December 4th 2006
Takeaway Media signs up Metrostar for
Balderdash & Piffle

Balderdash & Piffle producers, Takeaway Media are working with Metrostar to extend the popular BBC Two TV show about the origins of English words into consumer products. Metrostar and Takeaway have developed some game play ideas which they hope will interest all kinds of licensees, from interactive DVD and board games to pub gaming and mobile.

Balderdash & Piffle returns to BBC Two in 2007 with a follow up series about the hidden histories and intriguing mysteries behind our words, and appeals to the nation to help re-write the greatest book in English, The Oxford English Dictionary.

In series one, Jerry Hall trawled the bars of America trying to get to the bottom of the word, Cocktail. Ian Hislop rolled up his sleeves to try to getto grips with one of modern life’s worst maladies, Management Speak. Poet Benjamin Zephanaih traveled to Jamaica in search of the start of Ska and Germaine Greer considered the most controversial C-word.

Series two will take a thematic approach with episodes covering Saucy Words, Household Words, Euphemisms and words we associate with modern-day Celebrity, such as ‘Wannabee’ and ‘Boob Job’.

The Balderdash & Piffle book based on series one was published by BBC Books and has sold over 30,000 copies.

Claire Potter, Metrostar’s Managing Director comments “Balderdash & Piffle reveals the richness, quirkyness and creativity of the English. We have a fascination with words like no other nation and working with Takeaway we hope to extend the Balderdash & Piffle brand from its television roots into exciting new product formats.”

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Contact Claire Potter, Managing Director, Metrostar, 07989 940181