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.
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