Breakaway

[James Robinson]

Did anyone see Breakaway on BBC Two I thought it was quite a good show actually, and good to see Nick Hancock in a hosting role again, I always thought he could be a good DC guest, whether that'll happen or not, we'll have to wait and see...........

Basically, there are 6 people (one of them happened to be Series 62 contestant, Dominic Travers) at the start of this floor, at the other end is a laser beam which they cross once 30 questions have been answered correctly. If they answer together as a team, they get £100 for the pot, but if someone wants to "breakaway", it's worth £300 per right answer, but the person can only ask by themselves, although they can offer one person the chance to come across, but the downside is that if they get a question wrong, they're eliminated from the show. The person that is invited can decline to come across too.

The first 21 questions are split into 7 categories of 3 questions. The first one is chosen by Nick, the next ones are chosen by the person who wins a "life", or the "breakaway" player. After every 3 questions (or 1 category even), if one person isn't already across, the team are asked if they want to "breakaway", and have 5 seconds to say so. Incidentally, at these points, there is also the change to gain a "life", so that if you get one wrong when you're on your own, you just lose the life, but if you have none left, you go. If you get one wrong as a team, all you do is lose the money that is banked upto that point.

What do you think

[Clive Brooker]

A cross between the Tour de France and One Man and His Dog.

Most of the players seem tactically pretty clueless. Today, for example, with very little risk Dave could have bumped off his partner by stepping forward on the last question and giving a wrong answer.

Some of the features might need looking at - making a few more lives available should liven things up a bit. And losing all the accumulated cash for one wrong answer is a bit naff. On one game there was only £500 between 4 at the end - and still no-one broke away on the last question and grab themselves a reasonable amount.

A bit more focus from the players wouldn't go amiss. The approach should be far more cut-throat.

[Eoin Monaghan]

I quite like this show, the questions are of a fairly good standard and it's much better with no options to stop from any guesswork completely. A pretty good concept which I prefer to Perfection.

[Michael Wallace]

Most of the players seem tactically pretty clueless. Today, for example, with very little risk Dave could have bumped off his partner by stepping forward on the last question and giving a wrong answer.

I was wondering about that too - presumably the way they avoid the problem of two players disagreeing is to just say "whoever steps forward first gets to answer", which could get a bit farcical if someone works out that their partner is trying to screw them over. Would've been pretty funny though.

[Rhys Benjamin]

I really like this.

Not sure if I should put this in the lookalikes thread or in here but on today's show, there's a very clever player, called Mark, who looks like Mark Deeks.

[Eoin Monaghan]

I really like this.

Not sure if I should put this in the lookalikes thread or in here but on today's show, there's a very clever player, called Mark, who looks like Mark Deeks.

Eh... I don't think Mark D will be too pleased about that.

[Ryan Taylor]

This show just looks messy on the eye. It is OK though from the 3 I've now seen. One happened to be Only Connect champion Dave Bill who got a bit of a ghastly question as his last one (compared to what I saw in the other two). The questions are fair though I think overall. Bit shit that you lose all the money for a wrong answer (or something). And I don't like that it's the first person to press their button thing who gets to Breakaway (referring to the later stages when people want to Breakaway).

Anyway, only reason I posted in here was 'cos I saw a show maybe last week or 2 weeks ago with a guy called Ed on it. At first I thought he was being a bit of a cock at times (but then again I guess he was only doing what producers tell you to do when a person whose broke away gets a wrong answer). So yeah, there was two peeps left (him and an older woman) with one question to go and Ed had a life. When asked to Breakaway for the final question Ed did do. But then quite amazingly he invited up the older woman to join him and split the cash if they won. I just thought this was very nice. Yay for Ed.

[Phil Reynolds]

Ed had a life.

What was he doing on a TV game show then?

[James Robinson]

In case you aren't on Facebook, or aren't a friend of mine, I thought I'd mention that I'll be on the 4th episode of Series 2 of Breakaway, which will be on BBC Two on October 11 at 4:30pm.

[James Robinson]

In case you aren't on Facebook, or aren't a friend of mine, I thought I'd mention that I'll be on the 4th episode of Series 2 of Breakaway, which will be on BBC Two on October 11 at 4:30pm.

So, today's the day then.

After getting your Countdown fix, maybe a short hop over to BBC Two would be nice.

Ex-Countdowner and serial quizzer, Melanie Beaumont, will also be on the show.

[Jack Worsley]

Unlucky James, thought you did well though.

[Jojo Apollo]

Unlucky James, good try. I thought it was a bit too early to try to breakaway, I was thinking you would have tried to breakaway at the second to last stage and try and take Melanie with you because you knew of her quizzing background. Well done to Melanie.

[Innis Carson]

Hard luck James, I'd say you were wise to break away when you did. Anyone who knows Melanie at all will know that her final split was inevitable, and that more than likely, so was her success. Well played nonetheless, you had some proud moments and were brave to have a go at the jackpot. Really enjoyed watching it, and maybe you'll get your revenge in November.

[James Robinson]

Hard luck James, I'd say you were wise to break away when you did. Anyone who knows Melanie at all will know that her final split was inevitable, and that more than likely, so was her success. Well played nonetheless, you had some proud moments and were brave to have a go at the jackpot. Really enjoyed watching it, and maybe you'll get your revenge in November.

Unlucky James, good try. I thought it was a bit too early to try to breakaway, I was thinking you would have tried to breakaway at the second to last stage and try and take Melanie with you because you knew of her quizzing background. Well done to Melanie.

Unlucky James, thought you did well though.

Thanks you guys.

The show itself was fantastic. Quite amazed how so much was cut out, not that it would make any difference to the overall result.

In reference to the first question, I think that this backs up my case, as well as QI, Series E, Episode 11.

And in the breaking away, I broke then, cos I thought Melanie probably would and might not ask anyone over, but I was so close to deciding to ask Melanie to come round, but I thought I'd try and get 3 on my own, and if it didn't work out as well, I'd try at the next break point, and also, I wanted to see if I could make the CoC, because our show was actually the last to be recorded, so we knew what amount would get us into the CoC, so I was a bit greedy in hindsight.

I was so umming and aahing in relation to the Budapest answer, I didn't just jump in, as it seemed to suggest on screen, because I knew I had a choice of only 4 answers (Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest or Belgrade.), but I ruled out Bratislava and Belgrade, and went for the wrong one.

And with the witchetty grub, just had nothing, so went with praying mantis purely from the "hook" part of the question.

So, if I'd asked Melanie and she accepted at the time, it might've been a whole lot different..........

[Jojo Apollo]

Ah the CoC point explains a lot, cheers James. I only knew the witchetty grub answer from watching IACGMOOH