Well, here’s a tricksy little proposition! What happens when you give a television studio audience a prize pot of £250,000 to share equally among themselves, then tell them that all they’ve got to do to get it is remain silent (any words, gasps, laughs, exclamations will lose them £5,000 or £10,000, depending on the size of the transgression) while the show throws various acts at them precisely designed to elicit such responses?
You get Silence is Golden, that’s what – an unexpectedly entertaining, unexpectedly nerve-jangling foray into the repression of all natural instincts in the face of relentless temptation. Presenter duties are in the safe hands of Dermot O’Leary, who both introduces the guests (the main ones in the episode available for review are comedians Katherine Ryan, Seann Walsh and Fatiha El-Ghorri) and tries to trick the audience – who are individually miked and being monitored on cameras – into making the usual whoops and cheers that typically accompany such a show.
