Because it's bloody brilliant.

Nil thread.

No, but I've been meaning to start a Pointless thread ever since it was the source of my 'diagonal knight's move' query. It's the best quiz on telly, for many reasons that I will get round to listing. The only drawback to watching it is that it's on at teatime, and by the time it's over the kids have got very hungry.

I think we have. I have soime vague recollection of discussing it, but, y'know, the search function. I like it though.

It came up in this thread, and I habve a feeling it's been mentioned elsewhere too.

But yeah, it's brilliant. Everything about it is perfect, from its rewarding of obscure knowledge, and its unapologetic mix of the high and low brow to the individual and collective greatness of Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman. I love it.

A bit here: www.wsc.co.uk/component/option,com_kunen...30/id,455157/#455243

Pointless is good fun and Alexander Armstrong is a great host. The basic concept is a complete lift from Tony Wilson's short lived Channel 5 vehicle Topranko though.

Good as A Armstrong is, he hasn't quite managed to lead into an episode with the words, 'Michel Foucault once said....'

Mumpo wrote:


It's on iPlayer, fortunately.

benjm wrote:


That sounds superb, and it passed me right by. Was it just on Granada, or did we get it in places like That London as well?

(Incidentally, was Paul S's post a clever gag, there?)

Topranko's a new one on me too.

And yes, I think that was indeed a (decent) gag from Paul above.

I first saw it when I was on long term sick leave last Spring and became mildly addicted. This was at the time when when it was hidden on BBC2 in the afternoon schedule. Yet every time I brought it into conversation, nobody had ever heard of it.

Trouble is, I can’t watch it anymore. It reminds me of being laid up in bed, and rearranging my day to not only watch Armstrong and Osman, but the very worst of daytime television. Not the most memorable time of my life.

Plus everybody’s heard of it now.

Yes it was! I'm glad somebody got it.

It's one of the best quiz shows on at the moment. And probably one of the few not to descend into the "celebrity" episodes (yet. Or maybe it has already, in which case fuck it). Armstrong is a great host, it's much better than his other show, Epic Win. Even with his obvious tongue-in-cheek presentation, it's still utterly rank.

Sean of the Shed wrote:


It's been done Sean

It was titled "Pointless Celebrities" though - you've gotta like that.

Why at Last! wrote:


I think it must have been available in That London. I was there at the time and saw it, without any recollection of it being a Gus Honeybun-like holiday viewing curio.

Liking Paul S's gag too, but unsure whether acknowledging it goes against the spirit of the thing.

Tough call on the final yesterday, I thought - Michael Crichton novels. I reckoned I was in with a chance with The Andromeda Strain, but even that was one of the most popular answers.

Best answer of the programme was to "Name a founder member of the Warsaw Pact"... Japan.

Mumpo wrote:


Yes, from a lad who'd done History A-level, no less.

I'm with you on Michael Crichton. I've been looking at the "American Novelists" category a bit longingly for days, hoping it'd be Fitzgerald or something, but worried it'd be someone I hadn't read, like Dom DeLillo or one of them new guys. But Crichton? Even worse. His stuff is either made into films, in which case everybody knows it, or not, in which case nobody does, including me.

On the other hand, Richard Osman's worst category ever, Hollywood couples and the films on which they met, I thought was OK: only medium-tough. I'd have got "To Have And Have Not" for Bogie and Bacall on the first run, for example, though the second was trickier.