd like to actually know the answer to this question from scott clapperton who says richard what are the top three tv quiz shows that you wish you'd
26:39Richard Osman:created oh god there well i mean so there's two parts to that scott one is creatively yeah you know that i wish i had or that i could have if that makes sense you know certain things happen like who wants to be a millionaire came specifically out of a radio thing and that's i couldn't have you know i could have come up with a format but it wouldn't have been he wants to be a millionaire so it's something that i admire and that i could have had the opportunity to do but that also I wish I'd created that were insanely lucrative
27:12Marina Hyde:I was going to say is that going to be one of your things? I think it has to be
27:18Richard Osman:otherwise come on so number three I'm going to talk about one that I was sort of involved with but I didn't come up with which is Million Pound Drop I remember the first time I was come up with by a brilliant guy called David Flynn who's still making great shows now and the first time he showed it to me I thought that's so great, so clever the way you sort of put your money across the different answers and you've always got to leave one clear and it just, it had that money ladder thing but it had this extra level that just, I love a format where there are just no moving parts. Once you've got it down, it just works and works and works.
27:55Richard Osman:So many shows, you have to constantly go, oh but hold on, if that happened then I have to fix it in this way and suddenly things get complicated and you've got 50 different lifelines and this, that or the other. lifelines are almost always because um there's something up with the format um really yeah oh yeah uh and so million pound drop i think it's great the only thing i did on million pound drop as i said we should play it from we should play it from million pounds uh and uh which you know that's i think what people think tv executives do and on that day that is what i did which is the most obvious thing you can do because i loved it so much and we were going to pitch it as a daytime thing yeah i said oh my god but it was it's such a great mechanic that thing that dave came up with i was just going but imagine that imagine you had a million pounds there that's cool yeah that's uh that's that that was the um uh limit of uh my thinking on that one but i loved that i'd love the second i saw it i thought oh i wish i could have thought of that i could why did dave think of that i could have thought of that even more so my number two which is which is weakest link which is the um you know the the idea essentially just voting people off and that's That's all you've got there.
29:00Richard Osman:And that's something that I did with Survivor. So I had that in my head anyway. It was in my head. I loved quiz shows. And I had the idea of voting people off. And I didn't come up with the weakest link. And that's made billions and billions and billions of pounds. And again, once you've got it, it just runs forever and ever and ever. It is slightly complicated because of the banking. And this round, we take 10 seconds off, but we add this extra money. to the, someone once said with weakest link, oh, the genius of it is you can explain it in one sentence, which is such nonsense. It's actually quite complicated.
29:36Richard Osman:But the heartbeat of it, the drive behind it, which is we start with X contestants and each round we lose someone. How you play those rounds is that's, you know, that's different, but just that idea. And also it's got a huge flaw of it, which is of course you vote off the weakest link until the end when there's three of you, when you always have to vote off the strongest link because otherwise you've got to play against them in the final. But, you know, that's okay. That's on my list because I really, really could have thought of it and it made so much money. So it really scores highly in those two.
30:08Marina Hyde:Your dream piece of self-flagellation. Yes, exactly.
30:12Richard Osman:Whereas my number one is something probably made a lot less money than those things, but I just think as a format, I love things with polling and stuff like that. I would just love to make this show because it feels like the easiest show in the world to make and you can make it forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. And it's family fortunes or family feud as it was in the States because it's really, really, really watchable. It's beautifully watchable. It's endlessly, endlessly replicatable. I mean, you're never, ever going to run out of things on family fortunes.
30:47Marina Hyde:And it's dynamic and living. It's dynamic.
30:50Richard Osman:It responds to 100 people would have said something completely different 10 years ago. Exactly that. and it has the beauty, you know, to me, game shows are all about play along. That's what we've always tried to do in House of Games. It's all about watching at home and that, like the 1 % Club now as well, everybody sitting at home across the generations can play. You know, the second you say, name the top five things you find in a bathroom, everyone can play that and the joy to me of game shows is bringing, you either do your university challenges or only connects and that's like the Olympics of quiz shows.
31:27Richard Osman:But if you're doing a quiz which is inclusive, which everyone can play along, something like that I think is the dream, which is it requires thinking. It means you can be competitive with the person sitting next to you. You can be 80 or 40 or 12 and you can just do it again and again and again and again and you can do hundreds of episodes and you can sell it to every single country in the world. But it's just a simple thing that brings joy. so I would say the one I wish I'd come up with that I would have sat and been happy for the rest of my life would have been Family Fortunes
32:02Marina Hyde:I could listen to you on game shows all day long I really could okay well I certainly can't top any of that so we're going to wrap this episode right now as I say we have got this second half of our Top Gun special bonus for members which is join at therestorsentertainment.com otherwise we will see you next Tuesday
32:21Richard Osman:see you next Tuesday
32:26Thank you.
From the publisher
What is the unwritten rule of Taskmaster that every comedian has to follow? How are bubble baths made realistic for movies? And what is Richard's favourite ever quiz?
Richard Osman and Marina Hyde answer your questions on the world of TV, movies and much more.
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