Around the World in 80 Ways: New Radio 4 Quiz 4

OK folks, so, so far, we've had three excellent new quizzes, all of which are excellent shows that, with a little fine tuning, would all be fine additions to the Radio 4 quiz stable. The last of these pilots had its second show on Sunday and, once again, is a very respectable show and well worth a listen.

 

Simon Reeve is our host this time, someone I am familiar with due to seeing bits of his travel shows on Dave. He's a decent enough host, able to get the best out of the contestants and inject humour and/or personality into the proceedings when needed to.

 

Now, like the preceding three shows, 80 Ways (as I'll be calling it from now on) is contested by two teams of two (once again introduced by first name only). Unlike the preceding three shows, 80 Ways is different in that it's really just one big quiz with no real 'rounds' as it were.

 

To begin with, Simon reads out a series of clues to a random country; the teams simply have to buzz in when they think they know they which one. Buzz and get it wrong and they're frozen out of the next clue; get it right, and they get to choose their set of questions for the rest of the show, with the other team getting the one they didn't choose.

 

You see, the idea of the show is that we start in the country described in the first question and have to get from there to a predesignated finishing point by means of a series of questions. For example, in the first show, the teams began in Moldova and had to get from there to Paris.

 

The team that correctly identified Moldova for the first question got a choice of routes: they could have either 'Moldova to Ukraine to Poland to Germany to Luxembourg to France' or 'Moldova to Romania to Hungary to Croatia to Italy to France'. They chose the latter, leaving their opponents with the former.

 

Now, in order to get into a new country, the teams need to answer a series of questions to do so; how many, they have a choice. For example, for their first choice, one correctly answered question about Moldova will get them there, two about Ukraine will get them there and three about Poland will get them there.

 

These latter two options (to skip countries) are known as 'train journeys' and 'plane journeys' respectively, and may only be attempted once in every show. If a team gets stuck, they can ask Simon for an extra clue, or 'tourist information' as he phrases it; you are allowed two of these per show.

 

Once a team gets to the country of the destination city, they have to answer four further questions about said country, the last of which about the city in question; get them all right and they've won the game.

 

And that's it basically. Apologies if my phrasing sounds a bit complicated, but it honestly isn't. Once you get the gist of it, things flow very easily.

 

In summary, 80 Ways is another excellent quiz that would definitely fit into the Sunday quiz slot perfectly well. I think it'd probably have to stick to single episodes though; I can't really see a tournament format working here.

 

So, we've had four quiz pilots then: Bookmarks was a fine show a few tweaks away from being great, Deja News a good show in the wrong slot, You're Number's Up surprisingly fun and Around the World in 80 Ways is just simply a decent listen. All four would definitely make worthy full series and, if there really is only room for one of them, I honestly don't envy whoever has to decide which one it is.

 

Now, this time last week, I'd have said: "Put Deja News in the Friday 6:30 summer slot to replace that Catherine Bohart TLDR show". As it turns out, TPTB have had the same idea and binned that show off to replace it with a (different) show hosted by Lucy Porter! Plus another hosted by Ian Smith as well. Depending on how these shows go, I'll update my thoughts afterwards.

 

But anyway, these have all been excellent shows and I'd be said to lose any of them for good. Thanks to all involved, it's been a lot of fun listening to them over the last few weeks!

 

Back next Monday with my usual write-up; see yous then I guess... 

Quizzy Mondays 2026-27 Week 2: University Challenge R1M2, Only Connect R1M2, Mastermind Heat 2

Hello my friends, and welcome to Week 2 of this season's Quizzy Mondays! I am pleased to report I am in a better mood this week than last week due to it being nowhere near as hot here as last week; but a brief respite as apparently going to warm up again tomorrow. Coming up, the second heat of OC brings about some clarity, but firstly UC, and an excellent follow up to last week's excellent series opener...

 

Durham have appeared on the BBC series of UC more times than any other institution, winning two series, 1999-2000 and 2022-23, to add to the ITV series they won; last year's team were defeated by Merton College Oxford in the first round. Playing for them this year were:

Robert Morris, from Wigan, studying Maths

Bella Thomas, from East Sussex, studying Philosophy

Captain: Dominic Challis, from Bournemouth, studying History of Economics

Andreas Ktori, from Birmingham, studying Physics  

 

Manchester are, of course, the defending champions, winning a joint record fifth title last series to add to the ones from 2005-06, 2011-12 and 2012-13, plus the 08-09 title they were awarded after that which we do not talk about; this is their 24th BBC series they've appeared in. Representing them were: 

Maciej Wojdyła, from London (originally Poland), studying Nuclear Science and Technology

Ethan Lehane, from Havant, studying Maths

Captain: Argyro Olympitis, from Manchester (originally the British Virgin Islands), studying the Immune Matrix

Caroline Ball, from York, studying Library and Archive Studies  

 

The match began with... a penalty, incurred by Durham; Manchester duly pounced and took all three bonuses. Durham recovered to take the next starter, but the defending champs took the next two, including the first picture starter; after the first picture round, they led 55-15. Another starter and a full set of bonuses increased that lead, but Durham took a couple of their own and had suddenly cut the gap down to just twenty points. Manchester took the music round though, taking one bonus (and were unlucky not to get the other after offering the full 'Diana Ross and the Supremes' when just the band was needed), which upped their lead to 95-60.

 

Now it was Durham who went on a roll though, taking three starters in a row and suddenly they'd taken the lead and reached three figures first. Manchester took the second picture round though, and had just about taken the lead back afterwards, 110-105. And from here on in, it was virtually all Manchester, as the champs ran away on the buzzer and getting the vast majority of the accompanying bonuses. Durham did take the final starter of the game and the one bonus there was time for; at the gong, Manchester won 190-120.

 

Another good contest, a close one until Manchester's late sprint. Well done them, and best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to Durham, a capable team who won't be back in the repechage I fear, but a good effort from them, thanks for playing!

 

The stats: Andreas Ktori was the best buzzer of the night with five starters, while Messrs Wojdyła and Lehane were joint best for Manchester with four each. On the bonuses, Durham managed 11 out of 19 (with the night's one penalty) and Manchester 18 out of 30.

 

Next week's match: University College Oxford vs St John's Cambridge

 

Only Connect continued with the second episode of its now-extended run of 34 episodes, plus four Christmas specials, so 38 overall. It would appear the show IS doing the extended format with the QFs like UC does and, given that I’m in a much better mood tonight than I was last week, I do actually agree with this; going straight from the extended group stage to instant KO QFs did maybe seem a bit abrupt (albeit not as bad as the second round on UC), so… yeah, I agree with this.

 

Anyway, playing tonight were the Two Hearts, Ben Baker, Olivia Grimes and captain Eden Cook-Watson, and Ad Astra, David Howes, Paul McMillan and captain Louise McMillan, daughter of David and wife of Paul, who I’m pretty sure was on UC many many years ago (which reminds me, I really should finally update that list of joint alumni of the two shows when this first round is done).

 

I claim two points on the ‘eaten by tigers’ question in the first round; Ad Astra led 5-2 at the end of that. I also claim two points on the World Wide Web question in the second round, and we came close on at least one other question in that round; the teams were level on 8-each after that was done.

 

On to the Walls; Ad Astra went first, and polished theirs off in pretty quick succession for a full ten. The Hearts took a bit longer, but same result, another full house (a fourth out of four this series), so as you were, an 18-each tie going into Missing Vowels. And, thanks in part to a virtuoso performance from Eden on the category of ‘Phrases seen in arcade games’, the Hearts just emerged on top 25-24! Another excellent contest though; well played both teams and best of luck in your next games!

 

Next week’s match: Sinistrals vs Merseyside Eyes

 

Mastermind’s second heat was won by Elsie Clark, whose 20 points saw her just edge home ahead of Farrar Hornby (a recent Brain of Britain semi-finalist) with 18; Emily Ryan and Adam Royston completed the line-up with 14 and 16.

 

And that's it for this week! Thanks as ever for reading; stay tuned for my review of the final Radio 4 quiz pilot, Around the World in 80 Ways, coming up either tomorrow or Wednesday. And there might be something else I'll be talking about on here in the coming weeks, we'll wait and see. Anyway, see you tomorrow or Wednesday, and then again next week; until then, sayonara... 

Quizzy Mondays 2026-27 Week 1: University Challenge R1M1, Only Connect R1M1, Mastermind Heat 1

Good evening my friends, and welcome to the new season of Quizzy Mondays! Much needed as well, as the few months since we were last year have been somewhat sad in all honesty, with the Radio 4 quiz pilots providing some much needed cheer. My review of the last of these, Around the World in 80 Ways, coming up next Tuesday once the second episode has gone out. For now though, down to business; coming up, some confusion about Only Connect, but first, on with the new series of UC...

 

Bristol have been fairly regular senders of UC teams in the BBC era, this is their 21st; last year's team exited in the second round, but the two beforehand reached the semis and the final respectively. Playing for them this year were:

Jake Wingfield, from Kidderminster, studying Music

Francesca O'Connor, from East Grinstead, studying English and History

Captain: Freddie Burns, from Stroud, studying Quantum Computing

Artem Borisov, from Moscow, studying Maths and Computer Science

 

Imperial have only appeared in 17 previous BBC series, but their record is exemplary, with a joint record five series wins and a further seven teams reaching at least the QFs; last year's team were defeated by eventual winners Manchester in the semis. This year's line-up, with a lot to live up to, were:

Dennis Reppen, from Chicago, studying Taxonomy

Lola Linnane-Barron, from London, studying Pure Maths

Captain: Charlie Lowman, from Chester, studying Maths

Edward Israngkura Na Ayudhya, from Bangkok, studying Advanced Chemical Engineering  

 

So, off we set on another series, and it was Charlie Lowman who took the first starter of the series, for Imperial, who took all three bonuses. Bristol's first contribution of the series was an unfortunate penalty, but they soon got going as well; after the first picture round, the teams were tied on 35-each. The London side pressed ahead then with two starters in a row, but an unlucky penalty of their own allowed Bristol back in. It was a brief blip in a productive second quarter for Imperial; after the music round, they led 110-55.

 

Another starter took Imperial within sight of a three figure lead, but Bristol managed to get a run together and, after the second picture round, they'd suddenly cut the gap to 130-110. But Imperial reawoke with a starter and full set of bonuses. Bristol took the next to keep the pressure on them, but a late rally saw the Londoners race away and soon reach 200. Bristol did keep their score ticking over as well though, thus ensuring they'll almost certainly be back in the repechage. At the gong, Imperial won 220-160.

 

An excellent start to the new series, two very impressive teams, well played to both of them. Well done Imperial, carry on like that and we'll be seeing them in the later stages again; best of luck to them, for now though, in the second round! Hard lines to Bristol, but they'll almost certainly be back in the repechage with a score as good as that; best of luck to them in that.

 

The stats: Messrs Reppen and Lowman were joint best buzzers of the night with five each, while Messrs Wingfield and Burns were joint best for Bristol with three each. On the bonuses, Bristol managed 16 out of 27 (with two penalties) and Imperial 22 out of 36 (also with two penalties), and, pleasingly for the first show of the series, all eight players got at least one starter correct.

 

Next week's match: Durham vs Manchester

 

Only Connect’s returned for its 22nd series, which the BBC website claims will run for 34 episodes, but the host claimed at the start will be 38 episodes long. Whichever it is, how it would work, I don’t know. Surely they’re not going to do the double elimination format AGAIN when they’re down to eight teams after the initial play-off round. Hopefully all will become clear in due course and it won’t be as faffy as Series 12 and 13. Seriously, what was wrong with the existing format? (Or maybe there are going to be lots of Christmas specials and they’re counting them towards the total)

 

Anyway, the series was opened by the Culture Club, Charlie Brookfield, Viki Owen and captain Hugh Adler, and the Makeweights, Omer Elchanan, Isaac Barden and captain Eleanor Stiles.

 

I don’t think me or my parents got any questions completely right in the first round, though we came close on a few of them (and I was a bit distracted during it as well TBF); the teams were tied on 3-each at the end of that. I claimed our first points of the series, the same three as the Makeweights, on the KPop Demon Hunters question in the second round; my Dad claims three on the most translated authors question. The Makeweights led 10-6 after that round.

 

On to the Walls, and the Culture Club went first, and polished off their wall pretty easily for a full ten. The Makeweights did likewise, so, as you were, they led 20-16 going into Missing Vowels. They maintained their lead in that to win 25-21. Well played both teams, an excellent start to the series; best of luck in your next games!

 

Next week's match: Two Hearts vs Ad Astri 

 

Mastermind’s first episode of its new series was won by David Rhodes, who won with 22 points, four ahead of second placed Ravi Meah with 18. Sarah Klein and Holly Simmons completed the first line-up of the series, finishing with 15 and 16 respectively.

 

And that's the first week of the new season done! Thanks as ever for reading; hopefully the fact I've been rather distracted this week by how warm it is in my flat hasn't spoiled your enjoyment of it too much. Back same time same place next week with the second instalment, followed by my review of the final Radio 4 pilot next Tuesday; so, see yous then... 

Your Number's Up: New Radio 4 Quiz 3

Greeting friends! And I come bearing good news: Quizzy Mondays returns with a full line-up next Monday! So, tune back in this time next week for my first write-up of the series. That's then though; this is now, and now we have another of Radio 4's pilot quizzes to look at.

 

So, so far we've had Bookmarks, which is an excellent show a couple of tweaks away from greatness, and Deja News, which is a good show but probably better suited for Fridays at 6:30 than the Sunday quiz slot. Next up, we have Your Number's Up...

 

Now, Max Fosh is not someone I was familiar with before this show, but my first impressions of him here were positive. In fact, given that this show is apparently made by the same people as QI, I'm quite surprised he hasn't been on that show since given how large and diverse its cast has become in the last few series. Here, he does an excellent job, has a strong handle on the format and can add plenty of humour to proceedings when needed.

 

So, once again, this is a quiz contested by teams of two. Like Bookmarks, they are introduced on first name terms only; I'm pretty sure though that the two on one of the second show's teams were Katie Steckles and Paul Taylor of OC S16 winners the Puzzle Hunters. (I could also hazard an educated guess on who the other team were)

 

Round 1 then; Max asks the teams a series of trivia based maths questions (for example "The number of teams in the English Premier League minus the number of teams in the Scottish Premiership"), first team to buzz in with the correct answer AND show their workings (for example, eight, because it's twenty English teams minus twelve Scottish teams) gets a point. A gentle and easy to understand start to the show to get proceedings underway.

 

Round 2 is Estimate Guestimate; this round takes quite a long time and eats up almost half the show, but it's still a good round. One team is sent backstage, the other is asked a long and complicated maths question, accompanied by music; for example, one of the questions on the first show was "Lou Bega decides to send a Valentine's Day card to all the women mentioned in his hit song Mambo No 5 and, to save money, decides to do so second class; how much money does he spend on stamps?".

 

Once the team has taken their time to work it out the best they can and have a guess, they go backstage and the other team comes back and attempts the same question (albeit without the music this time!). After both teams have answered, they are both brought in to hear the correct answer; closest team gets two points. And, if their answer is closer than the average guess of the audience, they get a bonus two points.

 

A second question is then asked, this time with the team who went second last time going first this time, but otherwise it's the same.

 

Despite the fact it takes quite a long time, this is still a perfectly good round. If you wanted to cut it down a bit, you could maybe have both teams attempt one question each and work out some other way of awarding the points.

 

The third round was different on the two shows. In the first, Round 3 was a simple variant of the card game Pontoon: Max asks the teams to write down as many correct answers to a certain category as they wish to; in the show we got, the category was "Eurovision winning nations". Standard Blackjack rules apply: closest to 21 without going over are the winners; 22 or more and you're bust. As it happened, both teams went bust!

 

This probably explains why they changed it for the second show. In that, Round 3 was much simpler: Max gives both teams a series of categories and they have to say whether there are more or less than ten of them (ie series of Red Dwarf broadcast on the BBC, which would be less as there were eight). Both have one minute to get through as many as possible; one point for each correct answer.

 

On balance, I think the second third round is probably the better one and, if it gets picked up for a full series, that's the one I'd run with. 

 

And the final round is probably the best of the show: Max asks the teams a series of maths cum trivia questions (eg number of Scottish top flight titles Celtic have won, or 224 divided by four; answer to both is 56); first to buzz in correctly gets a point.

 

I enjoyed this show a lot more than I thought I would. Max is an excellent host, the questions, far from being out of the league of a non-maths person like myself, are very fun and easy to play along with and, while the second round is quite long, it all flows reasonably quickly enough that you won't get bored. If you wanted to cut this round down as I suggested with both teams facing just one question each, you could always do both the Pontoon and the More or Less round to fill in the extra time.

 

Overall, this is another excellent show, and I definitely think you could get a full series out of it; maybe an eight team three round series of seven/eight episodes. But, yeah, another winner; if there really is only room for on of these pilots to get picked up, I don't envy whoever it is who has to decide which of the three we've had so far gets the nod.

 

One last of these pilots to go: Around the World in 80 Ways, hosted by Simon Reeve, begins its two week run this coming Sunday. Review of that coming back a fortnight tomorrow.

 

Firstly, though, we have the small matter of the return of Quizzy Mondays next week! See yous next Monday with my first write-up of the season; until then, sayonara... 

Deja News: New Radio 4 Quiz 2

OK, so a couple of weeks ago, I reviewed Bookmarks, the first of the new quiz shows Radio 4 is piloting in the Sunday quiz slot. I thought it was a good show, a couple of tweaks away from being a great one, and that it would be tough for the remaining three to beat.

 

Well, I don't think Deja News quite managed to beat it, but it too is only a few adjustments away from potentially doing so.

 

Like Bookmarks, this is another chatty, light hearted quiz, and, also like Bookmarks, it has a host very well suited for such a quiz, this time Lucy Porter. The show is contested by two teams of two, another similarity to Bookmarks, except the contestants are introduced by their full names this time.

 

The difference is, whereas Bookmarks featured a fair amount of banter to pad out a relative lack of questions, Deja News keeps them coming reasonably thick and fast. The show has six rounds, all of which Lucy has given names to; I can't remember all the names, so I'm just going to go through them and explain them in order.

 

The first round is a fairly direct lift from University Challenge: the teams are played an old news clip and have to identify the story. First to buzz in with the correct answer gets one point (I think) and three (usually pretty easy) bonus questions related to said story. In both episodes, one team dominated this round and led by a double digit score to the other team's nul points at the end of it. This might be something to consider changing a bit if the show gets a full series.

 

The second round is about vox pops. Both teams are played a maximum of three of these and have to identify the news story they refer to; they get three points if they can get it after the first, two after the second and one after the third.

 

Round 3, both teams are played a selection of three archive clips all from the same decade (the team in the lead gets a choice of decade); they have two jobs here, identify the news stories and place them in chronological order. One point for each story identified, and a bonus three is they get all of them in the right order.

 

Round 4 is probably the weak link of the current rounds IMO: the teams are played two voice clips each, sent in by members of the public, whose names and ages are given, who are talking about an event that happened in their lifetime. The teams, again, simply have to name the event. Whereas the other rounds all feature BBC archive material, this one doesn't and so feels a bit out of place to me.

 

The fifth round is by far and away the toughest: the teams are played three archive clips and are asked to perform an arithmetical sum with various numbers related to them! Something like, the year of the first clip minus the year of the second (which will only be a couple of years earlier to ensure we get a small number), then times that number by one related to the third clip. Only once in the two shows did a team get their question right in this round, the other three being one, one and two out IIRC!

 

And the final round is a nice simple sprint to the finish: the teams are played a series of fairly well known archive clips, all of which have their last three words omitted; one point if you buzz in and get it right (interruptions are allowed), minus one if you're wrong (even by one letter, it has to be absolutely spot on).

 

The show is a fun listen, but, like I say there are a few things I'd change if it were to get a full series. For a start, I'd probably bin the voice notes round; you could easily expand one of the other rounds to make up the time. Also, I'd maybe move the UC-style round to later in the show given how one-sided it was in the two shows we've had which kinda meant both were over after the first round.

 

I do have another suggestion, one which isn't about the show itself, but rather, when it'd be on.

 

A few years ago, similar to what they are currently doing in the Sunday quiz slot, Radio 4 did a run of one-episode pilot shows in the Friday night 6:30 comedy slot (the 'topical news' slot). Two of these were subsequently picked up for full series: one was the Naked Week (or the "No, it's nothing to do with witches" show are many of you may know it!), which has seamlessly taken over the slot vacated by the Now Show.

 

The other is Catherine Bohart: TLDR, in which the eponymous comedian and various guests talks about a single news story for the entire show, which, for the last two years, has run in the slot over the summer months. It's an alright enough show, but, compared to the Naked Week, Dead Ringers and, at a push, the News Quiz (which, despite being well past its best, can still be sufficiently amusing occasionally), all o which get at least two series a year, it's the weakest show in the slot at the moment.

 

Deja News, on the other hand, I can see fitting into that slot very well. You could do it either with civilians like it already does, or you could easily replace them with comedians et al; there'd no doubt be plenty of them available. More to the point, I actually think the current six round setup might actually work better with comedians than civilians, so they wouldn't have to make any tweaks, which would be a plus.

 

So, overall, Deja News is a good show and I'd definitely welcome a full series of it, but maybe not in the quiz slot; I think it'd fit into the Friday 6:30 slot better.

 

Anyway, two down, two to go (I think). Next up, starting this coming Sunday, is Your Number's Up, a maths based show hosted by comedian Max Fosh, who I am not familiar with, but I look forward to seeing how this show works. It's got its work cut out though, following on from the two we've had so far.

 

Back in two weeks' time with my review of that. And, by then, we may well know when/if Quizzy Mondays are coming back as well, so watch this space. Until then, sayonara.