I long to be a quiz show champ | BBC Radio Solent's Lou Hannan

It started in my youth with the likes of 3-2-1 and Play Your Cards Right and since then I’ve gone through Blockbusters, Wheel of Fortune and Blankety Blank before settling on Tenable, Tipping Point and The Chase, pictured right.
By Lou Hannan
Published 7th Jul 2020, 14:08 BST
Updated 7th Jul 2020, 14:09 BST
ITV of host Bradley Walsh with all five Chasers, as the quiz show The Chase is to celebrate its 1,000th episode with a special edition. Picture: PA/ITV. ITV of host Bradley Walsh with all five Chasers, as the quiz show The Chase is to celebrate its 1,000th episode with a special edition. Picture: PA/ITV.
ITV of host Bradley Walsh with all five Chasers, as the quiz show The Chase is to celebrate its 1,000th episode with a special edition. Picture: PA/ITV.

I just can’t resist a TV quiz show!

They’re never something I make an appointment to view but when channel hopping, I just can’t seem to resist getting sucked into the world of general knowledge, missing words, ‘higher or lower’ and specialist subjects.

It’s like some kind of masochistic act because most of the time I end up feeling incredibly thick however, on the odd occasion, I surprise myself. Have you ever got a question right on University Challenge and actually felt like you’ve won the lottery?!

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One of my current favourites is Celebrity Mastermind. There’s something intriguing about finding out the weird and wonderful specialist subjects chosen by well-known faces. But, better than that, is the feeling that you’re more intelligent than them when it comes to general knowledge. Further on from that is when you get someone who gives the most ridiculous answers you actually laugh out loud. I was watching one episode when the question came up: ‘What is the English equivalent of the autobahn or autopista?’ The reply? ‘Pistachio’!

As I joined John Humphrys in guffawing, the next one was even better: ‘Which Andrew Llloyd Webber musical was made into a movie starring Madonna and David Essex?’. ‘EastEnders’. Priceless!

It’s nice to feel you sometimes have the intellectual upper-hand but, at the same time, it’s pretty worrying that these people are willing to go onto national television and display such stupidity.

On my weekend radio show, we did a great virtual pub quiz with questions included naming all of Henry VIII’s wives and which city Banksy is from.

It made me realise I’m not as clever as I’d like to think.

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I’ve always fancied being on a TV game show, although I think I’d be the person that completely goes to pieces and forgets their own name as soon as the lights are switched on and the cameras start rolling.

As much as I’d like to say Mastermind would be the one for me I think maybe Catchphrase is more my level…

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Related topics:Pistachio