How TV Is Maked

Most TV shows don't just arrive on screen fully formed. They go through a complicated and convoluted development process, devised to streamline, to target the perfect demographic, and, of course, iron out potential problems.

In this occasional series, we get an insider's view on just how some of these shows came to be…..

Original Title: Are You Taller Than a 10 Year Old?

On paper, this looked brilliant, and of course, the first choice of host is Noel Edmonds. Is he taller than a 10 year old? No one knows as he keeps his height a closely guarded secret, employing a combination of stilts, complex lenses and helium belch pouches to confuse all around him. The cheek pouches in particular allow him to suddenly float up to 19 inches off the floor after just one powerful stomach erruption.

In the early stages of run throughs though it became apparent the mechanic was flawed. In order for contestants to be eligible for large cash prizes they had to be over the age of 18 and no one on the production staff had noticed that most 10 year olds are only children and therefore smaller than most adults. There was no suspense. As soon as the contestant walked on the audience could see immediately they were taller than a 10 year old, but still had to sit through five rounds of measuring. It was also pointed out that all five rounds of measuring brought about the same figures as people don't grow during a two hour studio shoot, not even children who do grow faster than fully-grown people. What confused the matter though was the show was originally pitched as a celebrity based affair and the first contestant was Kenny Baker. Anyway, by this point the amount of prize money given away had exceeded £1.6 million, and even though Kenny Baker had lost, his appearance fee was large in stature. It was straining the already tight budget.

Noel was now contractually tied in and fully committed, the studio was built and air time booked. With such a small amount of money left, another show similar in nature had to be crafted.

First in line was a tiny cosmetic change and the show became the much simpler "Are You A 10 Year Old?" It was only three dry run throughs later that it was realised the over-18s rule was again somewhat spoiling any tension or drama. The slightly better news was the prize money given away was now £0.

Budget back on track, a variety of options were tried: "Do You Know Any 10 Year Olds?", the trickier to judge "Are You Smellier Than A 10 Year Old?" and a brief flirtation with the idea of a single static shot filling the hour entitled "A 10 Year Old."

It was only after seven dictionaries had been emptied of words did they decide "Smarter" would work perfectly. When tested on the production and channel executives, no one won any money.

And thank goodness this worked, for where else would we now have the opportunity to watch Dick and Dom routinely fail to wring any excitement out of asking people to spell "Ox"?