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Posted: 13-12-2002 16:58 Post subject: BBC's £5,000 for Mad Ideas Show

I think we can do better than the ideas here:

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,858974,00.html

"BBC2 invests in the 'sublime and ridiculous'

Jason Deans
Friday December 13, 2002

BBC2 has piloted a show in which a panel of judges gives £5,000 to people with weird and wacky ideas, such as buying Celine Dion albums and arranging a public burial for them.
The show, which has the working title The Glee Club, is being lined up for the 6pm slot, which will be be vacated by The Simpsons when the hit US cartoon moves to Channel 4 in 2004.
A pilot was shot on Wednesday in Chiswick town hall by TalkBack, the RTL-owned independent producer responsible for shows including I'm Alan Partridge, They Think it's All Over and Would Like to Meet.
People who fancy winning £5,000 to bring their plans to life must first convince the judges their idea is the most deserving.
Ideas pitched for the pilot included a proposed funeral for Celine Dion albums, a Las Vegas wedding, organising a Shakin' Stevens convention, removing an unwanted forehead tattoo and hiring the string section of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to back a solo trombonist.
TalkBack posted a message on the Chiswick community website saying The Glee Club involved "members of the public coming before an eminent panel of judges asking for money".
"To win, the supplicants must have an interesting and compelling idea of what they'd like to do with [the £5,000] - from the sublime to the ridiculous. Something they would remember for the rest of their life."
Jane Root, the BBC2 controller, has cast the net wide in her search for a replacement for The Simpsons, which is one of the channel's top-rating shows.
Pilots are being commissioned from a number of BBC in-house departments and independent producers.
The Simpsons occupies the 6pm slot on at least two nights a week and several shows are expected to be commissioned to fill the gap. "