Play to the Whistle

Play to the Whistle
Genre Comedy panel game
Presented by Holly Willoughby
Starring Bradley Walsh
Frank Lampard
Romesh Ranganathan
Seann Walsh
Jimmy Bullard (2015)
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 2
No. of episodes 14 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Dan Baldwin
Location(s) Fountain Studios
Running time 45 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company(s) Hungry Bear Media
Release
Original network ITV, STV, UTV
Picture format 16:9 (HDTV)
Original release 11 April 2015 (2015-04-11) – present

Play to the Whistle is a British comedy panel game show that airs on ITV. It was first broadcast on 11 April 2015. In each episode two teams of three compete in sports knowledge rounds and physical games to achieve points for their teams, at the end the team with the most points is declared the winner.

The show is hosted by Holly Willoughby. One team is captained by entertainer, actor and presenter Bradley Walsh and the other team is captained by professional footballer Frank Lampard. Lampard is joined by comedian Romesh Ranganathan as a regular panellist. Seann Walsh, also a comedian, is the resident scorer. Former professional footballer Jimmy Bullard was the host's assistant in the first series.[1]

Production

The show was commissioned as part of ITV's endeavour to find a panel show for their flagship channel after other pilot series have aired. The show is made by Hungry Bear Media and the executive producer is Dan Baldwin, Holly Willoughby's husband. Despite the sport theme, ITV say that they are not targeting sports fans specifically but producing the show for the whole family audience. Baldwin stated that the host's lack of sports knowledge "will help viewers in the same position". Filming of each episode takes place at the Fountain Studios in Wembley in front of a live studio audience. The first two episodes of the first series were recorded on 31 March 2015, the next two on 20 April, one on 27 April and the final two on 3 May.[1] It was revealed in November 2015 that ITV had ordered a second series.[2] Episodes for this series were recorded on 8 January, 15 January and 17 January 2016 with 2 episodes being recorded each day.

The show's title comes from the phrase used in football where players should continue with the game, despite thinking an incident has taken place to stop it, until the referee has blown his whistle to halt play.[3] In the show it is when Willoughby blows her whistle that the rounds are concluded.

The animations used on the opening titles and the round names are produced by Dave Whyte Animation Ltd.

Episodes

Series Start date End date Episodes
11 April 2015 6 June 2015 8
16 April 2016 21 May 2016 6

References

  1. 1 2 "Holly Willoughby to host new ITV panel show". British Comedy Guide. 26 March 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "ITV order Series 2 of Play To The Whistle". British Comedy Guide. 18 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  3. ↑ "Weekly Football Phrase: To Play to the Whistle". languagecaster.com. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
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