DBTI is a very traditional game show. If you didn’t realise it was 2012 from all the adverts that cut into the hour-long show you’d think it was the early 1990s and Bruce Forsyth, looking a lot younger now, was doing game shows again rather than dance competitions.
Vine, using the game show as a vehicle in parts for his puns – which are hilarious, eye-rolling and cringe worthy in equal measure but I love them – is definitely channelling Forsyth, from the use of catchphrases – “You can blow a candle, you can even blow a trumpet, but whatever you do, don’t blow the inheritance” complete with the audience shouting the last line, surely a catchphrase that will lead to some dodgy adult interpretations – to the audience interaction, with ‘nice to see you, to see you, nice’ replaced with ‘We’ve lost a team’ to which the audience reply, often incomprehensibly, ‘It’s the end of the dream’ as if their microphones are up too high.
The basic structure of the game show is straight out of the Forsyth book of game shows. Vine comes on, dressed casually in a tie-less shirt, to stand in front of the now traditional large video screen that displays some typical graphics and the questions / answers, to introduce the four sets of contestants: one parent and one child. He goes across and speaks to each of them and find out about them whilst also thrusting in some loosely connected one-liners into the proceedings, which is clichéd but fun enough. We then get four rounds of gaming with one pair leaving the game after each round, with only one pair left to win the money, with the final round putting the child at centre stage to try and inherit the money the parents have raised, hence the title.
Round one is your typical general knowledge round with the kids buzzing in as Vine reads out a question, but only if they think their parent knows the answer. If the parent gets it right, they get £1000 into the pot. If they get it wrong all the other pots get filled with an extra grand. This continues until the end of the round and the person with the least amount of money leaves.
Round two is a spin on family fortunes with the winning child picking a category and the parent has to fill in the ten responses that satisfy the question, e.g. ‘Name the last ten UK Prime Ministers’, getting a grand for every correct answer. The second ranking team then get to pick a question followed by the third. Again, the lowest scoring family are out.
Round three is like a simpler version of ‘Only Connect’ with three clues gradually revealed by Vine and the kids have to buzz in when they think the parent will know the answer. If they get it right they get a grand; get it wrong the other team get it, with the final team with the lowest score sent away.
The final round sees the child take centre stage with their pot of money. They have five questions to answer and no time limit if they keep getting them right. Get one wrong, however, and the pot of money starts decreasing and Vine reads out constant questions until the five are answered or the money runs out. They then go home with whatever is left. This certainly adds a good bit of tension to the end of the proceedings.
DBTI isn’t a particularly revolutionary game show. The concept of the kids – mostly teenagers or those in their early twenties – having to know what their parents know to win big is a good hook but a lot of the other elements – the rounds, the at-times-forced catchphrases and the puns – are a tad derivative of classic game shows.
It’s very much a throwback to the game shows of my childhood and, actually, that’s pretty fun. It’s a little bit knowing, a little bit cheesy and Vine is at home with the style of humour needed for the game shows. It doesn’t have perhaps as much viewer interaction as, say, ‘Pointless’ or ‘Only Connect’ but it’s fun to watch with family and friends and is a vast improvement on the usual confusing and overly complicated game shows ITV has recently rolled out. And it’s far, far better than ‘Red or Black’.
DBTI is a great third string to Vine’s bow following his successfully stand up and appearance in excellent BBC sitcom ‘Not Going Out’ and it’s fun, retro, cheesy fun for an evening. It’s not particularly unique but is fun enough and the nods to the Forsyth / Monkhouse / Walker era of game shows that were just so much fun is great. There is some genuinely good amounts of money to be won by the contestants, certainly in contrast to similar game shows that, even if the contestants do manage to win any money, it’s paltry. But with only a short run of ten episodes I hope it doesn’t turn out to be a mistake for Vine to have stretched out into the world of game shows and leaving, for instance ‘Not Going Out’ behind in which he was so good. I’ll certainly miss him from that and not sure if him fronting a game show that would normally be on when I’m at work where he recycles some of his stand-up jokes, even if they are great second time round, will be a good enough substitute, but hopefully this is the first in a long line of new ventures for him.
I do, though, wish the show the best of luck in getting a second, hopefully longer, run as it’s a fun, enjoyable, cosy, family-friendly game show that harks back to a rosier time when Noel had a crinkly bottom and not twenty-two red boxes and ‘cuddly toy’ was an often heard call in the living rooms of Great Britain.
7/10
You can watch ‘Don’t Blow The Inheritance’ until the 31st August, 5pm on ITV1 weeknights.
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