Guest Panellists: Joanna Lumley, Alison Hammond, Alex Horne, Jonathan Ross, Joanna Page and Guz Khan.
Blankety Blank isn't a "show stopper" kind of programme, and shouldn't really be capping off a night. Yet for some reason the BBC keep putting this flimsiest of premises out around the watershed as their top of the bill entertainment. Series 20 was scheduled no earlier than 8:25pm in the evening, and sometimes even as late as 9:10pm - the nine episodes had an average start time of 8:42pm.
The Christmas specials are usually different. Going out to the most captive audience of the year, the Christmas Day viewer, the first two aired at 7pm and 7:25pm respectively. With this in mind, there is a certain feeling of "relegation" with this third one, seeing it pushed into a Christmas Eve, 8pm timeslot.
Making it even more embarrassing is that Blankety Blank was the only programme to be changed in the Christmas line-up, the rest identical to the BBC's unimaginative offerings from the previous three years. (Strictly, Call The Midwife and EastEnders all just part of a depressing line-up where the idea of a "family film" is abandoned when the BBC know that ITV now just give up and don't try to compete on the day.)
The show to replace it on the night was so-so comedy Ghosts, the fourth series of which ran during the same period as this run of Blankety Blank. Ghosts averaged over 600,000 less viewers each week, and only beat BB in the charts on one occasion, making it odd that it should be the one causing the show to lose its Christmas Day slot. Though Ghosts was also available en masse on iPlayer beforehand, and demographics do play a part.
This Christmas Special had potential, even if it was just the fact that you might have heard of the panellists. It is, sadly, perhaps another reminder of the passing of time... those old enough to remember Jonathan Ross as a young presenter in his mid-20s have him here in his 60s, and it's been seven-and-a-half years since Guz Khan was trending with his own YouTube videos.
Alison Hammond had actually appeared as a child actor on TV (remember Palace Hill?) but had her real break when she appeared on Big Brother back when it was still watchable. One of the few reality TV stars to genuinely cross over, she's now a presenter, and her Big Brother appearance was 20 years ago. Joanna Lumley is now in her mid-70s, and, while she doesn't make enough of a splash on this episode to justify being the chosen screenshot, this is probably the only time you're ever likely to see a star of Sapphire & Steel on the show.
Yet despite that rare curiosity of "an edition with people I've actually heard of", this one doesn't really come together, and is far less than the sum. Part of the continual issue is the gulf between each panellist - it's incredibly hard for them all to interact when there's about five feet of space between each of them. There's also the previously-mentioned issue with the questions: while the Christmas Specials usually have traditionally easy questions, this one sees the contestants get just 5 out of 46 possible matches.
While the regular episodes are a rigidly uniform 33 minutes long, this special gets to stretch to 35. In terms of ratings, then Blankety Blank didn't make the Top 50, with overnight ratings said to be have been as low as 2.33 million. Ghosts, for its part, flourished in its promoted slot, reaching 9th place in the charts with 5.9 million tuning in.
Guest Panellists: Shirley Ballas, HRVY, Gabby Logan, Chris McCausland, Michelle Visage and Chris Kamara.
Bradley starts this episode by mentioning that nearly every single member of the panel has been on Strictly Come Dancing... as if this is some massive coincidence, and not shamelessly intended. The Strictly association - the No.1 TV programme of the age as long as I'm A Celebrity or a monarch's funeral aren't on air - is perhaps unnecessary at this point. By now it's become clear that there's no serious overspill between the two shows, just as there isn't between Strictly and Michael McIntyre's The Wheel - people switch on for Strictly, and switch off when it's over.
Yet while unable to successfully trade in on Strictly's massive audience (by 2022 standards) the viewing figures for this run of Blankety Blank were consistent amongst themselves. The ratings for the Christmas Special are looked at separately, as it's an edition that is presented to a slightly different audience, with a different timeslot and different circumstances behind it. But for the main bulk of the series, then the first eight episodes averaged at 4.34 million. Five of the episodes even increased their audience on the previous week, and only one of them - 20.4 - had ratings below 4 million, as it just dipped to 3.94.
This ninth episode had the unfortunate fate of airing directly opposite ITV's previously-mentioned I'm A Celebrity..., which dominated the entire Top 7 of the chart all by itself, and, that night, had 10.5 million tuning in. With such insurmountable competition, Blankety Blank fell to just under 3.7 million viewers.
There's an uncomfortably accurate moment where decent comic Chris McCausland jokes that a contestant (Lewis Leigh) with 1.7 million followers on TikTok should be amongst the panel... although it's a reasonably name-orientated panel this week, by the usual standards of the show, it would make him more qualified than some of the "celebrities" that feature, including, perhaps, this week's HRVY.
More of a "name" is Chris Kamara, who even I recognised as "that football bloke I saw on a show for five minutes" and who has, like 20.1's Frank Skinner, been awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List. Whether they were both given the honour for appearing on Blankety Blank is as yet unknown, but overall this is a reasonable edition of the show. The canned laughter machine needs its fuses replaced by the end of it, and jokes about the prize of a tent and "swinging balls" are beaten to death, but there's a pleasant atmosphere and it gets by.
Guest Panellists: Konnie Huq, Sara Davies, Bruno Tonioli, Jo Brand, Jamie Laing and Natalie Cassidy.
With all the changes this new version has made to the format of Blankety Blank, then while some of them can be regarded as "tweaks" - some even arguably improvements - the biggest change with this second run is that it's abandoned the traditional gender line-up on no less than four occasions. (The 2021 run also did this twice, but it had shamefully escaped my notice - I was probably too busy wondering who everyone was.)
Blankety Blank's panel being an equal mix of "boys and girls" is an old-fashioned motif that goes back to school days, and was most prominently adhered to in Give Us A Clue. While the original run of Blankety Blank occasionally had an additional male on the panel, such as with Lord Charles or Jimmy Krankie, the "core six" of three guys, three girls was almost sacrosanct.
This is the fourth one of 2022 to make a sacrilegious alteration to this traditional set-up, and, instead of three previous episodes which saw four guys, this one sees four female panellists. Yet Blank heresy aside, this one has an energy that most of the others don't have. Natalie Cassidy (ie. Sonia from EastEnders) tries some backchat, Bruno from Strictly is never in his seat, and, unlike her appearance in the previous run, Jo Brand looks like she actually wants to be there. It may not all come off, but it's good that they at least try to mix up the energy and do something new, rather than just sit there making tedious non-witticisms and waiting for the canned laughter machine to bail them out.
Yet while the panel are energised, Bradley does look slightly jaded in this one, and it's worth remembering that he's actually the oldest host of the series. 61 when this run was recorded, which is two years older than Les Dawson was when he finished presenting the show. It's not just a testament to that strange phenomenon of how people used to look older in yesteryear, but also deeply indicative of their lifestyles - Bradley Walsh was a former professional footballer, whereas Les admitted to smoking over 50 cigarettes a day and being able to out-drink anyone in showbusiness.
Perhaps what really makes Bradley look a little listless in this one is that, for a former stand-up comedian presenting a comedy game show, he's still seemingly not learnt how to ad-lib within the format, instead just ending any banter between the panellists with an insincere-sounding "... alright, brilliant stuff". Doing most of his comedy work during the 1990s, Bradley wasn't a bad stand-up, though admitted he only got into comedy as a way to get an equity card, and really wanted to be an actor.
With his stand-up largely based around observational comedy of the not-terrible but also not massively inspired variety, it does mean that his comic credentials aren't really something that can be drawn upon within the guise of a comedy game show, unlike Les Dawson, whose miserabilist verbal ramblings could be more easily adapted to the format. And in fairness to Bradley, Les Dawson probably wouldn't have been much good as a host of The Chase.
Guest Panellists Contestants: John Whaite and Maisie Smith.
A ten minute special for Children In Need that saw kids helped by the charity as the panellists. The two contestants playing for a donation to Children In Need (spoiler: it's made easy so the charity gets the cheque) are celebrity chef John Whaite and former EastEnders actress Maisie Smith. It's questionable as to whether an EastEnders actress should be on an edition involving kids - her character of Tiffany Butcher was a drug-dealer and rape victim - but such things are representative of EastEnders' presence within a pre-watershed timeslot as a whole.
Despite such murky elements, this special contains something that the majority of the proper Walsh episodes don't have - charm. The kids are cute, Bradley works well with them, and, crucially, the amped-up audience laugh along, but only within the bounds of normalcy. As an episode presented, if not recorded, live, there's no chance to dub over laughs where there are none, and this only serves to further flag up how much of the regular show is patched up after the fact.
Children In Need, once a big draw, only reached 31st place that week with 3.96 million viewers, so while the exact figure watching this 10 minute segment is unknown, it wasn't a number that would have seen Blankety Blank reaching a new audience.
Lastly, as this edition is for charity, then if you wish to donate, you can do so at the BBC Children In Need Website.
Guest Panellists: Denise Van Outen, Ellie Simmonds, Chris Eubank, Frank Skinner, Vick Hope and Joey Essex.
One strange offshoot of this series airing is that misfortune has fallen some of the panellists soon afterwards. It's a little too early to start talking about the "Blankety Blank Curse", but the same month as Lady Leshurr's episode aired, she was arrested after reportedly assaulting her ex-girlfriend and her new partner. She pleaded not guilty in November 2022, and was released on bail, with the trial reportedly not scheduled until October this year.
Then there was Chunkz. Exactly two weeks had passed after his episode aired when he posted on Twatter that one of the guests at his house was Lil Nas X. As "L'il Nas" is an out homosexual who once made a music video where he did a lapdance for the Devil, then Chunkz got a lot of cultural flack on the platform, before responding with: "I’m gonna take a break off social media, it’s too much seriously". (He was back on the platform two weeks later.)
With this, we get to Chris Eubank. The reason why this episode scores so highly, the former middleweight/supermiddleweight boxer has always been a natural eccentric who shows how decent the show could still be if it had some guests on who were a little different. Many of the guests, despite differing backgrounds, are very much a "one size fits all", delivering "jokes" with the same rhythm, pace and total lack of comic urgency no matter their comedic style.
Chris dances to his own tune, a real one-off... which makes it extra troubling that just nine days after this episode aired, Chris was reportedly sectioned in a mental hospital. He was released, but interviews he's given since the sectioning appear to show a man with a troubled mind. While such disturbing events cast something of a shadow over proceedings, this is still that rarest of things... an episode of the new Blankety Blank that's actually pretty watchable.
Lastly, for trivia then episodes 2-8 averaged at 19th place in the charts, while 20.9, crushed by ITV that week, fell to 33rd place. Yet for the week this first episode went out, the ratings for ITV weren't recorded by BARB. So while this one was listed as reaching 14th place with 4.04 million viewers, it was listed without taking into account any of the programmes from BBC1's biggest competitor.