All spick and span

“Where are the girls I left far behind? The spicks and the specks of the laa la la laa . . . “ Well, I kind of know the Bee Gees song whose title was lifted for this music quiz show, but I’m sure there’d be at least one panellist on the show who could sing through all the lyrics.

That’s part of the irresistible appeal of Spicks and Specks. It’s like a party trivia game where everyone shouts out the answers others can’t complete and where everyone revels in the nostalgia it all evokes.

The show owes its origins to a U.K. series called Never Mind The Buzzcocks which I saw over there several years ago, so it’s been a long time coming. But thank goodness someone had the good sense to do an Aussie version. Once again good old Aunty ABC has put something on air which the commercial channels probably would never have deemed programmable, and it’s got a bit of buzz happening.

By the number of people I’ve spoken to lately, it seems the Spicks and Specks phenomenon is spreading fast. Not surprisingly really – everyone grew up loving some type of music and can play the game at home shouting out the answers to the TV. It’s like a Sale of the Century (or Temptation) for pop music lovers, with the odd classical music question thrown in, especially if one of the guests is a classical musician.

Congenial host Adam Hills has regular team leaders comedian Adam Brough and the ever-smiling Myf Warhurst from Triple J heading up two teams who play off against each other. Word must’ve got around because the big and bigger names keep on coming, with guest panellists including Renee Geyer, Guy Sebastian, Greedy Smith, Lano and Woodley (on separate occasions), Wendy Harmer, Richard Clapton, and the list goes on. And they obviously have a really good time.

There are a few different segments on the show but undoubtedly the trickiest is when someone has to sing the melodies of songs but reading the words out of a book with a title like “Introductory Dentistry” or “Popular Mechanics Manual”. Once someone even had to read from Wendy Harmer’s new novel while she was there (I think the word “vagina” came up). You’d never think it’d be so hard to identify a well known song just because it’s got the wrong lyrics, but believe me it is.

The ABC has become the place for fun and light entertainment on Wednesday nights, with a British comedy at 9pm (like Nighty Night and I Am Not An Animal), The Glasshouse at 9.30pm, and At The Movies with David and Margaret at 10. Even The New Inventors at 8 o’clock is an okay show illustrating how resourceful some people can be (or how much time some people have on their hands!). Spicks and Specks is a welcome and hopefully long standing addition to the line-up.

Vicki Englund

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Spicks and Specks

On: ABC
Time: Wednesdays at 8.30 pm