Things Can Only Get Better

Does anyone know about this show? Apologies to Aaron if it's been mentioned somewhere.

I only heard about it the other day and requested a couple of tickets at the last minute. I'll be going along on Friday with the lovely Dolly D so it will be fun even if it's not!

There may be some more tickets left if anyone's interested - I think there are two run throughs this week. Will report back in due course.

In the blurb it says:

"Things Can Only get Better is a brand new topical comedy show hosted by Jack Dee with Sean Lock along with some very special guests. Our small audience at the Drill Hall will join us for a run-through of the show with Jack & Sean; an unusual opportunity to see a show still in development before the full studio recording."

Jx

I'm a big fan of Sean Lock, so please let us know how the run through goes Jane.

(That's if you and Dolly aren't thrown out of the Drill Hall for drunk and disorderly conduct).

Quote: Jane P @ September 9 2009, 8:40 PM BST

Does anyone know about this show?

"Things Can Only get Better is a brand new topical comedy show hosted by Jack Dee with Sean Lock along with some very special guests. Our small audience at the Drill Hall will join us for a run-through of the show with Jack & Sean; an unusual opportunity to see a show still in development before the full studio recording."

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That's the only details they've released about it so far... so when you come back from the recording do tell us more!

I'd relish seeing both Dee and Lock in a new HIGNFY style show, as I love their world-weary style of humour so I hope this works!

Hi Mark

I went with Dolly and had a great time thanks.

It's the first show I've seen where it wasn't actually recorded which meant no need to do set ups or retakes - they just went with the flow.

DD probably has a better memory than me but here goes. I hope I'm allowed to say all this to give you an idea of it! I'm sure the actual show will have changed a fair bit by the time it airs.

It was hosted by Jack Dee with team captains Lee Mack and Sean Lock. They each have two guests so as they said they've really shaken things up a bit format wise (although Sean was sitting on the right for a change).

On Lee's team were Ed Byrne and Konnie Huq. On Sean's team was Jarred Christmas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYeSsMR2cB0
who was also doing the warm up and then I think was standing in for someone else who didn't turn up. It's the second show I've seen him do warm up for and he's great but did seem a bit unsure on the panel. But if he wasn't expecting to be there that's fair enough. The others had obviously prepared for it. I'd like to see him make the crossover. Sorry I can't remember the name of the other guest - was it Jen someone?

I think they did two try outs this week so may have tried various 'rounds'. I don't know if it was because it's a pilot but it wasn't topical as in political satire it was more stories like the oldest twitter a 104 year old lady.

The cheeky girls came on to 'dance out' two news stories which the teams had to guess - they didn't. And a celeb guest turned up in a gorilla outfit and they had to guess who it was. Sophie who won Big Brother.

Jack asked the team captains questions from a genuine interview with someone famous and they had to answer his questions and guess who'd been asked originally.

There was another round where they had to pick items from a table illustrating the ones which cause the most household accidents. Sean was hampered by the fact he couldn't even put on his hivi vest!

Each person had to mention a mostly obscure story they'd heard about chat about it and come up with a headline.

Some of it worked, some didn't. I'm sure that's true with all shows like this though and the performers were as good as you'd expect and fun to watch. I wouldn't say it's an exciting new format but if the main three stay involved, and continue with decent guests they'll make it fun and, as Sean said, it's early days and even the Dyson didn't work at first.

We then went back to the bar where most of them had a drink too - they seemed fairly relaxed and happy about it all. No sulks or stomping off.

So I'd guess it has a good shot at being made but will no doubt be quite different by the time it's made for real. If I've made it sound dull, don't be put off - most of the humour is off the cuff, ad-libs and pre prepared ad-libs!

And DD is lovely.

Jx

Cool Jane, thanks for such an in depth review. It's a shame that they adhered so readily to the standard panel show blueprint and offered so few surprises.

Oh well, things can only get better. (Did ya see what I did there? Did ya? Did ya?!)

I do like the name Konnie Huq though, it sounds like a weird sexual practice involving corn cobs.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ September 12 2009, 2:08 PM BST

I do like the name Konnie Huq though, it sounds like a weird sexual practice involving corn cobs.

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I see what you did there.

I can't remember anything much else, except they need to get air conditioning in the bar of the drill hall and I got a light off Simon Inbetweener's dad.

Oh and Jane is lovely and put up with my chatter.

Oh, the other female guest was Jenny Falconer, the Scottish presenter with the shoulders of an olympic swimmer.

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ September 12 2009, 2:23 PM BST

Oh, the other female guest was Jenny Falconer, the Scottish presenter with the shoulders of an olympic swimmer.

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The blonde Scottish one from GMTV? Cor and indeed, phwoar.

Hi all, new on here.

Just got back from the recording of this show, only to find firstly that the title has changed! It is now known as 'You Couldn't Make It Up', and was filmed in Studio 8 of Television Centre.

A few differences from the review above. On Sean's team were Jo Brand and Jenny Faukner, and on Lee's were Alan Carr and Katherine Kelly. There was first a headline round, where each member of the team had to give an item of news from this week (one included the 104 year old Twitterer).

There was then one of two dancing news pieces, the first being performed by Stavros Flattley of Britain's Got Talent, who got a huge round of applause.

There were then a few more rounds which I can't really recall the exact ins and outs of; one about animals, another about biscuits. There was another dancing news round with The Cheeky Girls, and also the household hazzard round, including an elderly member of the St John's Ambulance on stand by.

The news interview was changed slightly. Jack didn't ask the questions, but video clips of the relevant newscaster was played, and the team captain who's question it was was superimposed into the shot, so it looked like that particular episode. This secion was particularly funny! Sophie from Big Brother also made an appearance, but instead of being in a costume she was hidden behind a screen and back lit, so only a silhouette could be seen.

There were spaces for 3 ad breaks, each part ending on a 'what happens next' video clip. Does anyone know which channel this will be going to?

All in all I really enjoyed it. Seems to be a great format and Jack, Lee and Sean were all on top form. Shame alot of it will be edited out really! I'm assuming this episode will be showed, as it was filmed fully and links re-filmed at the end. Does anyone know of an air date?

Thanks all, and sorry if I shouldn't have said all of this!

Sadly, it's quite unlikely it'll be broadcast. It sounds like Jane and Dolly went to a warm-up/try-out session, and you went to the pilot proper. That'll be filmed in order to tout round to the various commissioners and producers. There is an extreme outside chance that it'd make it to DVD (I believe the QI pilot is on the S1 release), but if it's even remotely related to this specific week then it's pretty unlikely to see the light of day.

If there was space left for ad breaks, I would guess that it may have been made by an independent production company rather than a channel, and they'll be offering it round to everyone they can. Unless your tickets or any signs stated otherwise!

Nope, nothing on the tickets. Just done a few searches and it seems to pop up alot, albeit under its old name, so it seems pretty public knowledge that its in production. And the set looked very well made, I come from a background in set design and this seemed of fairly high quality - looked like quite a bit of effort had been put into it with videos and tech. I guess all this could be used later in the run if it's be commissioned though.

Hopefully we'll sit it - I think it'd be a shame if we didn't.

I've been to a number of pilots which have had perfectly decent looking sets, but have not followed through to the full series. Bizarre and painful to think of all of that wasted cash.

A truly marathon pilot session at over three hours.
It was my impression that it succeeds in spite of the game format. I would guesstimate the material edited down to around 50 minutes as respectable second tier, just behind the best Mock The Weeks of previous years and the best of Have I Got News For You - about the typical level of 8 Out Of 10 Cats which is a qualified success. I am curious who the production company is because the logo looks like the Mock The Week one.
I wrote "In spite of.." because I didn't think the making headline game turned out funny and many of the other games seemed bemusing despite being the third time these pros must have seen them. Guessing a story headline told through the medium of dance is even more difficult than guessing Vic's nightclub impressions but probably as hit and miss. The interview round is going to be unnaturally difficult if they don't prepare their material first as well.
The guess the words on the T-shirt round was like the Headliners initials and picture round from Mock The Week but the panel doesn't have the sharpness of that programme.
The first 45-60mins had a lot of weak or tasteless material. But the captains warmed up and things improved.
The dependable aspect is the two bankable comedian captains and I wouldn't say I was disappointed in them. With such long recording sessions, now I know why Sean can seem annoyed at tedious guests. He has to suffer them much longer than we do on the telly.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ September 9 2009, 10:34 PM BST

I'm a big fan of Sean Lock, so please let us know how the run through goes Jane.

(That's if you and Dolly aren't thrown out of the Drill Hall for drunk and disorderly conduct).

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You DO like good comedians then? Sean Lock's brill!

Hi there

The show I saw wasn't a pilot.

I understood there were two last week where they were trying out different rounds etc, hence the different guests we saw.

I'm guessing from that they've put together the pilot which other people have now seen. The BB contestant was in a costume before but her voice decoder thing stopped working so maybe it's easier behind a screen!

It will be interesting to see if and how the show develops.

Jx