Weaver's Week 2025-08-31
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The UK Gameshows website was offline for some months from 25 August, returning on 3 January 2026. This was the first in a number of Weeks written purely for email, rather than the web.
We're desperately sad to report that Sarah Trevarthen has died. One of the finest quizzers to emerge in recent years, Sarah won the all-woman 2022 final for Brain of Britain, this year's Counterpoint, and reached the final of Mastermind, some of the most demanding and prestigious competitions on air. In an interview for the BBC in 2022, Sarah said that quizzing was a great way to keep her brain active following her diagnosis with cancer. We're also reminded of the interview she did with All Things Quiz at the time.
Alongside her husband Noel, Sarah won the jackpot on Pointless; in quiz leagues, she helped to establish a team to represent her native Cornwall. Our thoughts and condolences with Sarah's family and her many friends.
We're also sorry to say that Tim McCarthy died before his episode of The Chase aired. Tim recorded his episode in October last year, but died in July. Only this week did we see him and his team scoop £50,000. His show was the reason for a celebration of his life, a big party at his local pub in Stockport.
What's the matter, eh? Next year's Eurovision Song Contest finals will be in Vienna. Saturday 16 May for the final - that's the weekend before the late May bank holiday for the UK, and snap on Victoria Day weekend for Canadians. Semi-finals on the prior Tuesday and Thursday. Details of the hosts and competing broadcasters will emerge when they emerge.
Rather missed the press release announcing details of Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Saturday evening, 13 December, from the Olympic Palace in Tbilisi. There's the usual churn of broadcasters: KiKA and EER are out, HRTV and RTCG and ÍTV all return to the fray. Representation from these islands will be from TG4, who will announce their singer on 26 October. We'll have a review of the final the following weekend.
The 1% Kids Club ITV tell us that they plan a children's version of The 1% Club. We're mildly interested in how the prize structure will work (we reckon: board games all round, cash or better prizes for getting to 30%). We're far more interested to see Lee Mack being out-comedied by a ten-year-old with capital-S levels of Sass.
Quizzy Mondays
A win is a win, and Richard Cohen took the first episode of Mastermind, with the History of Sheep as his specialist subject. Though he didn't put in a baaah-d performance, his eight points would not normally be in a share of the specialist lead. Richard's strong general knowledge raised his score to a score, and that proved to top a low-scoring week.
Max Bougeard won the second heat, taking Real Madrid since 2000 in the specialist round. Again, decent scores on specialist, and a good general knowledge set. All four contenders finished within three points of each other, so while the episode didn't have fireworks, it crackled with the tension of a close quiz, and that is more than enough.
But if it was high scores you wanted, the second Only Connect was your jam: more points than a bed of nails. In a clash between two sporty sides, the Benchwarmers scored 24 points and still lost - the Pitchers ended up with a full 30. Spots of the night? Take your pick from uses of the @ sign, the evolution of the BBC logo, a mash-up of a band and their best album, and dredging Pet Shop Boys albums from the recess of one's memory. Just one point between the sides until Missing Vowels, when the Pitchers rather ran away with it. Will this happen again in the knockout phase? We're sure both sides will be there.
The first Only Connect saw the Worker Bees beat the Scanners. Great sequencing from the Scanners, who picked Matrix films and Scrabble words for three apiece, but lost a little ground on the wall. Worker Bees were brilliant at Missing Vowels, enough to overcome the slim deficit.
University Challenge continued. Bristol beat Cardiff quite comfortably; although beaten on the buzzer quite a lot, Bristol were superb with their bonuses - a rate of 74% is about as good as it gets. The side was very strong on literature and science (biology and chemistry - there wasn't a set of questions we classed as maths and physics all night). Cardiff were perhaps two starters away from making a really good game of it; we won't see them again.
Trinity Cambridge won the second match, a lead of more than 100 points for most of the match, though a late revival allowed Linacre Oxford to cut the deficit to 95. Trinity were 67% on bonuses and 58% overall, it did feel like they took the foot off the gas in the second half of the programme. Trinity very strong on art and entertainment, great on geography, didn't fare so well with the science questions. Linacre's 115 will not see them back.
We had the formal start of autumn yesterday (Saturday), as Fighting Talk returned (Radio 5) and You Bet! On Tour (Sat) commenced. We know the season has arrived when Bake Off begins (C4, Tue) and The News Quiz is back (Radio 4, Fri).
A new run of Beat the Chasers (Sun, ITV). We're not sure what to make of The Inheritance (C4, Sun) starring Rob Rinder and The Late Elizabeth Hurley. More familiar ground on RTÉ1, where The Traitors Ireland starts (from Sun). Next Saturday sees the start of Win Win (ITV), an interactive quiz show hosted by Mel and Sue.
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