Games Show Has Local Flavour

Newcastle Herald

Saturday August 9, 2008

ANITA BEAUMONT

Twelve executives sit around a long table in a big boardroom, sipping green tea and nibbling on Monte Carlos while they try to come up with a quirky name for an Olympics panel show that somehow captures the "essence" of Beijing in a cute breakfast format.

They are the same executives who like to come up with terms such as "smil-edy" not quite a comedy, but a program that makes a person smile a lot.

Olympic Sunrise might have been suitable for the Sydney Games, but Beijing needs something a little catchier, it is thought.

One of the executives slumps over the table, doodling on his otherwise empty notepad.

Another taps her nails on the desk as her eyes flick from one puzzled face to another.

Beijing . . . China . . . Chinese . . . Chinese food, they all think in unison.

The youngest of them interrupts the reverie with a loud slurp of his tea. At the sound, another executive's eyes light up.

He starts tapping his pen on his notepad in excitement.

"Yum cha!" he yells. "We should call the Olympics breakfast show Yum Cha! It's Chinese, it involves tea, the show is on around breakfast time when people are drinking tea! It's parochial, but perfect!"

If only these guys had been around in 2000. The same show might have been called Mornings With Vegemite.

YUM CHA

Saturday, Prime, 9.30am

This brekky show aims to bring viewers up to speed with the news from Beijing that they might have missed overnight.

Hosted by Andrew Daddo, the panel show will frequently bring in experts and celebrity guests to chat about the Olympic Games and the gossip.

It will run each day until the closing ceremony.

MESSAGE STICK: YARNING UP

Sunday, ABC1, 1.30pm

Featuring four short films by indigenous directors from the Top End, including Yolngu Guya Djamamirr, which goes behind the popular YouTube clips of the Chooky Dancers' interpretation of Zorba The Greek. It gives a new perspective on life in remote areas.

PERFECT DAY: THE WEDDING

Sunday, ABC1, 8.35pm

The Perfect Day trilogy centres around the lives of a group of university friends over three fateful days.

It was created as a one-off drama titled The Wedding, but after its success the producers were commissioned to come up with a prequel The Millennium and a sequel The Funeral.

Tonight's show focuses on the wedding day of friends-turned-lovers Tom and Amy.

There would be no point watching if the program began with a happy ending. So, Amy gets cold feet when her ex-boyfriend shows up to declare his love.

Drama, and a healthy dose of subtle comedy, ensues.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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