Fast Friends
Synopsis
They're friends! They're fast! They're Fast Friends!
Thankfully, it's not a Formula One race where the participants are the cast of the obviously hilarious American comedy Friends but a game show with Les Dawson in it. Two teams of thirty people are in their little dens with their team captains on stage.
Each captain has got thirty seconds in order to select which four people are going to be in their team. The catch is, the captain has got to split the thirty seconds into four different time limits and must choose which friend will answer the question. If they're wrong, they'll have to select someone else. Quickly. If they do it within the time limit that friend gets to be on the team.
In the next round, the 'friends' and captains are all asked individual multi-choice questions. If the friends are right, they stay on the team, but if they are wrong, they are sent, as Les puts it, "off to the dump dock" - an early take on Dog Eat Dog's Losers' Bench. However, a lifeline is offered, whereby if the captain gets the answer right, the friend stays. The captain is never sent to the Dump Dock, but if he/she gets a question wrong, he/she has to select a friend to send there. The first captain to lose all his/her friends loses the game, but everyone gets a Fast Friends address book to take home!
In the final round, the winning captain is joined by all his/her friends once again and they are given a selection of answers to a question on the video wall. Only one of the answers is incorrect and this must be avoided in order to ensure victory. (Shades of Wipeout here!) Each of the friends suggests an answer and the captain decides whether to go with it or choose an alternative answer. If the team succeeds, the captain wins a holiday, while everyone wins a mini-TV and of course the address book! The mediocre prizes (especially the address book!) were obviously a take on Blankety Blank
One amusing moment occurred on the show when a 'friend' was asked a question concerning a famous pianist. One of her three options was 'Les Dawson', so she said kindly, "Well, I'd like to say you, Les, but...", only for the adjudicator to accept that as her (incorrect) answer. Fortunately, once she had pointed out that she had meant to give a different answer, she was allowed to try again and thus got it right!
Fast Friends was quite a neat idea - indeed, the idea of teams being formed only at the time of the show was probably quite a novel one in the early 1990's. Unfortunately, it never really worked, mainly because it was handled in a very cheap and tacky way, especially in terms of the set and prizes. Also, while the first round was quite pleasantly active, the other two rounds were not very imaginative and had little to hold the attention. Perhaps the cheapness of the show (in addition to choosing Les Dawson as host) was an attempt by the BBC to create a new version of Blankety Blank, but Fast Friends did not have enough going for it to achieve this. It's certainly fair to say that it wasn't much of a career move for Les!
Catchphases
(to 'friends' who gave incorrect answers): "Alas - begone - off to the dump dock!"
"You've won a 'Fast Friends' address book!" (obviously a take on Blankety Blank)
