See the first trailer for the rebooted GamesMaster series

Earlier this year it was announced that, after a 23 year absence, GamesMaster will be returning to our screens. The pioneering show was one of the first to bring games and gaming culture to a mainstream TV audience, and featured a winning mix of gaming humour, gaming challenges, and general weirdness. I mean, I think an old man's disembodied head with a monocle is a bit weird.

The series returns November 21 in what Channel 4 insists on calling "a social-first" form, with episodes appearing first on E4's Youtube before airing on the normal E4 channel. The show will be co-produced by Future Publishing’s Barcroft Studios  (disclosure: PC Gamer is owned by Future) and Alaska TV.

GamesMaster is about watching kids play games against each other and having a laugh when it all goes wrong, and it looks like that vibe persists: this all looks like a good laugh and within the spirit of the original. The teaser also gives us our first look at Trevor McDonald as the new GamesMaster: the show's presiding figure, and dispenser of articulate wisdom about video games. McDonald is a well-respect broadcaster in the UK and this is something of a new challenge for him, but he's certainly got the voice for it.

Rich Stanton

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."