So, Antoinette loaned me her Clive James anthology. This is the relevant quote: "My Japanese game-show expertise dictated that I should participate in, guess what, a Japanese game show. It was called Takeshi’s Castle: far and away the most popular game show on Japanese television..." - ThreadSky

rwf-backoffice.bsky.social • 45 days ago

So, Antoinette loaned me her Clive James anthology. This is the relevant quote:
"My Japanese game-show expertise dictated that I should participate in, guess what, a Japanese game show. It was called Takeshi’s Castle: far and away the most popular game show on Japanese television..."

Comments

rwf-backoffice.bsky.social•45 days ago

"The castle was a pasteboard cut-out standing in a patch of waste land, but it looked convincing beside Takeshi* himself, who was dressed like Michael Jackson in the later, militarized stages of his madness... Imagine Kirk Douglas feigning apoplexy and you’ve got it."

*We think he means Tani.

rwf-backoffice.bsky.social•45 days ago

"Hundreds of teenage contestants in crash helmets pretended to feel terrified. They shrank back, they clutched each other, they shivered. In my tight-fitting red tracksuit and white crash helmet, I wasn’t pretending..."

rwf-backoffice.bsky.social•45 days ago

"Dug out of the slime, I was inserted into the castle to be chased by giants. They were small giants but they were good at poking you with a stick. I was propelled out of a doorway and fell into the moat. For our crew, filming the Japanese crew as they filmed me was tricky, so I had to do it again."

rwf-backoffice.bsky.social•45 days ago

"This time I emerged from the door and did three-quarters of a somersault before hitting the moat stern-first. Anything for the camera."

rwf-backoffice.bsky.social•45 days ago

"The massed contestants dutifully howled at the marvellous sense of humour of the gaijin while Takeshi mimed jealousy with what I thought was, for him, uncharacteristic authenticity. It turned out that he wasn’t miming. He was the one who was supposed to get the laughs. He had lost face."

rwf-backoffice.bsky.social•45 days ago

"He lost his temper along with it but we already had what we needed, so it was no great loss to take our leave as Takeshi did the equivalent of a Hollywood sulk. Takeshi retreated to a very small bus and never stopped coming out, snarling at us, and going back in again."

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