Other Saturday Night Viewing

Fellow-Strictly-Watcher, who I may shorten to FSW from now on, claimed to have heard of a show where celebrities have to stand by a swimming pool while a wall comes towards them with a person-shaped cut out in it and they had to make the shape of the person. Had I heard about it? she asked. No, I said. I think you were dreaming.

Half an hour before Strictly started, she called me downstairs. It turned out she wasn't dreaming. It's called Hole in the Wall, and is summarised by the BBC thusly:

Dale Winton hosts a series in which two teams of celebrities, captained by dancing star Anton Du Beke and cricket legend Darren Gough, must try to force themselves through various crazy-shaped holes in giant moving walls.

Clad head-to-toe in tight silver lycra, there's everything to play for, as failure results in a head-first plunge into a swimming pool. The wall shapes get harder and travel faster as the celebrities get wetter.

Yes, it is as insane as it sounds. Insanely brilliant. We could only imagine that someone pitched it as a joke, not expecting it to be made into an actual show.

The shapes seem nearly impossible. The lycra is unflatteringly brilliant. Or brilliantly unflattering. Sometimes they have to work together, which they pretty much always failed at. They had guest "stars," who were a troupe of can-can/burlesque style dancers. The four of them plus Andi Peters had to go through a wall together, the shape of which was cancan dancer, with a leg up. In other words, they had to form a line of cancan dancers. Apparently a line is a difficult concept. They all went in the water.

Anton seems to be continuing his campaign to be on TV everyday, in any capacity. Darren Gough wasn't annoying but I still don't like him.

Next week will apparently have Vanessa Feltz and Vic Reeves. It seems like good pre-Strictly tv, the sort of thing to put on while you get tea ready (or make the phone call to the takeaway), nip to the corner shop for chocolate and/or wine, and speculate on what Tess will be wearing.