Um, Actually... Gameshow Edition

Um, Actually is a pop-culture quiz show inspired by the (accurate) stereotype of nerds as shameless pedants who take great joy in 'proving their superiority' by correcting others on the minutiae of ultimately meaningless media trivia. It's produced by indie darling Dropout TV, and is up amongst my favourite quiz formats. Unfortunately, it doesn't tend to draw from my particular strain of geekdom (besides a question about BOTC), so I decided to write some questions of my own. Enjoy!

Q1. Taskmaster is a British comedy gameshow with a big international fanbase. In it, groups of 5 comedians compete to complete a series of bizarre tasks created and set by the titular Taskmaster Greg Davis and overseen by his pathetic assistant Little Alex Horne. However, the show's main appeal seems to be the unsubtle pseudo-sexual kink dynamic between the Taskmaster and His Assistant, culminating in at least one kiss.

Um, Actually...

Greg Davis does not create the tasks. All the tasks are devised by Alex Horne and his team. Greg Davis merely judges them.

Q2. You may think that the humble gameshow is a far cry from the big-screen blockbuster, but several movie media franchises have actually had gameshow adaptations. This includes Star Wars' Jedi Temple Challenge, James Bond's 007: Road to a Million and Alien's Aliens: The Game Show.

Um, Actually...

Aliens: The Game Show was the working title of Scavengers, a unique IP given a similar name in an attempt capitalise on the franchise's success. Ridley Scott said absolutely not, and forced the name change.

Q3. In the CBBC sci-fi gameshow Mission: 2110, children from the year 2010 are transported 100 years into the future to fight against a robot apocalypse. It is unclear whether any of them make it home safely, however, as the losing 'recruits' end up getting vapourised - sent to an unknown location in time and space. This includes the series winners as, due to a continuity error, instead of being sent home through the time portal, they are also vapourised.

Um, Actually...

The recruits in 4th and 3rd place do end up being sent home by the time portal, as their elimination does not take place on the vaporiser. This means we can safely assume they made it home. Shame about the rest of them.

Q4. The British-Canadian-Australian co-production Splatalot tasks teens with completing a series of above-water obstacle courses while defenders pelt them with gunge, with the goal of being crowned king or queen of Splatalot. As the name implies, many of these defenders are classical fantasy warrior archetypes such as Gildar the Viking, Skabb the Barbarian, Stiletta the Warrior-Thief and Shaiden the Ninja. However, some of them are a little less conventional, such as Crocness, a swamp-dwelling crocodile woman, and Kookaburra, a bird person who can make sparks with a click of his fingers.

Um, Actually...

Stiletta is not a Splatalot defender, and is instead a dungeon denizen from series 8 of Knightmare. Other real Splatalot defenders include Knightriss the Knight (duh), Ballista the Huntress, and Thorne... who's mainly just angry.

Q5. In Legends of the Hidden Temple, the winning duo of the episode would be allowed to enter the titular temple, evading guards and navigating obstacles to retrieve the episode's treasure and win the top prize. These treasures were objects from history and legend, including the Stone-Bound Sword of King Arthur, the Walking Stick of Harriet Tubman, the Broken Wing of Icarus, the Electrified Key of Benjamin Franklin and the Helmet of Joan of Arc.

Um, Actually...

The Stone-Bound Sword of King Arthur (or, Excalibur) is not one of the treasures in the Hidden Temple. However, Arthuriana did find it's way onto the show in the form of the Much-Heralded Helmet of Sir Gawain.

Q6. Only Connect is a British quiz show known for its obscure knowledge base, its devious wordplay and lateral thinking, and the host Victoria Coren Mitchell's wryly delivered absurdist monologues. These combine to create a parody of pretentiousness, punctuated with the Greek letters that mark its question sets.

Um, Actually...

While the question sets were marked with Greek letters in the first 3 series, some viewers complained they were too pretentious. In response, the production team doubled down by changing the symbols to Egyptian hieroglyphics, which they've remained as ever since.

Q7. James Mackenzie's Raven, the original host of the CBBC gameshow of the same name, is an immortal warlord capable of great magic. As well as his namesake ability to shapeshift into a raven, he is also seen firing bolts of energy, sending symbols of sparks into the air, opening portals, resurrecting warriors, and passing through locked doors.

Um, Actually...

Making symbols from sparks is only ever seen done by Princess Erina in Raven: The Island. She uses the ability to send a fake message to Raven that serves as a decoy for Nevar and hidden instructions for the warriors.

Q8. While every effort is made to protect the health and wellbeing of gameshow contestants, sometimes disaster strikes. Such an incident occurred in series 1 of CBBC gameshow Escape from Scorpion Island during a challenge called A Bridge Too Far, when the rope bridge they were using collapsed with the contestants still on it.

Um, Actually...

The rope bridge collapsing was fully intentional, and in fact part of the challenge. They pulled a similar trick again in a series 2 challenge called Sky High Scramble.

Q9. A common trope in gameshows with fictional elements is for the presenter-protagonist or other important character to have supposedly once been in the contestants' position. Wiley Sneak from Trapped! was an Unfortunate, Zayn/Zane from Project Z was a survivor rescued by Alice and Aisha Toussaint's Raven from the Raven reboot was once an Ultimate Warrior herself.
Rare real-life versions of this trope include Rose Matafeo who won series 9 of Taskmaster and went on to become the Junior Taskmaster, and Michael Underwood who competed on The Crystal Maze 1990 Christmas Special as a kid and grew up to be a Jungle Guide on the not dissimilar Jungle Run.

Um, Actually...

Rose Matafeo did not win her series of Taskmaster, she came second. Series 9 was actually won by Ed Gamble.

Q10. One of the most iconic games in The Crystal Maze was the Murder Mystery, where contestants would have to follow a series of clues around a room to find the crystal, starting with the corpse in the middle. It was so iconic, every zone had its own version, from a businessman in the Industrial Zone, to a wizard in the Medieval Zone, to a pirate in the Ocean Zone.

Um, Actually...

Series 6 of The Crystal Maze reboot introduced the Eastern Zone, which never got its own Murder Mystery.