I thought I would write a follow up review of ITV1's Fortune, despite nearly losing the will to live at about half way through. I'm not sure if it was the hideous "contestants" or the awful, inconsistent approach from the panellists but this was terrible. But also terribly compelling and I managed to keep watching.

I suppose the standout entrant was the little boy who had been "diagnosed" as "exceptionally bright". I had a natural empathy with him because I've long suspected I suffer from extreme intelligentsia but it hasn't been spotted by the medical profession yet. He wanted 38k to pay for him to goto college. But it turned out he had just written his first book about a young wizard with OCD - prompting Lord Archer to make the funny observation, "It's often to best to start out autobiographical" - which actually sounds like a hilarous premise for a book. Think Harry Potter-cum-Monk. So if the book is any good, publish it and use the money to pay for the college. And if it's no good, then it wasn't really much of an achievement so stop bragging about it!

Also, the more I hear them not mention how wealthy Kanye King is, whilst specifically telling us how much the others are worth, the more curious it makes me about how much she is worth and what qualifies her for a position on the "fortune five".

So more oddball entertainment but nothing much learned. What looks more promising is the forthcoming Tycoon, which was trailed during one of the ad breaks starring another escapee from the Dragons' Den, Peter Jones, where he promises to invest in great new business ideas with his own money.

Labels: fortune, itv1, reviews

I'm a big fan of Dragon's Den, and reviewed most of the last series on this blog. So I was keen to see Fortune on ITV1 after I saw it trailed with Duncan Bannantyne, and assumed it was ITV's version of Dragon's Den. And it is to some extent, but without any hint of being to do with business. This is simply individuals or groups coming up with their begging bowl and asking the panel of millionaires if they have can have some money.

The Millionaires are Duncan Bannantyne, Jacqueline Gold from Ann Summers*, Simon Jordan (owner of Crystal Palace), Lord Archer and Kanya King, who organises the MOBO awards. I was interested to note that the voice over on the trailer stated the total wealth of all the panellists except for Kanya King.

If the show is one half Dragon's Den, the other half is X Factor, as the format borrows heavily from the X-Factor auditions - a few worthies (like the boy for the cancer charity) and a few village idiots we can have a laugh at.

Best moments were Duncan Bannantyne's face when Simon Jordan questioned the wisdom of accepting "a Bannantyne cheque" and the way the educational rapper was hastened off stage after he said he wasn't like most rappers because he was white, well spoken, loved his mum, didn't do crack and didn't shoot people.

Summary: Not what I was hoping for, but a quite funny freak show with some touching moments.

* I used to get a satisfying conversion rate from Ann Summers on TD. Can't get a sale for love nor money now, despite links being in the same place on the same site and there being an increase in overall traffic to the site!

Labels: itv1