Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit
Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit is a British comedy panel game show, hosted by comedian Dara Ó Briain, co-starring video game journalist Ellie Gibson, and premiered on Dave on 5 September 2016. The show's format is themed around two teams – English comedians Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon as team captains, along with a guest member for each team – competing in a series of rounds against each other for points through various video games. Games featured in the programme ranged from past classic, modern releases and indie games, as well as a specially designed round themed on a particular game. The winner of each episode is the team to secure the most points after five rounds, with the number of points determined by an audience vote.
| Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy Panel game |
| Created by |
|
| Written by | Dominic English (Series 1) James Menzies (Series 2 & 3) |
| Directed by | Steve Smith (Series 1, Various Series 2 & 3) Jan Genesis (Various Series 2 & 3) |
| Presented by | Dara Ó Briain |
| Starring | Team Captains Steve McNeil Sam Pamphilon Gaming Expert Ellie Gibson |
| Theme music composer | Liam Tate |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 27 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Donald Taffner, Jr. Michaela Hennessy-Vass (Series 2–3) John Bartlett (Best Of) Iain Coyle (UKTV) Simon Lupton (UKTV – Ep. 1) |
| Producers | Darren Sole (Series Producer) Rohan Acharya (Series 1, Best Of) Ross Murray (Series 2–3) |
| Production locations | Fountain Studios (Series 1) BBC Elstree Centre (Series 2–3) |
| Editors | Jason Boxall (Series 1) Fergus March (Series 1, Best Of) Luke Crockett (Series 2) James Curry (Series 2 & 3) Jon Ellis (Series 2 & 3) Duncan Hart (Series 2 & 3) Tom McPhee (Series 2 & 3) Michael Pearce (Series 2 & 3) |
| Running time | 60 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company | DLT Entertainment UK LTD |
| Original release | |
| Network | Dave |
| Release | 5 September 2016 – 16 April 2018 |
The show was originally conceived by McNeil and Pamphilon for the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, before it was later pitched for television in 2016. After the first series, UKTV commissioned two more series of the programme, allowing viewers to watch a new episode via their on-demand service UKTV Play, a week before it would be broadcast on Dave. The show spawned a spin-off show, entitled Go 8 Bit DLC and presented by Gibson, McNeil and Pamphilon, that was aired alongside each episode of the second series, and also featured a one-hour special, entitled The Best of Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit and aired on 5 February 2018, featuring the best bits of series 1 and 2.
On 28 September 2018, following the conclusion of the third series, UKTV cancelled production on Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit, though at present it has not ruled out a return of the programme.