The other day, myself and Mick watched "Bullseye" on Challenge (Sky channel 125) at about 3am. Whilst that may not sound too healthy, we’d just watched about five episodes of Battlestar Galactica on DVD, so we’re still all kinds of awesome.
Bullseye is an intriguing show for a variety of reasons. Before Sky started broadcasting glossy HD coverage of darts tournaments (where tattooed behemoths, sporting half the jewellery counter of their local Argos, throw darts with laser-guided accuracy) it seems that in the 1980’s, darts was a game played exclusively by people from the poorest areas of the UK. Towns that Margaret Thatcher would gladly have gladly erased from the map. Essentially this was a show where downtrodden, unemployable, dishevelled mutants, competed against each other for teasmades and lawnmowers.
On the surface Bullseye is a quaint nostalgia trip, where contestants throw darts and answer questions about Kevin Keegan and countries that no longer exist , to be in with the chance of winning gloriously awful prizes. But these are not the garish 1980s quiz show contestants you’ll find sporting shoulder pads, loud suits and massive hair on glitzy shows like Catchphrase or Family Fortunes. There are no chartered accountants or fitness instructors to be found here. If these people are lucky enough to have jobs, they’re employed in Asbestos factories or slaughterhouses. They look like they cut their own hair and live in a van. If only they’d managed to win that four night stay in Corfu – they would have been the first on their street to have been on an actual aeroplane.
Let’s look at the subtext of Bullseye. Jim Bowen’s catchphrase is very telling. “Keep out of the black, and in the red; there's nothing in this game for two in a bed.” This is clearly A) a comment on the financial hardships experienced by the contestants in their everyday lives and B) a reference to the uncomfortable body language shared by teammates of the same gender.
Jim Bowen: Not a Cylon.
Bullseye is an intriguing show for a variety of reasons. Before Sky started broadcasting glossy HD coverage of darts tournaments (where tattooed behemoths, sporting half the jewellery counter of their local Argos, throw darts with laser-guided accuracy) it seems that in the 1980’s, darts was a game played exclusively by people from the poorest areas of the UK. Towns that Margaret Thatcher would gladly have gladly erased from the map. Essentially this was a show where downtrodden, unemployable, dishevelled mutants, competed against each other for teasmades and lawnmowers.
On the surface Bullseye is a quaint nostalgia trip, where contestants throw darts and answer questions about Kevin Keegan and countries that no longer exist , to be in with the chance of winning gloriously awful prizes. But these are not the garish 1980s quiz show contestants you’ll find sporting shoulder pads, loud suits and massive hair on glitzy shows like Catchphrase or Family Fortunes. There are no chartered accountants or fitness instructors to be found here. If these people are lucky enough to have jobs, they’re employed in Asbestos factories or slaughterhouses. They look like they cut their own hair and live in a van. If only they’d managed to win that four night stay in Corfu – they would have been the first on their street to have been on an actual aeroplane.
Let’s look at the subtext of Bullseye. Jim Bowen’s catchphrase is very telling. “Keep out of the black, and in the red; there's nothing in this game for two in a bed.” This is clearly A) a comment on the financial hardships experienced by the contestants in their everyday lives and B) a reference to the uncomfortable body language shared by teammates of the same gender.
"Yeah, he’s my, er... flatmate."
Time to take up darts, methinks.
