大象传媒

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan join Naga Munchetty to review new darts documentary Game of Throws: Inside Darts.

Following a whole host of players in the build-up to the 2023/24 tournament, Sky's new documentary Game of Throws: Inside Darts follows the personalities behind the players as they take on the biggest stage of them all at the 'people's palace'.

Featuring some old and some new faces of the darts circuit, viewers can find out about Luke Littler’s life before his meteoric rise or how Dutchman Michael van Gerwen deals with pressure.

Naga: “I do think darts is a bit special. Scott, do you have a dartboard?”

Scott: “I don't have a dartboard… my hand-eye coordination is really bad.”

Hayley: “It would be dangerous!”

Naga: “My dad played darts, and his friends and family would come around and play darts. We watched the darts - Eric Bristow, all these great characters. I think what's really interesting about this sport is, and I think it's reflected in this [documentary] is it's often looked down upon [as a sport] - that's an interesting place where this goes."

Naga continues: “Is it a Must Watch for you, Scott?”

Scott:”Obviously, it is a good watch. It's not a Must Watch.

“There are many things I liked about this. I mean, it's a good point you were saying about having a darts board at home because they refer to it as a darts virus. People get into darts because their parents did at home [and] played in pubs and working mens clubs.

“So it tends to be something that you hone in and become better and better at. And then, of course, you then get sent, if you're good enough, to the World's Darts Championship.

“And can I just say, if you ever get to see the footage [of the WDC], it's one of the most ridiculous audiences for any sporting event I've ever seen."

Naga: “I'm desperate to go, but too scared to go at the same time”.

Scott: “Most of this documentary, I was spending my time looking at the fancy dress costumes. I think my favourite one was a person who came dressed as a dartboard with their face being the bullseye.

“The difference between a bullseye and winning and not winning could be as much as £400,000. I'd be thinking, if so much is at stake, I would want to be in the quietest, most serene environment, not this - which is the most intense amount of pressure.

“I guess people are not even paying attention to what's happening on the stage. What I liked about this documentary was that it honed in on these athletes, these people, how they managed to process through the competition.

“This is one of those documentaries that I think happens to be at the right place at the right time, because Luke Littler, who became a household name at the start of this year, 16 then, was known in that world as being incredibly successful, but he was a newbie in this environment."

Scott continues: “They speak to other players who talked about the amount of pressure that they feel, how tense they got and how the nerves really got to them. Whilst Luke is just calm and casual and just floats through nearly every round of the competition.

“He plays darts purely for enjoyment, but is able to somehow block the outside world around him and regain his composure - I found that bit particularly fascinating.

“In terms of the personalities that attracted me, there was one other player, James Wade, who talked about the experiences that he had and his mental health.

“He was 8 - 0 up in one tournament, then all of a sudden, his mind just said to himself - he doesn't want to be there and he pretty much threw the game.

“He asked himself, ‘what have I done to myself?’, it's a sudden realisation. He was very open in this documentary - diagnosed with bipolar and ADHD and he talked about how much relief he experienced for finally being able to work out why he had been the way that he was."

Scott continues: “It’s interesting about how darts is having a moment, not just in terms of the sport and the names that come from it, but also this documentary feels like it's been well-timed and highlighting its ascent.

“The reason why it's a good watch, not a Must Watch, is we have had a great string of fantastic documentaries reviewed in the last few weeks and so for me, this has moved the bar up of what makes a Must Watch in recent times.

“This is good. It brings you into the darts world. I found it a bit long, but I still got a lot from it. It just didn't hit that threshold for me.”

Naga: “Hayley?”

Hayley: “I think it was a Must Watch, and I say that as not a darts person.

“Saying that, there's something about darts that I find weirdly irresistible to watch. I think it might be because it's so zoomed in on the board and it's so zoomed in on the face that there's just so much drama.

“What I love about it is, it's the most 'just some guy from the pub' sport that you can think of. There's so much drama in just a guy in a big shirt throwing a dart.

“I love the fact that it'll be a guy who works in a chemist or a post office, and then they go to Ally Pally [Alexandra Palace] and they're gods."

Hayley continues: “In this, they go into the characters and you get to know them. There's peril, there's heartbreak, there's mums, and you get a real sense of the people.

“I was terrified of some of those mums, but you really get a sense of who they are as people and what this means to them.

“It's something special. It was really joyful [but] I don't fully understand the sport.”

Naga: “It's just maths, Hayley”

Hayley: “That's why I don't get it. I don't understand maths. I'm quite dim when it comes to maths.”

Naga: “Maths can be for everyone, trust me!”

Hayley: “After this, I went and I found there's a 1979 documentary on Eric Bristow on iPlayer, and it's called Arrows. If you want to watch a guy drinking a lot of pints and smoking a lot of cigarettes, then I highly recommend it.”

Scott: “I think this is also one of the only sports in the world where the introduction of each round is by Peter Dixon, who does the voiceover for X Factor. That's what I liked about it.”

Hayley: “There was some shot that someone made and the commentator said ‘oh, behave yourself’.”

*All laughs*

Hayley: “And that's the kind of commentary I want.”

Naga: “It's a sport born, as Hayley said, out of the pub. You see one of the kids of the darts players practising with his dartboard on a chair, so it's at his height and it can be for anyone.

“You have these players who are revered and admired and yet they are not the kind of people that would be in most middle class, wealthy people's lives.

“I remember watching Luke Littler's journey and Luke Humphreys journey as well, all the way as they got to the final. We were following it because you don't see a 16-year-old going to claim a world title in many sports.

“My disappointment, and I have only seen the first episode, and we know how I whine about time being precious. My disappointment was it felt like a list. It didn't feel like I was being taken along with a particular story.

“It felt like it was appealing and, no offence Hayley, to people like you who don't know too much about darts. I just felt a little underserved as someone who does appreciate it and is thoroughly entertained by it.

“A Must Watch if you don't know much about the world of darts, because I think it's a fascinating world and it's easily one to be snooty about.”

Game of Throws: Inside Darts is now available to watch on Sky Documentaries

But before all that, why not contact Scott and Hayley with the shows you’ve been loving, loathing or both on mustwatch@bbc.co.uk.

Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening on 大象传媒 Sounds.