Return of the Muggles

Last Friday, the civilian portion of series 2 started and it was a personal sore point as I'm fairly confident that it was the all white, all male group that made it on screen in place of the world famous (maybe not in this reality but in some reality somewhere) Superfans team.

It's currently just gone 5am and I'm sat waiting in Milton Keynes, Crystal Maze testing photos, book and Twitter competition Crystal in tow to bore the arse off my stepdaughter. I know there's only so many times I can talk about it without being an irritant. However its still the coolest thing (to me) I've done in a very long time so I'm hanging on to it for all it's worth.

Joking aside however, well done to the Gamers. 9 crystals (including a win on a game we struggled with in testing: the coloured cooling towers). The only loss being the airgun maze, which was the other game we 100% failed at in testing too.

The gamers episode marked the halfway point of series 2, and with 5 civilian episodes and a christmas special left, there's still one game we tested we haven't seen yet so at least there's still new fresh games for viewers to enjoy.

Now, the scene everyone's going to remember, Tipping Point. I didn't mind it, it was something a bit different. A novelty, and there's nothing wrong with that. What with TP being made by the same company and being filmed in a studio next door at the same time, why not use the available resources to do something a bit different. When we were testing, TP was filming at the same time and we ended up getting fed early to accommodate their lunch schedule.

The other bit I liked was Ayoade's interaction with Jarhead. Harking back to O'Brien's interactions with Mumsey, after the team had won their final game, the little conversation referring to Ayoade being king of the nerds (which he is, we had a meeting, there was a buffet) gave me something I've been wanting for a while: for Richard to live a little in the fiction of the Maze. I, personally, don't mind him destroying the 4th wall, it fits in with the dry persona he's maintained through his career. However it was nice to see him talk to Jarhead as Jarhead, not Adam Buxton.