I watched,with my wife tonight, the ongoing old episodes of' Who wants to be a Millionaire 'on the Sony Channel at 2100.
We reckon , judging by the questions,that these episodes were first shown about 2003.
Tonight we saw Chris Tarrant wearing a BL Poppy. Quite appropriate as the Poppy Campaign started this year about 4-5 days ago. We noticed that all the fastest finger on the button contestants also sported Poppys yet not one member of the audience of a few hundred had one.
It became more curious when both Tarrant and competitor had poppys at £16,000 question and suddenly they disappeared when the next question was asked. There wasn't even a commercial break when this anomaly occurred. It would appear that these episodes are not broadcasted live but very much pre-recorded. Perhaps the Continuity Editor should be given a few words. :-)
A prime example of a director who paid scrupulous attention to continuity in a film was Fred Zinnermann in his direction of the movie "High Noon". The length of the movie was 1hr and 25mins and the climax was at...well, noon. In every take, the clocks and pocket-watches shown in the scenes were in sync with the time approaching noon hour.
I didn't see this one but some of the old ones on Freeview appear to be edited versions of the originals. It may have happened in this version and when the £32,000 question was asked, it was after Remembrance Sunday so the poppy was not needed.
//It would appear that these episodes are not broadcasted live but very much pre-recorded//
In the early days they tried to make it look as if it were broadcast live by Chris Tarrant using his thumb to cover up the date on the cheque, and by saying to Phone a Friends that he knew they “can’t see the tv right now”.
These repeats on channels such Challenge are re-edited.
As an aside, is there some kind of rule that says every person appearing on tv has to wear a poppy at this time year?
I love watching the old re-runs of Millionaire when I can and I often see things wrong with continuity, for example the person answering the questions frequently has a change of clothes part way through and I've often wondered why Chris Tarrant keeps his thumb deliberately over the date ! I far prefer these shows to the new ones.
It was never a live show anyway. As mentioned earlier, they tried to make it seem like it was live. It was noticeable with WWTBAM, that early into the first series, they stopped putting money in that pedastal in the middle of the set. There are plenty of wrong things in the broadcasts that can be seen.