Beat the Brain
| Beat the Brain | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Quiz show |
| Presented by | John Craven |
| Voices of | Josie Lawrence (The Brain) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 30 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Over the Top Productions and Objective Productions |
| Distributor | All3Media |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Picture format | 16:9 |
| Original release | 11 May – 22 June 2015 |
Beat the Brain is a BBC quiz show that aired on BBC Two from 11 May to 22 June 2015. It was hosted by John Craven, while Josie Lawrence provided the voice of "The Brain," an image of a disembodied human brain that posed challenges to the contestants and often mocked or taunted them.
A team of four contestants, one of whom is designated as a captain, plays each game.
The Brain is divided into six zones, each corresponding to a different category: Logic, Memory, Orientation, Language, Observation and Multi-Tasking. One zone is chosen at random, and the captain selects one team member (including him/herself) to face the Brain's challenge. Two games are played, each consisting of three questions, and every correct answer adds three seconds to the team's "Brain Bank" for use in the final. The contestant is shown an example of each game before the questions begin. Four different zones are played, and no contestant may play more than one zone. The team can accumulate up to 72 seconds in the Brain Bank.
In the final, the team attempts to win up to £3,000 cash by answering eight questions, two per teammate in an order chosen by the captain. Each contestant faces questions only from the games he/she has already played, and his/her turn continues until two correct answers are given. The clock is set to two minutes, plus the time in the Brain Bank. If all four teammates complete their questions before the clock reaches two minutes, they win the full jackpot. If not, they continue to play but lose £25 per second, and they win the remaining money by completing the round. All winnings are split equally among the four teammates.
Ian Wolf of On The Box described it as "perfectly enjoyable" but at the same time lamented the asininity of the questions being posed by The Brain, further berating its low prize fund of just £750 per person. He also commended the fact that "just about anyone can have a go. Whether you know all the prime ministers or the elements of the periodic table is irrelevant. It is all about mental ability, short-term memory, basic arithmetic, spelling and so forth".
Christopher Stevens of the Daily Mail was more negative, commenting that "the show still needs a bit of work" and that its graphics resembled that of "one of Alan Sugar's old Amstrad PCs", further berating the show's "childishly easy" challenges. He summed up by saying that "the show has potential, but its computer brain just wasn't clever enough. It was obviously a mistake to use an Amstrad".
Legend: Currently airing Ended Future version
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