Richard Osman: apparently keen on Spot The Plot

Richard Osman, the brains behind BBC quiz show Pointless, is rumoured to have been spotted on Katharine Street this week carrying a briefcase stuffed with production company Endemol’s money, looking to offer Croydon Council a shed-load of cash for a brand new game show.

And the exciting new game involves sheds, as well as garages and various plots of land dotted around the borough.

The show is inspired by the council’s planning department putting forward maps of various plots around the borough to back-up the latest set of sales of public property to Brick by Brick, the council’s in-house house-builder.

The trouble was, most of the surveyors’ maps were completely blank of titles, they had no street or road names, and no real way of identifying where in Croydon were these plots being flogged off by the council.

A source close to Osman said last night, “They really like the concept of a local authority flogging off land for goodness knows how much money, with no one providing precise locations or details of the plot size. They love the complete naffness of it all.

“They think it could be as big a game show as Bullseye!, provided that they can get Tony Newman to take the Jim Bowen role as compere.”

Great! Smashing! Super!

So, as a service to Osman and Endemol, Inside Croydon has agreed to run a trial of Spot The Plot! for our loyal reader, to let you have a go at working out if your council is encouraging its loss-making development company to build flats at the end of your garden, on your garage, or concrete over your local kids’ playground.

And remember, to enter, you don’t have to be too exact with the locations.

After all, Croydon Council’s planners didn’t bother to draw any lines to delineate exactly how large the plots of public land they are selling to Brick by Brick, so why should we bother?

SPOT THE PLOT… No1

So, where in the world is this?

SPOT THE PLOT… No2

Asterisk marks the spot. But where is it?

SPOT THE PLOT… No3

Is this the public open space where your children play football in the summer?

SPOT THE PLOT… No4

And whose public amenity space is this, set to be transformed into flats for private sale?

Answers to all four locations shown here, on postcards only please, to Jo “We’re Not Stupid” Negrini, Fisher’s Folly, Cost A Mint Walk, CR0 1EA.

Deadline for entries is June 13, 2019.

The winner – the first entry with all four correct answers pulled from Ms Negrini’s rather large hat – will win a guided tour around one of Brick by Brick’s luxury apartments.

Second prize will get two such tours.

And once Spot The Plot! gets its pilot show commissioned, other lucky entrants will get an invitation to watch one of Richard Osman’s other TV shows on… a television set near them. Because it’s not just Osman who makes pointless quiz shows.

Because as far as Negrini and Newman are concerned, it’s more a case of Lost The Plot!

Thanks for playing… Spot The Plot!

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