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. 

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...