The Wheel

SPIN THE WHEEL! is shouted by the host, and for what seems like thirty minutes, the wheel spins, and spins, and spins. Then the contestant wheel spins, and spins, and spins. And the viewer's brain spins, and spins, and spins.

If this review sounds repetitive and monotonous, that's because this show is repetitive and monotonous. There is very little game play, a lot of shouting. It's a panel show trying very hard to be a game show, but failing on all counts.

This bit of fluff is makes reasonable entertainment that I, my mother and grandmother can enjoy.

Macintyre can be a bit much, but he is perfectly cast here, as our guide where responds impeccably to the apparently not funny things the contestants say.

The tone is bombastic and deliberately silly which you just have to be in the mood for. They don't waste time though: there's always someone I have heard of in the celebrity line-up and the questions are usually pretty gettable but of course there is so much I don't know!

The random element of the contestants casts a shadow over the show. Maybe they could have a fastest finger type thing?

It gives irritating (and common) possibility of someone raising all the money themselves and then someone else just takes it at the last.

Often they greedily try and double it and I so want to see them lose everything.

Sentimental and low-brow, sometimes that is just what the doctor ordered.

I get a masochistic joy at seeing the remarkable ignorance of celebrities and the general public.

It's a quiz show. In one long dreary hour it gets to about 6 questions over which the contestant agonises with the "celebrity". Spinning a wheel with people sitting in a circle like on a fairground ride whilst playing Christmas pop songs to determine who to pair with etc is slow, time consuming and adds nothing to the game. Seen one, won't bother with another. Just because Michael Mcintyre hosts this show doesn't make it fun. Stick with the stand-up Michael, we don't need him on everything

The majority of this show is just watching minor celebrities spinning on a wheel.if it wasn't for that waste of time you could condense this down to about 11 minutes.

By the end of the show it made me cringe every time I heard - Spin the wheel...

Michael McIntyre has long been searching for other projects besides being a venue filling stand-up comedian.

Being a talent show judge didn't work, neither did being a chat-show host, so the BBC have clearly thought in their wisdom that being a game-show host might be more up his street. He even came up with the format...great.

This isn't a bad show, it's an opportunity to use the seemingly in vogue idea of celebs (cough cough) helping members of the public to win 'big money', but isn't up there with the best game-shows.

It's done well for the BBC so far, so I imagine they'll continue to milk it.