...5, 4, 3, 2, 1

So that's the first two recordings done and dusted. But not edited. (I think they should dust them after the edit - there'll be less to dust that way and nobody enjoys dusting, do they?)

The guests were both fab - as I knew they would be. I've always said that the guests should come from different fields and make every show feel different and we definitely got that with Catherine Tate and Jonathan Pryce. There were a couple of times during show 2, that I caught myself in the middle of doing something ridiculous with Jonathan and had to pinch myself. "He's the finest Hamlet of his generation, a Bond villain, Madonna's hubby in Evita and Keira Knightly's Dad in Pirates of the Caribbean... and now he's here doing this with me!" What a ridiculous world.

The first show was plagued by a few technical problems which really slowed things down. It took a lot longer than it should and lost some of its sense of flow on the night so I'm very grateful to the audience for staying as energised as they did. It's always a learning curve and by the second show a lot of small kinks had been ironed out of the process so we were able to make everything happen much quicker and smoother.

But perhaps the best part for me was seeing the reactions of the, for want of a better word, contestants. They're naturally nervous before the show but afterwards, regardless of whether they were declared genius or not, they all seemed elated. When I chat to them afterwards the most frequent comment is always, "I'd like to do it again. Now." It's really quite exciting to be a part of.

For the next recordings we're going to jig a few things about and add in a few more rows of seating... that way we'll be able to get a load more people in too. Hurrah for things like that.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6...

Genius is on the launch pad. We film the first episode on Tuesday and the second on Wednesday.

Face 98, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

Then it's non-stop til it's all filmed. We have some amazing guests booked. I'm looking forward to it. I have meetings on Monday. About details. I'm bored of the details. I want to get in the studio and make the thing.

Thanks...

Seats, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

... for the overwhelming response on the logo front. I wasn't expecting so many people to respond. I wasn't really aware that so many people were reading. Maybe I should make more decisions this way. Next time I'm not sure which tie to wear I'll remember what a great resource this is. Anyway... ta.

If you want to see what decision we made you'll have to come to one of the studio recordings or wait for the broadcast.

Logotastic Opinions Welcomed.

According to a reliable source the office in which I'm spending most of my life right now was formerly the office occupied by Noel Edmonds when he was working on Noel's House Party. I hope some of the Edmond's magic rubs off on Genius. (Obviously I mean his telly magic, not the Cosmic Ordering "magic" stuff - that's just bonkers.)

Anyway... one of the reasons we did the run-through of a show at The Drill Hall recently was to help us test out a few things that we want to change from the one-off show we made last year. We definitely need to change the set we used for that show because it was very limiting. We want to be able to try out so many varied and different things on the show and that means we need a set that is particularly versatile.

And if we're changing the set that means it's only sensible to stop and consider whether all the visual elements are as good as they can be. So this afternoon we were talking about logos for the show. We had one on the one-off show - although it wasn't very visible on the set - but, the question was asked - could we come up with anything better. Something simple, unobtrusive... but essentially Genius.

We came up with a shortlist of ideas and argued the toss for a while before realising that we were
a) all getting a bit wordblind
and b) all too busy to spend quite that long discussing something like that.

"What we need," said one bright spark, "is to find out what some other people think. Some people who aren't as close to the show as us..."

So, in no particular order, here's our shortlist. They're only rough versions to give you an idea... although one of them is pretty much what was used on the one-off show.
Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:


I don't want to say too much about my own preferences because I don't want to steer you one way or the other... but if one of them grabs you... or one of them repulses you... or you think they're all duff... let me know. If you've never listened to the radio show... what would these logos make you think the show was? If you have listened, which is the best fit for the show? Let us know...