Dianc
Synopsis
Two contestants are blindfolded and abandoned in an isolated location. When they hear the hooter, they can remove their blindfold and meet their fellow player. The two of them will be together for the next 24 hours.
Our players await the starting klaxon.
Near to the players is a bag containing essentials – water, sunscreen, rations. There's a key, and a tablet computer. Through this tablet, the contestants will be given directions. Four different runs will comprise the programme, a full day in real life, edited to an hour of television.
Each show follows a similar pattern, and begins with a literal run to the concealed van. Then there's a drive to a picturesque outdoors challenge, and then another drive to a test of honesty and first impressions.
Your reward for risking life and limb: a square of clear plastic.
Success in each challenge earns a plastic sheet with some scribbles on. In the back of the van is an aerial photo of a location, and the sheets blank out sections of the photo.
This information is crucial in the final challenge, the hunt for the one locked box containing £1000. It could be in any of the locked boxes in any of the squares - but it won't be in the ones they've scribbled out.
The players work as individuals in this final challenge, and whoever finds the money has one final decision to make: keep it all, or split it equally with their colleague.
The crossed-out squares don't contain the money.
At heart, Dianc is all about the interaction between the players. The challenges and the driving and the hunt for the grand are framing devices to bring emotions to the surface. It succeeds admirably, we can root for (or against) players in the endgame.
But the show is framed by its opening narration - a disembodied, hectoring voice. It refers to the contestants as "prisoners", and insinuates that we're wasting our lives by watching television. It's not a good way to keep people watching after the evening news - viewers turned off, and Dianc was shunted later and later in the evening. They didn't need a sarcastic narration, but we reckon the show would have worked much better with a neutral voice.
Trivia
The show title translates as "Escape".
