Balls of Steel

2005

Seasons & Episodes

  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
7.2| NA| en| More Info
Released: 19 August 2005 Ended
Producted By:
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/balls-of-steel
Info

Balls of Steel was a Channel 4 comedy series developed by Objective Productions and hosted by Mark Dolan. Dolan's special guests would perform stunts and hold their nerve during hidden camera set-ups in the presence of celebrities or the British public. Massive Balls of Steel, the spin-off series to Balls of Steel was shown on E4, showing highlights of the show.

Genre

Comedy

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Balls of Steel Audience Reviews

Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!
Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film
Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Host Mark Dolan challenges a bunch of comedians trying to make a break-through to perform a variety of daring and sometimes dangerous stunts to amuse the public. At the end of each show, the audience votes for the act they think it took the most 'balls' to perform and the winner receives the BOS trophy.Staged comedy is all well and good. It certainly takes up most of TV's airtime and over the years has given TV most of it's comedy gold. But surely the most humorous stuff is when the reaction of the fall guy is real and everything going on is genuine? This is the idea Balls of Steel tries to peddle, although there's been a fair bit of speculation as to whether indeed it is real or simply faked. Sometimes the presence of cameras in dubious places does get you thinking, and sometimes goofs on the part of people supposedly in on it all along do so also, but a lot of the time the reactions do appear genuine, satisfying enough for this reviewer anyway.There are a few daring but ultimately harmless acts going on, such as Alex Zane's nonsensical game shows and acts where the participant's only harm themselves, such as Pritchard and Pancho, but sadly a lot of the humour is very twisted and cruel, and in some cases downright anti-social. If it is all being staged, then this might relieve some of the unpleasantness but it's sold on the basis that it's real, so...As a presenter Dolan does give you the impression of carrying a false sense of superiority, like he sneers down at those who don't talk like him or don't have the same background as him, but is never directly, Angus Deayton snobby and this is pretty much the high-point of his career anyway, so...It's all basically a UK spin on Jackass, built on the premise of real humour being more amusing than staged humour. It's onto something with this, but it doesn't spare the morally downbeat tone at it's heart. ***
Gary Prust (gprust2004) Whenever trying to work out whether a reality show is genuine reality or or completely staged, I think of the following argument: How many genuine, paid actors, can give as convincing a performance as the victims of this show appear to give. The answer is; Not that many. One comment about this show suggested that the entire program is staged, yet in the same comment they pointed out the story wherein Tom Cruise was a victim and was not happy about his participation. hmm? I won't argue that there may have been a certain amount of participation from well known franchises, but the reactions given by nearly all of this shows victims convinces me that it is completely truthful about who is aware of the stunt and who isn't. For someone to suggest that none of this shows contents is genuine says to me that this "Someone" has either; never watched an entire show, or not actually been clever enough to understand exactly what the point of the show is. My point being, don't comment on the show unless you actually know what you're talking about. PS. I think this show is pretty good.
Jackson Booth-Millard I thought I had seen a lot of idiotic stunt work in Jackass, but I was wrong! Basically Mark Dolan hosts a talent show for twelve new comedians, six chosen every week to each perform an act of stunt work in front of the public, and the audience choose the winner who has the best Balls of Steel. Memorable comedians have included The Annoying Devil (Jason Attar, replaced by Barrie Hall), Alex Zane, Neg (Dupree), The Big Gay Following (Eric Page), Toju (Okorodudu) The Militant Black Guy, The Pain Men (Dirty Sanchez's Matthew Pritchard and Mike "Pancho" Locke), Olivia Lee, The Bunny Boiler (Thaila Zucchi), Mr. Inappropriate (Tim Shaw), (Meet) The F***ers (Tony Parsons, Kelly Burgess), Randy Campbell (Chris Stapp) and Dick Johansonson and The Man Tester (Dawn Porter). It was number 74 (for Olivia Lee's moments), and number 29 for Alex Zane's Cleverness Game on The 100 Greatest Funny Moments. Very good!
vischebaste (and I have a mortal fear of open heart surgery) A handful of comedy wannabes try to make a name for themselves by outdoing each other in sub-Beadle style pranks. One wannabe interviews celebrities and semi-celebrities with a dildo instead of a microphone. Another wannabe pretends to steal things from shops and then runs away from the pursuing security guards while shouting "come on, fatty!" at them. Another wannabe seduces people's boyfriends on a beach. Another one gets into taxis and does something. A couple of people staple themselves to things. There may have been some other wannabes involved, but I'd begun channel flipping by the point they would have appeared. Mark Dolan (poor man's Clive Anderson) - who was slightly funny in "The Richard Taylor Interviews" - will obviously do anything to reappear on television, regardless of its quality. Please don't watch this - you'll only encourage them.

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