Eggheads

Dermot Murnaghan the host has I think helped to spoil what could have been a better quiz format than it sadly turned out to be. I find him irritating, too cosy and avuncular with his patronising air and repetitious phrases you've heard in every programme ad nauseam and his chuckle and the implied siding with the underdogs efforts against the "dream team" although he knows full well they have little if any chance. He generally talks too much twittering on to fill the gaps because there are not enough questions per programme to keep interest levels up IMO. Other problems inducing exasperation if one watches it a lot is the "dream team" wins too often and their opponents rarely compete on anything like a level playing field.

I love quizzes, and I presume anyone reading this does too. The premise of the show is that a pub team of 5 people goes up against the quiz show's Dream Team of 5 quiz boffins. There are 5 rounds. The first 4 are a one-on-one between a contestant and an egghead. The winner goes thru to the final round, the loser goes out. The more eggheads you can knock out in the first 4 rounds, the fewer you face in the final general knowledge round and thus have a better chance of winning.

I think the combined knowledge of the Eggheads is fascinating. I love how they not only know the answer but know every scrap of info around the answer. The pub team very rarely win but it is worth watching regardless a) for the rare occasions when they do and b) just to see how ridiculously easy the questions are to Kevin & Daphne. To those who think "just challenge Daphne on sport" - you do know that Sport is her strongest category. Judith is undoubtedly the weakest of the 5, so facing her can get you thru easily, but you wont win if you don't knock out Kevin & Daphne ! It's one of the few programmes I really enjoy watching, although I admit it could have been better if there were more questions involved.

Although 2003's "Eggheads" is relaxed, chatty and doesn't put half the amount of pressure "The Weakest Link" puts on its contestants, this really is quite a dull, predictable show and very incompetent when compared to "The Weakest Link" which still takes the nation by storm to this day - 6 and a half years on from its original broad-casted episode in 2000.

The presenter Dermot is nice and encouraging and everything but does he ever stop wittering on?!!! He can't keep his mouth closed for longer than 10 seconds at the most! He cannot get through a single show without dramatizing the fact that the eggheads have won again... and again... and again. Why can't he just see the simple fact that these are just ordinary people - he talks about the prim and proper Judith Keppel, the rather stuck-up, "O riff-raff, do be qwaht" smartypants CJ De Mooi who doesn't make himself look clever at all but just plain cocky, the somewhat dreary Chris Hughes (who looks as if he might fall asleep at any moment), the sweet, gentle Daphnie Fowler and Kevin Ashman as if they are all superheroes, as if they know absolutely everything, as if they are even royalty sometimes! The eggheads are seldom beaten as well! I'm sure that if this debuted in the late 1980s or something then it would look perfect upon the screen but this is 2007! Meaning it's at least 18 years out of date! Having said all of that, mind you, the youngest egghead, CJ De Mooi, would've probably been a young child back then wouldn't he? I do mildly admire this show (lifeless, predictable and exaggerative as it is), depending on what mood I'm in but it simply cannot reach the enormous standards and amazing quality of "The Weakest Link" even if they are different shows!

As a big fan of general knowledge quizzes, I tune in to Eggheads even though I am not totally swayed by it. Even so, it is probably better than most BBC quiz shows, and that includes the irritating and past its sell-by-date Weakest Link.

Let's be positive to begin with and state the good points:

1. It has two of the best quizzers in the country, Kevin Ashman and Daphne Fowler.

2. It shows how lucky Judith Keppel got with her Millionaire win. She is well above average for her general knowledge, but if she had to go through the 15 questions on WWTBAM again, I'd place money on her not winning - even if she had another ten attempts. But fair dos and congratulations to her.

3. You can join in with the fun and answer questions before the rest of your family. Well, usually.

4. Occasionally the opponents really do have the Eggheads on the ropes, and there is a smidgen of tension as we await the outcome.

Now, since I'm struggling to think of the good points, here are the bad points.

1. Most of the questions are pretty easy, just to give the opponents a chance, and then hope one of the Eggheads will slip up. Also, the caliber of people on the public side is pretty poor sometimes.

2. The people going on to the show should really sort out their tactics better. Play Kevin on entertainment, Daphne on sport, although these pair are pretty good on everything anyway.

3. Judith and CJ are strange choices. Their general knowledge is well below the other three, but like I've said before - they are well above average.

4. Will Chris stop going on about trains and railways - and why do so many questions regarding his pet subjects keep coming up? Is he the question-setter?

5. The set is horrible - too much like the Weakest Link.

6. Kevin and Daphne are not given the opportunity so show their talent.

7. There are not enough questions, and too much talking.

A reasonable quiz in that it is better than many now available for entertainment. Mastermind has become rather boring, the question subjects are so mundane,(TV programmes, pop groups.) Not quite the selection of intellectual specialities it used to have.

Anyway, Eggheads is quite entertaining with a touch of added humour (always good in my book) Some of the visiting teams do appear to have been vetted for little other than novelty value. The questions do seem to vary in their difficulty quotient rather, especially in the head-to-head extra questions.

There are always 3 stronger cast members, Chris with his trains, Keven (had to be) who looks as if he would rather not be there at all, Daphne, CJ's surrogate Mum(Tell him to sort out his hair, he looks more like Widow Twankie as the weeks go on!) Then there is The Posh Traveller, Judith, and the non-conformist CJ 'Do I look good in this' Da Mooi. They seem to hit on the right answers more by luck than judgement. Anyway 'A nice little earner' Passes the time. Thanks