Bookmarks: New Radio 4 Quiz 1

Greetings friends! Hope you're all enjoying the Quizzy Mondays recess; I suspect we'll be having six more weeks off left and we'll be back for the new season on July the 20th, the day after the World Cup final, but we'll see.

 

In the meantime, with both The 3rd Degree and Quote Unquote gone, Radio 4 is trying out some new quizzes in the Sunday afternoon (and Saturday late night) quiz slot, all getting two episode pilot runs. The first of them had its second episode yesterday and, I'll be honest, it's going to be tough for the others to beat.

 

So, if you're after a snappy quiz show with a constant stream of question like UC or Brain of Britain, then Bookmarks isn't that. It is very much in the Only Connect mould, with banter between the host and the contestants just as important as the questions. Thankfully, said host is Clare Balding, who is right at home in this sort of atmosphere, and so does as excellent a job as you'd expect.

 

The quiz is contested by two teams of two, both of whom are introduced by their first names only. This is something I'd like to see change if the show gets picked up for a full series, but that's because my quiz viewing/listening thrives on name recognition. The two episodes saw some familiar names and voices, but I can't say for sure.

 

The first round sees both teams asked five general knowledge literature questions, each worth one point. If they get one wrong, they are not told the correct answer, as the correct answers are all clues to a mystery book; if they can identify said mystery book, they get a bonus three points. There are no bonuses for the other team.

 

This is followed by the first 'specialist' round, where one of the members of each team is asked a series of five questions on a book of their choice. (And it can be any book you like; one contestant's book of choice was Murder on the Orient Express, another's was a Delia Smith cookbook!) This time, if they get one wrong, it does go over to the other team, for a two-point bonus.

 

Round 2 is probably the weakest round of the show. Clare names a subject (in the two episodes we've had so far, the subjects were 'Stephen King novels' and 'Charles Dickens completed novels'), and the teams are asked to bid on how many of them they think they can name. Highest bidders get three points if they can fulfil their bid. As this happened on both shows, I can't say for sure what happens if they fail and it goes to the other team. There is also a 'golden answer' that, if they get, they get a three point bonus.

 

If the show gets a full series, I would probably adjust this round slightly to a closer variant of the lists round from The 3rd Degree, whereby both teams get a subject, with either the team in front or the team trailing getting a choice of two and the other team the other and getting to name how many correct answers both teams have to get. They could easily trim a bit of banter so there'd be time for this.

 

After the second specialist round featuring the remaining two contestants, the final round is an anagrams round, where Clare names a category and then four anagrams of four of that category. This is a decent enough finale to the show, and very much gives Only Connect Missing Vowels vibes. In fact, it reminds me very much of the audio only version of that which they did in the Sound special a couple of years ago.

 

The fact that there's no flat out buzzer round like on Counterpoint is maybe a bit of a miss for me, but maybe that's just because I'm used to that show and not used to this one, yet. Apart from the somewhat unbalanced second round, the current rounds are fine enough.

 

Another thing I'd probably change in a full series is the soundtrack. The theme tune is fine enough, as are the stings between rounds, but the applause, which sounds very canned to me (though I'll happily retract if someone involved in the show confirms otherwise), can be done away with, as I personally found it a bit jarring.

 

But overall, Bookmarks was a fun listen and, with a few tweaks, definitely has the potential to be a worthy addition to the Radio 4 quiz stable. The two episodes we've had were simple standalone quizzes; a full series would presumably either carry on in this vein (like The 3rd Degree did) or could easily be adapted into a tournament. Maybe eight teams compete in a first round, winners goes through to the semis, winners of that go through to the final, and you could maybe throw in a third place play-off as well to get an even number of episodes.

 

There are at least three more new quizzes to come, the first of which, Deja News, hosted by Lucy Porter, has the first of its two 'pilots' this coming Sunday; but, as I said at the start, Bookmarks is going to be tough to beat.

 

So, I'll be back in two weeks' time with my review of Deja News; see you then I guess... 

Quizzy Mondays 2025-26 Week 37: University Challenge Grand Final, Mastermind Grand Final

Hello my friends, and welcome to the last Quizzy Monday of the season! Yep, we're done on all fronts tonight with UC and Mastermind both reaching their conclusions! I'm not sure if this makes the two month break Mastermind took over the New Year worth it, but it's certainly very neat indeed! Write-up of that coming up, but, firstly, the final of one of the most fascinating series of UC for a while, between two teams neither of whom looked like champions going into the second round, let alone the QFs, but whoever did win would be a most worthy winner.

 

Edinburgh got here undefeated with victories over Newcastle in Round 1, Trinity of Cambridge in Round 2, their opponents tonight in their first QF, Merton in their second and Darwin in their semi-final 155-110. Hoping for a second title for their university were:

Parthav Easwar, from Portland, Oregon, studying Sustainable Lands and Cities

Johnny Richards, from Los Angeles, studying Ancient DNA

Captain: Alice Leonard, from Portsmouth, studying Environment, Culture and Society

Rayhana Amjad, from Dublin and Glasgow, studying Computer Science

 

Manchester defeated New College of Oxford in the first round and L.S.E. in the second, then lost their first QF to their opponents tonight, recovered by beating U.C.L. in their second and Sheffield in their third, before easily winning their SF against Imperial 250-70. Hoping for a joint record fifth title were:

Ray Power, from Bangkok, studying Film Studies and English Literature

Kirsty Dickson, from Morley Green in Cheshire, studying Medicine

Captain: Kai Madgwick, from Fowey in Cornwall, studying AI and Astrophysics

Rob Faulkner, from Norwich, studying Physics with Astrophysics

 

The final began with... neither team getting the first starter! The second was very quickly answered by, who else, Kai Madgwick, and their team took two of their first bonuses. Edinburgh's own lead buzzer Rayhana Amjad took the third, and they took opened with a pair of bonuses. Mr Richards then gave Edinburgh the lead with a starter and all three bonuses. The first picture round went to Manchester though, which allowed them to cut the gap to 45-30. And now the Manchester captain hit their stride, taking three starters in a row as they eked into a strong lead. Edinburgh got going again with the music round; after the music bonuses, they now trailed 90-55.

 

Another starter was dropped before the Manchester captain put their side into three figures first, which was followed by one bonus. But back came Edinburgh with two starters in a row, but only one bonus followed from the two sets. The second picture round went to Manchester, after which they led 115-80. Still either team's game, and Mr Easwar kept Edinburgh in the game with the next starter, which was followed by a single bonus, and a(n unlucky) penalty to Manchester left the gap at 15. But who else by Kai Madgwick steadied their ship with the next starter, which was, again, followed by one bonus. And, when the Manchester captain took the next starter, that was game over. Edinburgh did take the final starter to deservedly reach three figures, but there was no time for any bonuses. At the gong, Manchester won the match and the series 145-105!

 

For the second series in a row, we went on location, this time to the Clapham Grand theatre, where the chairman and the two teams were joined by the legend that is Miriam Margolyes, who was, of course, a contestant on the show way back in its very earliest days. She said a few words, before handing Kai Madgwick the trophy.

 

An excellent end to the series; well played both teams! Hard lines to Edinburgh, but they definitely played their part and would've been worthy winners as well; well played and thanks for playing! Very very well done Manchester, worthy champions; many congratulations indeed!

 

The stats: Kai Madgwick was, yet again, the best buzzer of the night, with all NINE(!) of their team's starters, giving them a final total of 57(!) over seven matches (surely some sort of record), while Rayhana Amjad was best for Edinburgh with four, and was also their best for the series as a whole with a total of 25 over six games. On the bonuses, Edinburgh manged 8 out of 19 (with one penalty) and Manchester 13 out of 27 (with two penalties).

 

And that's it; we're done! Thanks to all involved on another great, and fascinating, series; here's to the next!

 

Mastermind’s fifth Grand Final of the Clive Myrie era was opened by Lorna Frankel, who was answering on Dame Julie Andrews; the traditional pre-SS round video clip saw her, among other things, practicing for the show, with her boyfriend and former OC teammate Steve Barnes as question master. She made a couple of mistakes, but kept a good pace and finished the round with 11. She was followed into the chair by Ross Taylor, who was answering on the films of Danny Boyle; his pre-round clip also saw him having a practice, with his young son asking him the questions. He made just a single mistake in his round, and took the lead with 13.

 

Next up was Danielle Connolly, who was answering on Beatrix Potter, with his VT showing her visiting the author’s home in Camfield in Hertfordshire and getting a good luck message from Dawn French, who played her on screen; she also made a couple of mistakes, one of them a pass, but did still manage to equal Lorna’s score of 11. She was followed into the chair by David Ford, who was answering on Robert Burns, which I thought would see him visit Alloway for his TV, but instead, he went to Burns’ farm near Dumfries where he wrote a lot of his work; he didn’t make any mistakes that I noticed until the very last question of the round, which saw him finish with 10 points.

 

Next up was Miles Searle, who was answering on Notre-Dame Cathedral; despite being a student studying in Paris, his VT didn’t actually see him go there himself, but instead have a virtual chat with an expert on its history. The round started well, but then a run of wrong answers sent him off the pace; a late rally saw him reach 8 points, but, you’d have to say, that probably ruled him out of the running sadly. Finally, Diane Howe was answering on the astronaut Jim Lovell, with her VT seeing her visit the National Space Centre in Leicester and get a good luck message from Tim Peake; a single wrong answer aside, and only just at that, she squeezed into second place in the half-time table with 12.

 

So, to GK to decide the champion. Miles returned first, knowing he was probably out of the running, and a few wrong answers early in the round confirmed this; he at least did enough to take the lead, scoring 9 for a perfectly fine total of 17, which wouldn’t be a winning score, but he’s still a Mastermind finalist and that can never be taken away from him. David returned next, and quickly equalled Miles’ total, before a run of wrong answers stalled his round completely; he did recover for a late rally to score another 10, taking his total to 20, also probably not a winning score, but still very decent indeed.

 

Lorna was next, and seemed to have gone for the tactic of staring into space so as not to be distracted by anything, a good tactic used by at least one previous winner; it worked well too, as she rattled through the questions well, not dwelling on mistakes, and scored a very good 14 for a great total of 25, which really did put a benchmark down for the remaining contenders. Danielle didn’t manage to better it, but did put down a perfectly decent round, scoring 10 for a total of 21.

 

Next up was Diane, who started strongly, then, as she approached Lorna’s score, began to slow down a bit; just in time, she picked up the pace again and finished having scored 13, and thus equalled Lorna’s total of 25! And, with neither having either passes, left the prospect of a tie-breaker very much open!

 

Unless Ross could beat it of course. He started strongly, but then also hit a run of questions he didn’t know, and then incurred two passes, which meant he’d now have to beat the two ladies’ score to win. With time running out, it looked like he wouldn’t make it, and indeed he fell just short, scoring 11 for a still very good total of 24.

 

Which meant Lorna and Diane, both with 25 points and no passes, would indeed face a tie-breaker to decide who was the winner. And, when Diane was revealed to have gotten the third question correct where Lorna hadn’t, we knew then that she was the winner! And indeed she was, with 28 points to Lorna’s 27. Many congratulations to her, a most worthy winner! And many thanks to the others, Lorna especially who came so close (and kudos to Clive and Diane for acknowledging that at the end), on an excellent end to the series! Here’s to the next when it starts!

 

(And, when it does, hopefully TPTB will have finally taken on board the need for some form of second chance for high scoring first round runners-up)

 

And that's it for the final week of the season! Thanks as ever for reading, both tonight and throughout the year; we'll go again in July hopefully. In the meantime, I'm not sure whether I'm going to do any Spring filler this year; I had an idea, but I'm not sure if I'm up for doing it or not, watch this space. So, for now, until we next meet, sayonara... 

Quizzy Mondays 2025-26 Week 36: University Challenge Semi-Final 2, Mastermind Semi-Final 6

Good evening my friends, and welcome to the penultimate Quizzy Monday of the season! And I'm very pleased to announce that my write-up of next week's final editions of both quizzes will indeed be on the day, as TPTB have scheduled an early start for Mastermind instead of a late one for UC, the latter of which would've forced me to move to Tuesday evening. Anyway, the final Mastermind semi-final coming up, plus some thoughts on the 'problem' of high scoring non-winners; first things first though, the second UC semi-final...

 

Imperial came through the repechage after losing their first round match to Churchill of Cambridge, but have since defeated SOAS in said repechage, Southampton in the second round, Warwick in their first QF and, in their second, they beat Sheffield 160-120. They were the same unchanged foursome as all those previous games:

Rahim Dina, from Peterborough (originally the Seychelles), studying Ecology and Evolution

Eugenia Tong, from Hong Kong, studying Chemistry

Captain: Oscar O'Flanagan, from London, studying Atmospheric Physics

Justin Keung, from Hong Kong, studying Computing

 

Manchester were narrow winners over New College of Oxford and L.S.E. in their first two rounds, before losing their first QF to Edinburgh, but have more than made up for that since with another narrow win, over U.C.L., in their second before their best performance yet in their third saw them also beat Sheffield, 185-135. They were also the same quartet as all those prior matches:

Ray Power, from Bangkok, studying Film Studies and English Literature

Kirsty Dickson, from Morley Green in Cheshire, studying Medicine

Captain: Kai Madgwick, from Fowey in Cornwall, studying AI and Astrophysics

Rob Faulkner, from Norwich, studying Physics with Astrophysics

 

Manchester got off to a flying start as their virtuoso captain added to their already record starter haul for the series, taking the first three of the game, with two thirds of the resulting bonuses going with them, while their opponents were restricted to a single penalty. After the first picture round, Manchester led 80-(-5). And that lead was just getting bigger and bigger as, not only did Mr Madgwick continue to rack up their starter total, but their teammates were also more than doing their bit as well. Soon, they had broken 100 and beyond that and were already well over the horizon. Imperial did finally get some points on the board with the music round; two bonuses cut their gap to 130-15.

 

It proved a brief blip as Manchester resumed their buzzer dominance and, while they only got two of their subsequent six bonuses, it hardly really mattered. Imperial did the right thing in going for early buzzes, but only managed to lose a further ten points. They did finally get a second starter at the third time of answering, and added two bonuses to it. The second picture round went to Manchester though, and a bonus pair of their own took the scores to 180-25. Already game over, just a question of how far both teams could get; another starter to the Manchester captain and a full bonus set took their side past 200 for the first time. And the starters just kept falling for them, with the resulting bonuses even seeing them pick a very obscure answer seemingly out of nowhere. Imperial did manage a couple more late starters and a solid haul of bonuses took them to a respectable enough score. At the gong, Manchester won 250-70.

 

A one-sided contest, more one-sided than anyone would've probably predicted, but still a most enjoyable contest. Very well done to Manchester, who appear to be peaking at exactly the right moment, with their captain, while still easily the dominant player, now very well supported by their colleagues; the momentum is on their side going into next week's final, very very best of luck to them there! Hard lines to Imperial, who we know are a much, much better team than that scoreline suggests and have had a fantastic run, especially after their false start; thanks very much to them for playing!

 

The stats: Kai Madgwick was, once again, the best buzzer of the night, with TEN(!) starters, taking their running total of 48 (that's four-eight), while Mr O'Flanagan was best for Imperial with two, and ends the series their best buzzer with a total of 34 over six games. On the bonuses, Imperial managed a very good 9 out of 12 (with a forgivable three penalties) and Manchester 24 ou of 42 (with two penalties).

 

Next week's match: the final, Edinburgh vs Manchester; the former have the unbeaten record (and, indeed, won the previous meeting between these two), but the latter appear to have the momentum behind them. Hopefully a good end to the series; best of (retrospective) luck to both teams!

 

Mastermind’s final semi-final was opened by Carolyn Rowe, who was answering on Amelia Earhart; a perfect round, answered confidently aside from some early indecisiveness, she scored 11. She was followed into the chair by Myles Searle, who was answering on Sir Laurence Olivier; a late error aside, he was also pretty much perfect, and also scored 11.

 

Next up was Robert Cohen, who was answering on the red wines of Burgundy; he didn’t fare as well unfortunately and scored 5, which, you’d have to say, all but ruled him out of the running already. Finally, Ben Abbott, was answering on the songs of Noel Coward; he too struggled compared to Carolyn and Myles, and scored 7.

 

So, you’d already have said it was a two-horse race going int GK. Robert returned first, and gave an excellent showing, scoring 10 for a respectable total of 15, but it didn’t feel like a winning one today. Ben was next, and started well enough, but then the answers stopped coming; he did recover a bit late on and did just enough to pull level with Robert, scoring 8 to also finish with a total of 15.

 

Carolyn returned next, and, after a bit of a false start, soon acquired the points to take the lead; a brief run of wrong answers aside, she was pretty much spot on for the rest of the round, and scoring an excellent 13 for a fine total of 24. Myles thus had his work cut out to match or beat that; he started well, then faded a bit and it didn’t look like he’d make it, but boy did he recover after that and, with just seconds to go, he had done it, scoring a fabulous 15 for a great total of 26!

 

So, Myles takes the final place in next week’s final! Well done him, and best of luck in it, and thanks to the other three for playing.

 

Also, if I may add my thoughts to those Dave C expressed over the weekend; while I agree that it’s good that all the heat winners were able to compete in the semis this series, the fact that Dennis Wang missed out despite outscoring the vast majority of them does leave a nasty aftertaste in the mouth, and it’s high time TPTB did something about this clear and obvious flaw in the show’s format.

 

If you’d asked me last year, I’d have definitely been among those saying that the top scorers in the heats should go through to the semis irrespective of whether they win or not. But, having read and taken on board Dave and others’ rejection of this idea, I do now agree that some form of competition in the heats does need to be maintained. After all, if you’re going to do that in the heats, why not do it in the semis as well, and I don’t think anyone’s in favour of that.

 

So, assuming the current format is completely and utterly unchangeable, as I strongly suspect it is given the refusal to change it even after Claire Reynolds’ nearly winning the last series, then at the very least, some sort of compensation for high-scoring runners-up should be in order. The original Fifteen-to-One, for example, had a ‘sort of rule’ (in WGS’s words) that runners-up whose scores would’ve otherwise been enough for a place in the final were allowed another go in the following series; in fact, didn’t Mastermind used to have some sort of rule like that and, indeed, didn’t Dave himself go on to win his series thanks to it?

 

Or, if there is some room for the format to be tweaked a bit, then maybe the show could return to another old format, where, IIRC, the six highest scoring non-winners from the heats were also invited back in the semis, which thus featured five contenders instead of four and had shorter rounds to account for it.

 

Or, quite simply, just do three/four fewer heats every series and invite the three/four highest scoring non-winners back in the semis as well. Three fewer heats would make 28 episodes a series, the same as OC, so that’d be a nice tie-in with that show.

 

Whatever the case, as far as I’m concerned, something definitely needs to be done re high scoring non-winners in the heats. For now, best of (retrospective) luck once again to all six finalists; hopefully a good final next week!

 

And that's it for another week! Thanks as ever for reading; next week, it's the finals of both shows! Hopefully both will be able to end the season on a high; this has been a most unpredictable season, for UC in particular, and whoever wins both shows will deserve it. Best of luck, again, to all involved! Anyway, back next Monday with my last write-up of the season; so, see yous then...