Rivalry
Jeux Sans Frontières (It's a Knockout): Europe's Game Show
Course 1 · Chapter 8 · Politics, Rivalry & Controversy
A programme about friendly competition between nations was always going to attract rivalry, complaints and politics. This chapter looks at how the show sat in the Cold War world, how its membership grew, what kinds of controversy are associated with it, and how it played with national stereotypes. This is the part of the show's history where legend and rumour are thickest, so the chapter describes the kinds of dispute that arose without asserting specific incidents it cannot check.
A Show in a Divided Europe
The programme began in the 1960s, when Europe was divided into a western group of countries and an eastern group under Communist rule. The founding participants were all in the west, and the contest was linked to the idea of western European friendship. Over time the membership widened, and the programme is generally reported to have included countries from outside the original group, among them some from central and south-eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. The specific countries and the years they joined vary by source, so check a list before quoting one.
Friendly Rivalry and Real Rivalry
The contest invited an easy kind of rivalry, in which the British, French, Italians and Germans each cheered for their own side and teased the others. This is the version the show intended. It also carried a risk that the rivalry would stop being friendly: a decision against a team could be read as national bias, and a loss could feel like a national slight. The format reduced the risk by using neutral referees (Chapter 5) and a points system that was visible to everyone (Chapter 4).
Kinds of Controversy
Refereeing and scoring
Accusations that a call favoured one team, or that the host nation received some advantage. Any contest with judges produces these.
Home advantage
Games staged in the host country's town, with a home crowd and local knowledge of the surroundings, could help the local side.
Team selection
Disagreement over how seriously to treat the contest, for instance whether teams were made up of ordinary volunteers or of trained athletes.
Taste and tone
Complaints that particular games or commentary were crude, patronising or offensive to a nation or a group.
National Stereotypes
The show relied on a stock of national images: the stiff, efficient German, the excitable Italian, the formal Englishman, the French who take the contest with a shrug. Commentators and presenters used them for comedy, and the costumes and games sometimes reinforced them. Audiences generally enjoyed it as affectionate teasing, and the format of mixed teams in the same ridiculous costumes had a levelling effect: everyone looked equally silly.
The same material can look different with hindsight. A joke that seemed harmless in the 1970s can seem lazy or unkind today. A fair account of the show should note both the affection that many viewers felt and the fact that its humour was built on stereotypes.
Politics Without Speeches
The show was not overtly political, and the games themselves avoided current affairs. Its politics were in its setting: states and broadcasters working together, towns twinned with each other (Chapter 2) and a sense that the old enmities of Europe could be played out as a water-slide race. That is also why the legend of the leaders' suggestion (Chapter 3) has been so durable, since it fits the mood even without documentary proof.
Exercises
Choose two of the four kinds of controversy in the chapter and describe how each might arise in a game show with teams from several countries.
Write a short paragraph explaining how the show's use of national stereotypes can be read both as affectionate and as dated.
Quick Reference
- Setting: Cold War Europe, with a membership that widened over time
- Safeguards: neutral referees and a visible points system
- Controversy types: refereeing, home advantage, team selection, taste
- Stereotypes: affectionate teasing, now sometimes dated
- Caution: specific scandals are rumour unless a source supports them
Next chapter: The Long Run and the Revivals, which follows the programme from its decline to its returns.