There's a ton of fun of the fair in Channel 4's The Big Fat Quiz of Everything (Monday, Channel 4), hosted by Jimmy sorry-about-all-that-off-shore-accounts-business Carr. cheating, cogging and childish bickeringAs with previous incarnations (The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, The Big Fast Quiz of the 80s, The Big Fat Quiz of the 00s) they've stuck with the same format – because it works.
Covering sport, science, music (list three of the things Alanis Morissette mistakenly thinks are ironic in her 1990s hit of the same name), words and language (what's the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities?), film (name one rule of Fight Club other than you don't talk about Fight Club), there's plenty of actual quizzing to satisfy the serious-minded.
Pub quiz-style questions are interspersed with the brilliant ‘say what you see’ round, C4’s Jon Snow hilarious faux news reports, the children of Mitchell Brook Primary school re-enactment of historical events and celebrity questions (asked by celebs, not about them).
Yet The Big Fat Quiz is only ever as good as its teams (Noel Fielding and Richard Ayoade were among the all-time best). For this latest episode, we've got the permanently panda-eyed Claudia Winkleman playing with boffin David Mitchell, the mischievous Mel Giedroyche of Bake-Off fame teamed with American comic Kristen Schall (Flight of the Conchords) and the avuncular pairing of Bob Mortimer (who gets better with age) and Jonathon Ross.
Before long, the quiz descends into a typical Christmas family board game scenario, with lots of cheating, cogging and childish bickering.
A totally topical trivial pursuit, The Big Fat Quiz of Everything is naughty and nerdy and 99 per cent guaranteed to cause arguments in your house if you play along.
