I loved watching my favorite TV quiz show every day. Usually, Mastermind, Only Connect and University Challenge grace our TV screens only on Mondays. Over the holidays, these three programs, which featured celebrities sitting in the famous black chairs and notable alumni facing questions from University Challenge host Amol Rajan, aired almost every night.
The lineup of daily quizzes kept me entertained. Even if I had a bad day, I could always think, “Oh, I have a quiz tonight.”
It's not that we TV viewers aren't well-prepared in terms of quizzes. If you have a remote control, you can probably watch quizzes all day every day. Pointless, Countdown – Recently won by a woman for the first time in 26 years – Rebroadcasts of The Chase, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Weakest Link and reruns – For afternoon drinks or late hours There's always a quiz that's perfect for your night of cocoa.
Quiz shows have a deep-rooted appeal. Wheel of Fortune, Blockbusters, special guest teen darts sensation Luke Littler's Christmas hit Bullseye, to name just a few, and many more are returning to our screens for the first time in a long while with new hosts. I'll be back.
We love a bit of quiz show nostalgia, and episodes of Blanketty Blank, Noel's House Party and The Generation Game were popular airings on BBC4 last summer.
Whether it's on TV, in the pub or in the newspaper, we all love taking quizzes. There's nothing we love more than racking our brains to find the capital of Burkina Faso or the elemental symbol for tungsten. Often we use knowledge that has been dormant in our memory since our school days.
I get irritated when topics that I once knew well come up. Glacial landforms caused by erosion, the world's weather systems, the earth's strata – I studied geography at university, so why can't I remember these things?
But sometimes long-buried answers emerge, such as the Mariana Trench, amino acids, Wilfred Owen, and the Battle of Jutland. The last to enter consciousness is the fourth form (10th grade in today's schools). There's a strange, strangely satisfying feeling when this happens.
I love One Per Cent Club. As stated in its introduction, this is not about what you know, but how your brain works. Sometimes the answer is obvious, but other times it's completely baffling. It must be much more difficult when you have a time limit and are sitting there under the glare of studio lights.
When I watch quizzes on TV, I often don't answer even though I think I know the answer, and end up kicking myself when I get it right. “That’s what I was going to say,” I often say to my husband while watching University Challenge. You rarely get more than 2 questions correct. My husband is a real star and gets at least 10 questions right every time. He is rarely wrong, especially when it comes to history and art. If Cambridge University of Technology (now part of Anglia Ruskin University) needs to put together a team, he is the man for them.
However, they were unable to respond well to the influx of quizzes in the festive mood. Towards the end, he complained to them that he was “tired.”
Thankfully, I still have Mondays off, so I can always rely on Richard Osman's House of Games after work. This is lighthearted and fun.
