Quizzy Mondays 2026-27 Week 3: University Challenge R1M3, Only Connect R1M3, Mastermind Heat 3

Hello again my friends, and welcome back to another Quizzy Monday! And a happy one as, for the first time in nearly two years, we have an ultra-complete line-up of the three BBC2 quizzes, plus Brain of Britain is finally back as well! But not exactly the same as before; more on that later. But, for now, on with the TV quizzes, beginning with UC; hope you weren't all caught out by the slightly late start due to that Romesh trailer being shown in full beforehand!

 

University College Oxford (Univ from here on in as I go against Roger T for the first time in this blog's history!) won the show twice during the ITV era; its best BBC era performance was reaching the SFs in 2000-01, and its last appearance in 2022-23 saw its team go out in the second round. Playing for them this year were:

Adam Sakabani, from Purley in London, studying Physics

Deepro Choudhury, from Tonbridge in Kent, studying Statistics and Machine Learning

Captain: Delia Cropper, from Loughborough, studying Theoretical Physics

Shaaon Bhattacharya, from Cambridge (originally New Hampshire), studying PPE  

 

St John's College Cambridge has appeared in seven previous BBC series, of which its best showing was when it won the 2017-18 series; its last appearance was in the 2021-22 series, where its team had a marathon run to the QFs before being defeated by eventual runners-up Reading. This year's team comprised of:

Callum Thomas, from Queensland, Australia, studying Zoology

Jonathan Watts, from London, studying Maths

Captain: Liam Plimmer, from Dorset, studying English

Aurelia Walker, from London, studying Maths  

 

Univ took the first two starters of the match and all six of the resulting bonuses; St John's maintained this run by taking all three of their first set as well. We finally got a wrong answer during the first picture round, after which Univ led 65-25. St John's took a couple of starters to pull within five, but Univ duly pulled away again. St John's kept the pressure on though and, after the music round, they'd narrowly taken the lead 90-85.

 

But a penalty allowed Univ to retake the lead again, their captain Delia Cropper taking a fourth starter of a productive night, followed by a fifth with a memorable answer of 'Mario 64'! A further two starters to the Oxonians ensured all four of them had a correct starter and, after the second picture round, they'd opened up a lead of 160-85. Another starter and it looked like Univ had the game won, but St John's got a run of starters going, the bonuses fell very nicely for them with three full sets in a row, and suddenly they were just fifteen behind! But a penalty handed Univ back possession, their captain took the final starter of the game, and that was game over. At the gong, Univ won 200-170.

 

A very good game indeed, two excellent teams, well played both! Well done Univ, their captain especially, they look a very good team at this early stage; best of luck to them in the second round! Hard lines to St John's, who so nearly pulled a massive rabbit out of the hat there, but a score that good will almost certainly bring them back in the play-offs; best of luck to them in those!

 

The stats: Delia Cropper was easily the best buzzer of the night with EIGHT(!) starters, while Messrs Watts and Plimmer were joint best for St John's with three each. On the bonuses, Univ managed 19 out of 30 (with one penalty) and St John's 19 out of 27 (with three penalties), and all eight players contributed at least one correct starter.

 

Next week's match: Guildhall School of Music and Drama vs Darwin College Cambridge

 

Only Connect’s third heat was contested by the Sinistrals, Mia Eaglesham, Geena Baird and captain Millar McGroarty, and the Merseyside Eyes, Tolu Ajayi, AJ Dowler and captain Elliot Otty.

 

My Dad claims the same two points as the Sinistrals on the football rivalries question in the first round; they led 3-2 at the end of that. I think I got the ‘seven’ question in the second round at the same time as the Sinistrals; they led 8-7 afterwards.

 

On to the Walls, and the Sinistrals polished off theirs in pretty short order, a full ten there. The Eyes took longer, but they also got everything right, another full house (six out of six so far this series I believe), so, as you were, they trailed 18-17 going into Missing Vowels. The Sinistrals fared considerably better in that, winning each (completed) set 3-1 and running out winnings 28-10. Another good contest, well played both, best of luck next time!

 

Next week’s match: Frenemies vs Marvins

 

Mastermind was won by Piers Marchant (who I’m pretty sure was on UC not long ago), who only just snuck home ahead of second placed Lorraine Behrens; both scored 19 points, but Lorraine had passed once whereas he hadn’t at all, thus giving him the win. Han Ket Li and Dom Mottram also participated, finishing with 10 and 15 respectively.

Brain of Britain returned yesterday after a year’s absence, and has some new rules. Beat the Brains has been done away with, which is fair enough as it allows for more rounds of questions. More significantly, each contender gets a ‘Specialist’ round where their run of up to five questions is on a subject of their choice; same rules apply though, get a question wrong, it goes open to the other three for a bonus and their go is over. Not sure where I stand on this yet; will come back to it after a few more shows.

 

Anyway, Claire Reynolds, recent Mastermind runner-up, was the first winner of the series, running away with it in the third round, her specialist round, and didn’t come close to getting caught; she ended up winning with 21 points, twelve ahead of second placed Adam Macleod (for whom his specialist round was also his most productive) with 9. Olivia Woolley and Jacob Roberts (both alumni of UC and Mastermind) also competed, finishing with 6 and 4 respectively.

 

And that's it for another week! Thanks as ever for reading; it's good to have a very complete line-up of shows back at last, though we fear it won't be long before Mastermind (at least) starts having weeks off again. And as for the matter of Lucy Porter's new Friday night show Current-ish, it's very meh, and, given the choice, I'd definitely choose Deja News over it. Watch this space for Ian Smith's show when it starts. Anyway, back with my write-up again next week, so, see yous then... 

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...