Bill Bailey pilots a revival of Name That Tune
Bill Bailey has been revealed as the host of a pilot episode of a revival of the classic TV quiz show Name That Tune.
The show asks contestants to try to identify a song from just a few notes. Based on an American format, Name That Tune last aired in the UK 16 years ago on Channel 5, with Jools Holland as the host. First broadcast in Britain by ITV in 1956, and for some time going under the title Spot The Tune instead, other previous hosts have including Tom O'Connor and Lionel Blair.
The new pilot was filmed on Wednesday night at ITV's London studios on the Southbank. A blog post written by someone in the audience has revealed more details about the new version.
Two teams comprising of three people compete in the new version, with The Mike Dixon Sextet as the house band. Rounds included Wheels of Steel; Bill's Screen Classics - in which the host plays film themes on his keyboard; Re-tuned, which in this pilot episode featured The London Vegetable Orchestra playing music; Bill's Bonus Round; Bid-A-Note; and the final, the Prize Tune Round.
Blog author Brig Bother commented "Reading the format back, it's actually really quite similar to the original albeit stretched to an hour. The padding was getting on my nerves, but I did feel the show flowed better towards the end. Like I say, the edit will kill or cure this one I think."
Last night's pilot is believed to be a non-broadcast trial, so will not be seen on television. Executives will use it to decide whether to order a series or not.
As recently reported, Bill Bailey is currently also working on his own sketch show, which he revealed will contain "lot of film spoofs; a lot of TV spoofs."
Bailey is one of a number of comedians fronting music shows. Alan Carr's The Singer Takes It All starts next month (trailer) and Harry Hill is rumoured to be in line to host a revival of Stars In Their Eyes. Meanwhile Rhod Gilbert has been named as the new host of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, the music panel show Bailey left in 2008.
Here's a video of Bill Bailey playing the intros round on Never Mind The Buzzcocks with a lively Bonnie Tyler: