The Colour of Money - The Countdown Begins

Back in proud parent mode today as the countdown begins to the launch of Chris Tarrant's new game show "The Colour of Money". Regular readers will know that this show was devised by our son Paul when he worked for 12 Yard Productions and in January 2008 Instanta staff were guinea pigs for the game playing it over and over to provide Paul with feedback. The show will be on air on Saturday 21st February and we are really excited as the days tick down to the launch. The Sunday Times devoted a page of the Culture section to the programme yesterday and ITV has been running promos over the weekend. When Paul was a kid he used to be a massive fan of Richard O'Brian's Crystal Maze and loved the excitement of the time ticking down before contestants were locked in and maybe this thrill created a germ of inspiration for The Colour of Money. ITV are describing it as the "most stressful show on TV" and we are certainly feeling the stress as the days tick by. The only snag now is that Marion is switching the TV to ITV every time an ad break is due just in case the promo is shown. In case you missed it here it is (sorry for the quality, it was filmed on the mobile)

Enjoyed the BAFTAS last night and had a few winning bets on Kate W, Man on Wire and Penelope Cruz. Lost on Mickey Rourke and Heath Ledger although his odds were so low that you could lay him for a few pennies. Net result a small profit. I wonder if the BAFTA results will be repeated in the Oscars in a few weeks. I think that Slumdog Millionaire and Heath Ledger will be certs but it will be disappointing if all the other results are identical to the BAFTAS. We could do with a few surprises to make the Oscars interesting.



We went for a pub lunch with some old friends to the Eagle and Child at Bispham Green on Saturday. This was a popular stomping ground for us when we were 18 and it was good to see it still going strong. My favourite Guardian columnist Simon Hoggart recommended it as a stop off and escape from service stations when travelling the M6 and his review had pride of place above the bar.(Take the Parbold exit). And I have to say that the food and beer are great and the pub was packed.



Here at Instanta the orders continue to come in at a reasonable level and I am expecting the month to be pretty good although it is very much early days at the moment. As we pride oursleves in having good stocks we always have very few forward orders so we can usually gauge how things are going in the economy very quickly.My gut feeling is that the recession may be bottoming out (that's the optimist speaking). Marion already has us living on a houseboat on the Leeds Liverpool canal.

Yesterday we went to the antiques fair at the Reebok in Bolton. We made a few nice buys and I hope to be listing some of them on eBay later in the week.

I'll end with a film trailer especially for Paul. I'm sure this one will sweep the boards at the Oscars.