The new ITV gameshow really is ‘Rolling in It’!

Rolling in It
Stephen Mulhern welcomes three teams made up of the player and their celebrity partnerStephen Mulhern welcomes three teams made up of the player and their celebrity partner
Stephen Mulhern welcomes three teams made up of the player and their celebrity partner

(ITV, 6.25pm)

Stephen Mulhern knows a thing or two about gameshows.

Over the course of his TV career, he’s hosted a lot of them, including Magic Numbers, Catchphrase, Big Star’s Little Star and Pick Me. His In for a Penny segment on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway proved so popular, it became a series in its own right and saw Stephen roaming the streets of Britain, challenging members of the public to take part in a series of silly (but sometimes unexpectedly tricky) tasks.

So, it’s easy to see why he’s been entrusted with ITV’s new gameshow Rolling in It, as he’s definitely a safe pair of hands. But even this genre veteran has been surprised by the series.

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That’s because Rolling in It finds members of the public teaming up with celebrities, and while you might expect the virtual strangers to be almost painfully polite with each other, apparently that hasn’t always been the case.

He says: “It’s really weird when you see a relationship of a celebrity with a contestant – they don’t know each other, have only met that morning and they argue like they are family.”

Perhaps it’s the pressure that’s causing the bickering as there’s a big cash prize at stake.

Rolling in It is a game of chance, where three teams – each made up of a player and their celebrity partner – roll coins down a moving conveyor belt towards slots which are labelled with large cash sums to win. But there are also ‘Bankrupt’ slots which mean the player loses everything.

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As the game progresses, the prizes get bigger, but so do the potential losses. And by the end, the roll of one final coin could decide whether a member of the public goes home ‘rolling in it’ or not.

That element of chance – as well as the dynamic between the unlikely teammates – was enough to convince ITV that this was a winner.

And the show’s bosses also managed to convince celebs to sign up, despite the risk that they could be seen on national TV losing a member of the public money.

Future editions will find Jimmy Carr, Mark Wright, Gemma Collins, Chris Kamara, John Thomson, Joel Dommett and Fleur East trying their luck.

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However, we’re beginning with a Coronation Street special as Antony Cotton, Jennie McAlpine and Sair Khan, better known to soap fans as Sean, Fiz and Alya, take up the challenge. Let’s just hope that none of them get drawn into arguing, although in the unlikely event that things get heated, Stephen will be there to lighten the mood.

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