The long wait is over. Next month sees the return of one of Australian television’s most beloved music quiz shows as the rebooted Spicks And Specks returns to the airwaves.
Arriving nearly three full years after its final episode aired in 2011, the new look Spicks And Specks returns to its familiar Wednesday night occupancy on ABC on 5th February.
While the news of the long-running show’s welcome return first slipped in late 2012, its comeback has been delayed while ABC focussed on other programming and worked at putting together a new band of hosts to present the flagship series.
Australian audiences were introduced to the new Spicks And Specks host and team captains last November, when it was revealed that musical comedian Josh Earl would be set to fill the shoes of Adam Hills, while writer-comedian Adam Richard and Killing Heidi turned solo star Ella Hooper would be replacing former team captains Alan Brough and Myf Warhust respectively.
Ahead of the series’ return, fans can now get a sneak preview of the new hosts in action, as a new trailer is unleashed online as part of ABC’s 2014 programming lead-up.
The all-too-brief clip displays that the rebooted series’ new season (its eight overall), blends a mix of the familiar with a fresh lick of paint, particularly in the remade set and slightly altered version of the theme tune’s cover of The Bee Gees’ ‘Spicks And Specks’.
To start the new season, the opening episode features Perth multi-instrumentalist Jay Watson, of Tame Impala/Pond/Gum fame (sporting a nice prog denim Yes top), along with opera singer Jacqueline Dark, Aussie comic (and Spicks regular) Meshel Laurie, Irish-American comic Des Bishop, and organist funnyman Barry Morgan.
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As for the good-humoured games, a News Ltd article points out that they will remain pretty similar, with the appearance of one new challenge in the first episode that “fans of the best-selling Four Pics One Song will recognise.”
New host Josh Earl also looks and sounds the part in filling the sizeable shoes of his forebear, as he acknowledges in a witty AC/DC parallel to Bon Scott’s frontman replacement, Brian Johnston.
“Can you imagine the pressure that Brian must have been under replacing someone so loved by Australia after seven years? I can’t even begin to imagine what that would be like,” jokes the 31-year-old self-described “comedian, librarian, cake enthusiast, ageing hipster.”
Meanwhile Ella Hooper and Adam Richard both ease the transition into the Spicks And Specks revival as recurring faces on the original series, while Hooper has strong musical ties as the former face and voice of Killing Heidi s well as releasing a string of new solo material last year; including singles ‘Low High‘ and the darker twists and turns of Häxan, in the lead-up to her solo debut In Tongues.
