Last tuesday night ITV broadcast "Dara O Briain's Tough Gig" in which I spent a weekend with the Live Action Role Players of Skullduggery in Canterbury.
Some insider telly stuff: The total viewing figures for the show were 902,000, which is sort of low for that time of night, even if it was up against Big Brother. It's less than half of a episode of Mock The Week and less than a quarter of the figures for when I was on Parky a couple of weeks ago. In fact, they're the kind of figures that get quoted when people talk about the decline of ITV and compare "Dara o Briain's Tough Gig" to the "Morecambe and Wise 1976 Christmas special" or something.
In telly terms, no fucker watched it.
But bizarrely, every fucker seems to have seen it.
I've spent the last week talking about to people about my time in the forest, foam weaponry, drinking mead and more often than not, those bloody ears. Apparently they were a complete victory style-wise. they may have been the equivalent of Kate Moss walking through the mud in her designer wellies during the last Glastonbury.
However i'm not sure if I'm putting the ears on the map or if the ears are doing it for me.
If you haven't seen the show, I've put some of the gig on the page for your delectation, from a clip that i think the telly company slid out onto Youtube. The entire show might appear there soon. If it does, i'll stick a link on to it.
Big thanks to all the LARPers then, for hosting a brilliant weekend and being so generous when they must have thought we were going to do some sort of hatchet job on them. No chance. Like I said on the film, they're my kind of nerds..
Chelsea Anderson 4 years ago
3 years ago
peter reaney 4 years ago
Steve 4 years ago
Kate 4 years ago
The Demon Headmaster 4 years ago
Stu 4 years ago
Patricia 4 years ago
Stacey Jacques 4 years ago
Oven Glove's Creek 4 years ago
Neville 4 years ago
10 of 24Morei watched this show & i loved it!! :)
hard to believe those viewer figures like. it was clearly better than big brother :P
- chelsea.
What I don't understand is how the hell do they know how many people have watched the show?
ok! so you got ears !!!
fuck the begrudger s
ps: i meant to watch it but i was stoned,,,,sorry lol
seriously happy easter to you an yours
djpr
Well, I certainly liked it!
I never even saw an advert for it and would have watched it if I had.
Even the Headmaster watched it!
The Headmaster has seen you live in Liverpool you know.
The Headmaster
Loved it. Thank so much for not making it a hatchet-job.
What I wouldn't give to see the full length gig, eh?
Cheers.
S.
(a LARPer of 20 years).
Hello Dara,
I saw the Tough Gig and loved it - but what geeks. Mock the Week is on TV just now and it reminds me that I met you last year on a train - you sat opposite me when I was going from Newcastle to Aberdeen and then some weeks later I saw you in Malmaison in Newcastle (after you had been to a wedding? Remember? Or is that a dumb thing to ask.) Anyhow - I am again in Aberdeen and really I wondered if you have any live gigs in this area coming up? Anni L
You well know EVERYBODY watched it! It was hilarious and i made my friend watch it too, who is a total nerd when it comes to W.O.W...she LOVED IT TOO!
And. Just a message for people who are attacking Big Brother on this page: SHUT THE FOOK UP! :) Thank you for listening. :)(Y)
Well me and my housemates watched it and thought it was brilliant! It's just a shame it wasn't long enough to fit in your entire routine at the end.
actually I would like to take this opportunity or Dara's failings - whatever you want to call it - to ask people to stop watching anything on ITV.
I say this because they have really pissed me off with the F1. Last year they actually missed the final lap of the Monacco Grand Prix (I think it was) and last week they were on for an hour and a half and had 15 minutes of ads.
Not only that but they change into Quiz Bollocks or whatever it's called at around midnight, they cancel Dara's programme because they didn't advertise it and apart from corionation street - they have nothing to offer - no new comedies (I believe they axed "the Abbey" which had my mate ras in) and the films they show are in the "Straight to video" bracket.
Everyone, rise up and stop watching ITV 1,2,3 and 4 - you won't miss a thing.
-**rant over
Love you DARA