Stars and Strikes
Contents |
Host
Co-hosts
Freddie Lee Peterkin as "DJ Freddie Murphy"
Lara Kington as "Debbie Down Under"
Paul Danan
Broadcast
Box Television for 4Music, 28 December 2010 to 2011 (4 episodes in 1 series)
Synopsis
Basically a bit of a gimmick: Rick Edwards plays a ten-frame ten-pin bowling match against a popstar or group, with the frames alternating with pop videos selected by the guest and introduced by the resident DJ.
Spin the PinA few twists are included: one frame is "spin the pin" in which a spinner is used to select a way in which the ball is to be bowled (using an eccentrically-weighted ball, wearing big padded gloves, blindfold or cued snooker-style) and there is a side-game called "Japoke" in which the guest is asked to identify a song performed in Japanese. There are also various bits of comic business involving the supposed staff of the bowing alley, in particular the DJ "Freddie Murphy" and ex-Hollyoaks actor Paul Danan, doing an Extras-style turn "as himself", a faded actor turned alley manager pining for his former days of C-list celebrity.
What else do you call Japanese karaoke? Well, most people would just call it "karaoke"...Although it just about qualifies as a game show, the inclusion of pop videos gives it too much of a stop-start feel to really work satisfactorily, and we're not sure the game element will actually be particularly interesting even to ten-pin fanatics, but it's amusing if unspectacular filler.
And yes, Rick went on to win comfortably.