Hole in the Wall is a British game show that aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom. It also occasionally aired repeats of this show on CBBC until April 2014. This game was an adaptation of the Japanese game Brain Wall (also known as "Human Tetris") in which players must contort themselves to fit through cutout holes of varying shapes in a large polystyrene wall moving towards them as they stand in front of a swimming pool. Each week, two teams of television personalities competed for £10,000 in prize money to be donated to their chosen charity.
Dale Winton served as the original host while Strictly Come Dancing ballroom dancer Anton du Beke and former international cricketer Darren Gough were the team captains for the first series. Additionally, Jonathan Pearce commented on the replays and Peter Dickson provided the opening voice-over. The wall was activated by the presenter shouting Bring on the wall![1]
On 3 July 2008, the BBC announced that the show had been commissioned for BBC One. A second series was confirmed, with Anton du Beke giving up his captain role to take over from Dale Winton as host and new team captains in the shape of former rugby player Austin Healey and actor Joe Swash with Jonathan Pearce now doing an opening voice-over plus replay commentary.[2]
The game was split into four rounds as well as the final "Great Wall" (known as "Mega Wall" in the first series).
The first round was "Solo Wall" which saw each team's two guest players take a turn to face a wall just on their own. For each wall, 10 points were given to the player for a pass while a fail could be given up to 5 points depending on the host's whim.
Next was the "Captain's Challenge" or "Captain's Mate" which could be one of a number of games:
The third round was "Mystery Guest or Killer Question", the team leading being offered the choice of which game they wished to play and the currently losing team playing the other challenge. A maximum of 20 points was on offer.
The fourth round was the "Team Wall". All three players face the wall with a maximum of 30 points on offer.
The programme's finale was the "Mega Wall". The leading team got to choose to attempt the wall or nominate the opposition. All three players on the team attempt the wall, which travels at double speed - if they clear the wall, they win the show (and the £10,000 to donate to a charity of their choice), while if they fail, the opposing team wins the £10,000.
Hole in the Wall used a specialised crane made by Street Crane Company of Chapel-en-le-Frith to move the wall.
Series 2, which started on 26 September 2009, contains all new challenges. Solo Wall now only featured one guest attempting a wall instead of two. The Captain's Challenge was replaced with Captain's Mate in which the teammate who did not attempt solo wall stands in the play area with his or her captain (sometimes one person is blindfolded). Team Wall returned. Killer Question was now named Wonder Wall (with both teams now playing it as opposed to just one team). A new challenge named Anton's Twist debuted. Which followed some of the following twists:
The Mega Wall was renamed the Great Wall.
Anton's Twist, according to Anton, involved walls he'd invented with a twist. Variations could be any number players with various twists (such as placing leg braces around the legs of team members commonly used in three-legged races), or the appearance of a mystery guest. Notably, one episode had Anton announce a mystery guest for Joe Swash's team, and Joe asked, "Is it my mum?" It turned out it was his mother, but the two failed the wall (although they still scored points for the team).
Series 1 was recorded at BBC Television Centre in White City, West London, with series 2 seeing the show relocating to BBC Pacific Quay in Glasgow as part of an out-of-London production plan. For series 2, the show was also shot in high-definition.[3]
The first series had the entire audience off to the left side (from the perspective of the cameras looking straight at the wall), with the team benches on the other side, and the scoreboards by each bench. Winton, Du Beke, and Gough (as well as their teammates) would emerge from the left side when introduced, while the mystery guest(s) emerged from a platform below stage that rose to the top when introduced. For the second series, the audience was placed on three sides of the set, and the scoreboards were placed on the floor, hence Anton's catchphrase: "The scores on the floor are..."
This series started on 26 September 2009, presented by Anton du Beke.