| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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| Several entries fall into the trap of defining a television programme rather than a genre. Others are too vague, having no reference to television. No outstanding clues. |
| 2. |
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Lots of "vile tarty" anagrams (and derivatives) 9, 25, 35, 36, 55 & 56, and a couple of "vile ratty" ones to boot, 4, 30 & 38 (personal opinion, 38 was the more unique look at this option).
It seems there have also been a lot of "live/evil/vile try at" clues posted: 1, 5, 11, 21, 47, 49 & 57. For most of these I'll be blunt and say that they didn't surface read correctly to me. One might say "there's an interesting cake to try at the cafe", but I wouldn't say "I'll have a try at tennis/writing/live broadcasting." Maybe I'm missing the point, being an amateur here, but thought I'd mention it.
A few "levity", "verity" and "trivial" clues and I've counted at least 48 anagrams (didn't double check), 16 of them, not surprisingly, using "broadcast" as the anagrind. Mine was among the anagrams, but I was still surprised to see so many. |
| 3. |
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| What a shame that so many of us used the same anagrams of 'VILE/EVIL and TARTY' or 'ART and LEVITY'. Still the skill of some compilers led to more effective and concise clus. 5 and 49, to my mind, were the stars. |
| 4. |
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| A lot of clues use wordplay to enhance a rather vague definition. You need to show you're doing this via punctuation, etc., otherwise you end up with a clue that's neither normal nor & lit. |
| 5. |
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| Clue 13 was my favourite, with a nice definition and a good surface that made it superior to the other clues involving Big Brother – 31 and 46. It also stood out as being a unique example where all the other good ideas were used by two or more competitors. The “trivial telly – ill” anagram was a clever idea, used by two clues 34 and 39 and I gave them joint second as both seemed equally sound to me with good and lit definitions. 5 36 49 and 55 were close behind, again nice and lits, with nothing to divide them, so getting 1 point each. There were a number of other attempts at and lit anagrams which I felt deserved merits – 7 9 23 35 52. I felt the others I gave points to were either more elegantly expressed, or the anagrams used here were slightly more contrived (verily seemed a little forced, and I preferred vile tarty to live tarty as a more accurate description) but nonetheless were all good efforts. |
| 6. |
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I thought clue 11 stood above the crowd. I gave equal points to clues 34 and 39. I did the same for clues 8 and 12 for cleverly subtracting "demons" from "demonstratively".
Far too much similarity among the clues (including my own vile/tarty entry). I wish I had gone with my second choice:
Rotten veal? Try it in Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, perhaps. |
| 7. |
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| Overall quite trite set of clues with lot of repetitions. Most look contrived like Reality TV itself! |
| Comments on the clues |
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| 1. A show that's an evil try at entertainment? |
| 1. | Reality TV is a genre rather than a show |
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| 2. "About time" admits ageing fighter with yen to box; "Last man standing?" |
| 1. | I think you needed to say 'former fighter' as opposed to 'aging fighter'. The latter suggests one who is still active |
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| 5. Bizarre try at live entertainment? |
| 1. | Def. 'entertainment?' is too vague |
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| 8. Broadcast with demons being exorcised demonstratively could be this |
| 1. | This is one of the more plausible descriptions of reality TV |
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| 9. Broadcasting of vile and tarty characters? |
| 1. | You get this in fiction too. |
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| 10. Cavorting attractively but lacking almost all diplomacy – a route to celebrity? |
| 1. | I think this use of TAC(t) verges on an indirect anagram | | 2. | 'Almost all tact' would be much better |
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| 11. Contrived, vile try at airing daily life? |
| 1. | This stood out as the best clue by a bit. |
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| 12. Demonstratively evicting bad guys enlivened Big Brother perhaps |
| 1. | This clue and 8 have found a nice anagram idea |
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| 13. Diabolically evil tyrant lacking direction could be Big Brother (7,2) |
| 1. | Good try, although direction could equally be east, and why does Big Brother lack direction anyway? | | 2. | Clever but not convoluted, and the best usage of Big Brother in all the clues. | | 3. | 'Lacking direction' is a bit weak both cryptically and in the surface reading | | 4. | Wanted to award points, but "lacking direction" was ambiguous — also could indicate "E". |
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| 14. Fly-on-the-wall shows generally blend art with levity |
| 1. | Best example of this anagram |
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| 15. Froth arising from 7-Up? About a litre yet to be emptied into channel. |
| 1. | "7-Up" is inaccurate – the programme was "7 Up" and the drink is "7UP". "Froth" is rather contrived. |
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| 16. Ill with this could be as a result of wretched trivial telly |
| 1. | Nice composite/compound anagram although "telly" is a bit of a giveaway. |
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| 17. I'm a celebrity, get me out of special relativity! (7,2) |
| 1. | The allusion to Albert Einstein's theory is puzzling. | | 2. | I liked this a lot but couldn't give points because the definition (by example) is incomplete. |
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| 18. Irately reformatted preset programmes. |
| 1. | Unconvincing surface. | | 2. | Nice idea but I feel "preset" = "before tv" was a bit of a stretch for me. |
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| 19. LCD television set |
| 1. | Very ingenious, but genre = kind, type, or style; not really set. | | 2. | You need wordplay to give the letters. Otherwise the answer could be lots of programme type. You shouldn't rely on the (7,2) | | 3. | nice idea, but as you have already told the solver that it is a television group/genre, wouldn't the answer simply be 'reality'? |
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| 20. Levity art form? |
| 1. | No reference to television. | | 2. | Surface is ungrammatical |
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| 22. Many view it as totally hollow and vile art form! (7,2) |
| 1. | No reference to television. |
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| 23. Obnoxious tat, verily |
| 1. | No reference to television. | | 2. | Obnoxious tat comes in many forms, not just reality TV |
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| 24. Phoney live ratty time-waster. |
| 1. | No clear reference to television. |
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| 26. Possibly objective means of viewing people? (7,2) |
| 1. | By just defining 'reality' and 'TV' you end up with a simple definition clue, not an & lit. |
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| 27. Production of, oddly, least verity? |
| 1. | Nicely paradoxical. | | 2. | 'Oddly' doesn't really convey the necessary irony to me |
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| 28. Programme about authentic Italian young transvestites? |
| 1. | Why the plural? That would be 'TVs' surely. Also using 'authentic' for 'real' isn't very cryptic. | | 2. | The anagram is spoiled by making transvestites plural (=TVS, not TV). |
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| 29. Semi-informative yet trivial broadcast. |
| 1. | "Semi-informative indicates half the i's." Not really. | | 2. | How does 'semi-informative' indicate half the I's? |
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| 31. Shows like Big Brother corrupt laity with time, clergyman claims |
| 1. | "claims" serves no purpose here (other than to smooth the reading). |
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| 32. Shows the ordinary & everyday travel chaos around city from 2 till 4. |
| 1. | Contrived wordplay. | | 2. | Cunning use of "2 till 4" to indicate "(c)ity". |
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| 34. Sort of trivial telly I'll avoid |
| 1. | Very good, but needs a question-mark to be excellent. The purist in me says 'I'll' should be 3rd person singular in the wordplay |
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| 35. Tarty live broadcast |
| 1. | Reality TV isn't necessarily tarty or live |
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| 37. The Jersey Shore, not O.C., Travelocity screwed up (7,2) |
| 1. | Needs to indicate this is definition by example |
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| 38. The Mole, say, and Badger, live with Ratty |
| 1. | Clever idea, spoiled by the third comma unfortunately | | 2. | Lovely simple clue and surface. | | 3. | Lovely idea but I think the third comma makes the clue unsound | | 4. | I'll take your word regarding 'The Mole' but, I've never heard of it and neither has anyone I've asked so, I think this is too obscure |
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| 39. This I'll fancy constitutes trivial telly |
| 1. | Good, but I prefer 34 | | 2. | Nice composite/compound anagram although "telly" is a bit of a giveaway. |
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| 40. TILT: a very daft kind of show |
| 1. | Isn't that a US drama series, so not reality TV? | | 2. | If this is a TV show, I've never heard of it |
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| 41. Trailblazing and yet very watchable? |
| 1. | Ingenious concept but even if you go along with the trail/blazing idea the latter is a poor anagram indicator. | | 2. | I don't think this would pass muster even in the Grauniad | | 3. | AInd doesn't work between the elements. And is the def "watchable" or the whole clue? (Can't be both.) | | 4. | Unfortunately the clue indicates an adjective. "It's trailblazing… etc." would be OK. |
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| 42. Trevor, shaken, has no alternative but to cover Italy riots in fly-on-the-wall documentary (7, 2) |
| 1. | Arbitrary name makes for a weak clue. | | 2. | Who's Trevor, why is he shaken, and why does he have no alternative? I think we should be told |
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| 43. Trivial (one's not involved), yet broadcast |
| 1. | Unfortunately the clue indicates an adjective. "It's trivial… etc." would be OK. |
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| 44. True lives on the box; contrived art combined with frisky levity |
| 1. | Other clues do this anagram more concisely |
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| 47. Try at live programming with oxymoronic “Life Scenarios" (7,2) |
| 1. | Not sure what's oxymoronic about reality TV |
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| 48. Tyre changing overwhelms the greatest cross-dresser in television genre. |
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| 49. Unfortunate try at live broadcast? |
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| 50. Vandalised tyre with vital footage recorded on a security camera? |
| 1. | Kudos for an original approach |
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| 51. Vary title; recast show! |
| 1. | Definition much too vague | | 2. | Simple and effective. |
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| 53. Veritably awful broadcast initially cancelled. Time needed instead for Extreme Makeover (7 2) |
| 1. | Needs to indicate this is definition by example |
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| 54. Very popular Channel 3 programmes with trashy coverage |
| 1. | Does 'coverage' indicate the outside letters or the container? |
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| 57. Where you'll often see wannabe celebs at live broadcast try to get involved? |
| 1. | Anagram indication is rather awkward |
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| 58. Without any scripts, this programming textbook leaves beginners with a very poor grasp of the subject! |
| 1. | Wordplay works if you can derive "it" from "the subject", but clue is overlong and surface seems irrelevant. |
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