Elis, Elis!

The success of the Canadian show ‘Surprise, Surprise’ was imported by Gestmusic and adapted to produce a version for three autonomous channels: TV3, ETB 2 and TVG in the Olympic year of 1992. This innovative programme, which had previously triumphed in France, showed different tricks played on famous personalities. A friend or family member collaborated with the programme and the most incredible jokes were played on five unsuspecting personalities who, without fail, fell into the trap.

Everything was extremely well organised and timed. There was no margin of error but it has to be admitted that some practical jokes were more annoying than others. And each programme broadcast no more and no less than five of them. The singer-songwriter Pere Tàpies in Catalonia and the actor Aitor Mazo in the Basque Country were the presenters of the version in each region. In Catalonia the show was called ‘Elis, Elis!’ and the Galician version, ‘¡Tierra, trágame!’, (May the earth swallow me up) the name that would be repeated in a nationally broadcast programme for a private channel also based on hidden cameras.