Wild Things, TV review: Dressing up silliness and outright bonkers behaviour

No one found it funnier than co-presenter and challenge commentator Jason Byrne, who could be heard squealing with delight throughout

Co-presenter and challenge commentator of Wild Things, Jason Byrne (REX FEATURES)

There was more dressing-up silliness in Sky1’s absolutely bonkers news game show Wild Things, although for a much less noble cause. The premise is that pairs of contestants (husband and wife, father and son, colleagues etc) compete on a woodland assault course to win £10,000 prize money.

The catch is that one of them, the “wild thing”, has to do so while dressed in a giant furry animal suit, which entirely obscures their vision. Hopefully, those costumes also provided some safety padding, because they were a lot of nasty tumbles along the way.

Influential Japanese imports started this trend for slapstick in game shows, but unlike Takeshi’s Castle, Wild Thing knows just how silly it is. The eagerness to be embraced as cult post-pub viewing was palpable, but luckily it didn’t quite ruin the fun. When the giant furry creatures got irritated and bickered with their playing partners (“I’m sorry, love, I can’t be anyone but me…” said the owl) it was uncannily like watching a live action version of Creature Comforts.

That joke may wear thin eventually, but it’s pretty funny for now, and no one found it funnier than co-presenter and challenge commentator Jason Byrne, who could be heard squealing with delight throughout.