Hat-o-Matic

Here's a preview clip from the final episode of the current series...



You'll note from the endplate:


that it's going out on Sunday night and not Monday. This is slightly annoying what with people being creatures of habit and all that... the technical reason given is - genuinely - that a scheduler counted wrong. Amazing.

Anyway... Sunday. 11pm. The last episode. With Noddy Holder and Shappi Khorsandi. No two guests' names have ever been more fun to say!

Oh, y'know, one of those events where people take over a motel and show each other their rugs

Oh, y'know, one of those events where people take over a motel and show each other their rugs, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

Ill In A Sexy Time Machine

Episode 5 is up next with the remarkable guest-list of Tim Minchin & Alexei Sayle (the only two guests in the whole series whose names combine to form an anagram of Ill In A Sexy Time Machine).

Here's a preview clip:



There'll be some extras - clips we couldn't squeeze into the show etc. - on the Genius website - as soon as the show is finished and no doubt a few others going up during the week.

It's on at 10pm. On BBC2. On Monday.

X Factor Compactor

The very funny and rather lovely Simon Evans alerted me to this website this morning when he tweeted about it. (On twitter he leaves out the 'very funny and rather lovely' part of his name and is just @thesimonevans)(I believe skatepunk indie band The Simone Vans are furious)

If you haven't already seen it, the X Factor Compactor allows you to mix up the features of the X Factor panel, War, Famine, Death & Pestilence. I mean, Simon, Cheryl, Louis & Dannii. Which is all very well but what drew me in was Simon's observation that some of the chimeras have an eerie lookalike quality. Simon had found a blend that added up to a damned good Andy Kershaw.

Here are mine:

A chubby Alan Cumming:

A blow dried (and glasses free) Dominic Holland:

and Jim Davidson with mascara:

Go. Play.

Speed

Speed, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

Oh... I was in San Francisco by the way.

A Moving Appeal

Loads of extras have snuck on to the Genius website while I've been away but none have been more moving than this:



At this time of (genuinely worrying) cuts to the BBC, let's not forget that we're public service broadcasters first and foremost.

I might have been away but the show - which is pre-recorded - has been rolling along nicely. It was very gratifying to come home and see all the lovely comments about episodes 3 (Richard Herring & Vanessa Feltz) and 4 (Chris Addison & Mel Giedroyc).

My bum - at the time of typing still available on iplayer here - seems to have gone down very well. I think I did well to whisk my wife away to foreign climes while that was going out on the telly.

I hope you can tune in on Monday for episode 5 with Alexei Sayle and Tim Minchin.

Presence

Lamp, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

I'm back from my travels.

I'm jet lagged.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Absence

In the normal run of things I'm pretty attentive to the online world.
I keep my site up to date, pay attention to comments left on my facebook page, twitter regularly and, of course, keep this blog turning over too.

But for a wee while I'm about to be a bit less attentive as other things deserve my attention more.
If I don't reply to an e-mail or a comment here, there or wherever please don't think me rude.

For the next two weeks, Richard Herring will be standing in for me on the Absolute Radio show - Sundays from 10am til noon. By coincidence, he's also a guest on the next episode of Genius - Monday at 10pm on BBC2. The other guest is Vanessa Feltz.
They genuinely bring out the best in each other. I hope you can watch it.

I've been trying to link to the online extras that are going up throughout the series but I'm bound to let that slide this next wee while. So if you're on twitter - do follow @BBCgenius who'll be letting you know about all those things or just keep an eye on the website bbc.co.uk/genius because new clips - some specially filmed and some clips we couldn't squeeze into the show.

There. That's my "I'm away from the office" message for blogland.
I'm having fun.
Everything's ace.

Extra, Extra, See All About It.

So... episode two is on the iplayer (here) and will be there til next Monday. It's also repeated on Saturday night at a quarter to midnight.

I've had a fair number of tweets and e-mails asking why we haven't done red button extras this year. I don't know the reasons behind it but I do know that there are just as many extras. It's just that instead of putting them on the red button, they're online. I guess it means they stay there longer instead of disappearing when a new episode comes along. So the show 1 extras are still there now that show 2 has been on t'box. Clips are going up after each episode and also through the week.

So, for example, after episode one they added an idea that we couldn't squeeze into the show (a hamster powered car) as one clip and also a video of Master Genius, Pat Harkin's top 5 ways to make Britain better. And after episode two, there was the clip I linked to in my last post (exercise cutlery) as well as a video of the day I went to Maggie's house to catch up with her and her sister, Trish. If you've seen that particular show you'll know who I mean and if you haven't, well, that's what the iPlayer is for.

The extras are all on the genius website: www.bbc.co.uk/genius

An Exercise Cutlery Extra

Here's an extra from the last episode of Genius. Just a little thing we didn't have time to include in the show. The idea is Exercise Cutlery - a special rig of pulleys and weights that every time you lift your knife and/or fork you're also doing a work out:



It was a really packed show this week so there was simply no way of squeezing this in as well. If you want to see the whole episode, it'll be on iplayer for week... starting just aboooouuuutttt.... now.

Genius: Monday. 10pm. BBC2. Episode 2.

Last week, I did a bit of silly photoshopping of the guests faces.
This week, someone else has had a go.
I'm a bit scared.

The guests are The Hairy Bikers & Jane Moore.

Here we are:

Dave Hairy, Si Hairy, Me and Jane.
















And here's the photoshopped version from a chap called Craig:

Si Hairy, Dave Hairy, Jane and me.

*shudders*

Subliminal Advertising...

So last week a French chocolatier decided to make a boat out of chocolate. It was seaworthy.

Apparently.

Sort of.

It was featured on the BBC news website. You can see a video of the boat in action - or the boats inaction - here.
(You might have to be in the UK to watch that. Not sure.)

And what did I see staring out at me from the boat's sail?

Something that looked pretty much like a genius logo.

I don't think we've had anyone suggest a chocolate boat before.

But really, you don't need to make a whole boat and get it on to international news shows in order to bring it to our attention. You can just send us an e-mail or a tweet if you like.

Or maybe it's just a coincidence. Either way... nice subliminal advertising. I don't speak French but I'm pretty sure that if you listen to the video you can hear the chocolate sailor (easy!) saying that he's looking forward to the show on Monday. BBC2. 10pm. With the Hairy Bikers and Jane Moore.

I think that's what he said.

Episode Two

So... episode one will be repeated on BBC2 at a quarter to midnight on Saturday. It's also on the iplayer to watch - or download - for another three days.

Meanwhile, episode two will be shown on Monday night at 10pm.

The guests are Jane Moore - who used to be my oppo on Annually Retentive - and The Hairy Bikers. I don't think I've ever seen an audience get more excited about a guest (or guests) before. The Hairy Bikers have rock star status. I think the three of them makes for a really good and silly mix.

Here's a clip from the show. The idea in question being inflatable underpants:



Hope you can tune in.