Weaver's Week 2025-10-12

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There's always something good about every show, even the worst. Take on the Twisters helped everyone to work out that shows with a gimmick need to use that gimmick to the maximum. Ice Warriors demonstrated that Gladiators worked in three dimensions, and ice only allowed for two. Face the Clock told us … actually, Face the Clock told us nothing.

Mel and Sue's new show had lots going for it. Trips to sunny destinations, brand new cars, one million pounds in cash, a new kitchen, and the best soundtrack we've heard in a fair time. Let's go through a sample show to explain what happens.

The tone is set from the very beginning, a majestic fanfare in major keys, while golden lettering is traced out on the screen. Dobs Vye wrote the soundtrack, and it's by far the best part of the programme – it's coherent, upbeat, positive, and lifts the show just a little bit above its material.

Gold and red are the dominant colours on the show, which betrays its funding. Win Win is entirely funded by the People's Postcode Lottery Company, which is linked with the Postcode Loterij in the Netherlands. There, it's provided funds for such promotional vehicles as 'Één tegen 100 and Miljoenenjacht, shows that went around the world when retitled One Versus One Hundred and Deal or No Deal.

Once the titles have formed up, a Geordie voice (chap called Lee English, according to the credits) tells us what's on offer, and how three people won big prizes last week. Katy won a new kitchen! Tracy took home the Maldives! Stephen won the Ashes! You could be a big winner too, if this sort of thing takes your fancy.

Tonight's big prizes are a luxury holiday in Orlando, a cash card loaded with £25,000, and a trip to the Formula E in Moncao. Each of these is interesting. The cash prize gives us an approximate value for all of the prizes: across the five heats, we reckon the average prize will have cost about 25 grand. A holiday in Orlando, Florida: wonderful if you have a house full of Disney fans, perhaps less good for anyone who is gay or lesbian, and outright lethal for trans people. And motor racing in Monaco – ah, but it's the Formula E, electric cars, not the more famous Formula One. Can we presume that F1 in Monaco is just too expensive for the show's prize budget?

We enter the studio, where two rows of people stand behind desks; Mel and Sue walk along a red carpet to a slightly-raised podium in the middle. Along a third side of the studio, there's a big screen and some comfortable seating labelled "Millionaire's Row". There is also a studio audience, not that we'll see very much of them, other then when they pick out one of last week's home winners.

Yes, our hosts are television power couple Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins. Graduates of the Cambridge Footlights in the early 1990s, Mel and Sue were beloved for their cheeky entertainment show Light Lunch, and became treasures when they turned Bake Off from idea into institution. They've tended to work apart since – Sue hosted BBC2's Chess Masters: The Endgame and Channel 4's Make Me Prime Minister, Mel fronted Channel 4's Draw It!, and ITV's more recent Pictionary. They're great friends, and always raise a chuckle.

Win Win is a very simple programme, with a novel idea. Someone in the studio is going to win each of these stupendous prizes. One of us viewers is also going to win each of these stupendous prizes. To play along, we need to be on our local ITV company's website, and to be properly registered and all that. Free to enter, but only to people over 18. Yes, there are terms and conditions to be read out; yes, they're read out as briskly and politely as possible, something other shows would do well to emulate.

While we take a couple of moments to register on the website, there's a filmed package where Jordan North tries to deliver a Win Win badge to one of last week's winners. A little tale, told with style and brio in barely a minute. She's won £15,000 and a seat on Millionaire's Row. Tonight, dear viewer, you can do the same.

For now, let's concentrate on that trip to see Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen Zane Maloney and Dan Ticktum go head-to-head around the streets of Monaco. VIP hospitality tickets, grid access, and a fast lap round the course (which you'll probably want to take first, otherwise the VIP hospitality will end up smeared over the insides of your crash helmet).

And! There's not just one trip to Monaco next May, they've got two trips to Monaco next May! One for a winner in the studio, and one for somebody at home. To play for this trip, our studio players must first answer a qualifying question.

"We asked Brits which animals they're scared of. Rank these, starting with the top answer. Bears, Scorpions, Bats, Rats, Snakes."

Yes, Win Win is based on a survey of people, scaled up by those clever people at Savanta and the magic of sampling quotas to represent the entire population. Other shows have used this sort of idea in the past: Pointless over on BBC1 gives a small sample of people some time to answer its questions and looks for the ones they left out, and the venerable Family Fortunes had much the same idea but rewarded the most popular response. Win Win is very much like Family Fortunes, in that it will generally seek the popular, the most regular, the normal.

In the studio, our contenders put all five in some sort of order. If they're wrong, they're told so, and can re-arrange and re-submit their answers until they get it right. Or until 20 fellow contestants have given the correct answer; the question is finished when half of the studio players are correct. Only the twenty players to give the right answer will continue in the round.

At home, viewers are required to put an answer in. Doesn't matter if they're right or wrong, any answer will allow them to continue in the game. The answer we were looking for? Snakes, Scorpions, Rats, Bears, and those cuddly little Bats are least feared.

The continuing players – half of those in the studio, and everyone at home – are asked a series of five questions on a linked topic. For this round, it's five questions on "Fears and phobias"; not exactly what we'd expect from light and fluffy Saturday night entertainment, but then we remember how Pointless Celebrities will ask after some pretty depressing things in its time.

"According to our survey, what is the most common nightmare among Brits? Falling; teeth falling out; being naked in public."

One of those three answers is correct. But which one? Players in the studio get five seconds to pick one of them and score a point if they're right; players at home get five seconds to pick one of them and score a point. Right or wrong, home players just need to pick an option to score a point. Dobs Vye's funky Thinking Music plays, then Mel and Sue do a little improvised comedy banter around the question, and what they think the answer is. And when the answer turns out to be "Falling", the hosts are as surprised as we are.

Four more questions like this, during which Mel and Sue might talk to some of the contestants playing if they can provide excellent comedy material. One player, for instance, has a phobia of dry wood; we never knew this was a thing, and now we do, and we're not sure what to do with the information. Each question has three options, which are read out by Mel and Sue, alternating options and never missing a beat.

All of the questions ask for the most popular response, the most widely-shared view, the most typical.

Eventually, we've had five questions asked, and five answers given. Home players who have answered all the questions so far, great news, you're in the draw for the prize. Studio players may also get to win the prize: it's played for by whoever gave the most correct answers and in the shortest time. No, we don't get to see the players' scores, that would be far too much information for a brisk and breezy show.

The two players come forward from their wings to meet Mel and Sue on the central dais. We hear a little more about the players – where they're from, who they might take with them to Monaco. Then it's a one-question shootout to determine the winner.

One question: "Which social situation would make you the most anxious?" Ten options, such as "Attending an event alone", "Giving a speech at a wedding", "Going on a first date", and "Starting a new job". And these options are going to be ranked in order, from top to tenth.

Starting with the winner of the main round, our players each pick an answer from the ten options available. Whoever gives the answer that's ranker higher up the list is the winner of the game. Like on Tenable, we see each option rise up the list, hoping that it'll finish as the very top answer. Unlike on Tenable, there's a studio audience to go "ooooooh" as they go up.

Someone must win the prize, but they now have a dilemma. Take the prize and leave the game, or hand it back and take a seat on Millionaire's Row to be in the contest for £1 MILLION. And the winner also gets all the other prizes handed back – that trip could still be yours, along with a cheque for a million spondoolies.

It's the major decision on the show, and is rightly the subject of a brief holleration, everyone in the studio seems to have an opinion and certainly wants to offer it. But soon enough, the ten seconds' thinking time elapses, and our contestant makes the decision that's right for them.

After the break, one of the home viewers who answered all the questions also gets to win the same prize. Unlike our studio players, our home viewer doesn't need to have given correct answers to any question, they just need to have answered all the questions.

After three prizes have been given away, the episode climaxes with the studio final. The top two performers across the show are invited up front, and see a showdown question of their own. This time, the aim is to give the top answer; the best player takes their first pick from the ten, then their opponent. There's £20,000 if either player gives the right answer on their first pick, dropping by £5000 for every incorrect answer thereafter. And whoever finds the top answer will also be on Millionaire's Row and in the grand final.

Whatever is won in the studio will also be won by someone at home, someone who answered every question in every round. Not necessarily answered correctly, just answered. They also get some thousands, and a seat of their own on Millionaire's Row.

The format is certain to find two people for Millionaire's Row each episode, and potentially as many as five. Between ten and twenty-five for the grand final, which isn't bad odds for winning a million quid.

Win Win is made by Hello Dolly as an advertorial for People's Postcode Lottery; they fund the programme, put up the money for the prizes and to make the programme. It's a very expensive advert: six one-hour shows cost around a million quid to make, the prize budget is north of £1.5 million, and the repeat value of each show is absolutely nothing. So they're putting in £2.5 million for what?

About 1.2 million viewers for the first few episodes, likely down a bit in the last couple of weeks because Win Win has been up against the ratings behemoth of Strictly Come Dancing and was never going to overpower the glitterball. The series has confirmed that People's Postcode Lottery wants to be seen as mainstream, middle-of-the-road, appealing to everybody; in turn, that explains why their advertising budget is big enough to afford £2.5 million. (For what it's worth, this column is very uneasy about gambling and lotteries in general, and this has likely coloured our view of the People's Postcode Lottery company.)

Treated as a completely disposable piece of telly, Win Win is perfectly adequate, but nobody is watching the show as background entertainment. We watch it because somebody is certain to win a million quid, we just don't know who.

And if you don't want to know the result of last night's show, look away now.

Eighteen players gathered in the studio, including someone who won last week's viewer draw. Mel and Sue offered a buy-out: the first player to hit their button would leave the game and take their pick of the prizes.

Then we had a round of survey questions, producing a top two, and then a winner. That winner defended their place against the best player in round two, and the best player in round three.

A home draw took place, as always, with £20,000 for someone who answered all the night's questions. Like the other home winners, their name was added to the board in post-production, and not announced by the hosts who recorded their bits a few days ago.

The best player overall was the opponent for the grand final, a best-of-five penalty shootout using questions from the poll – questions about being a millionaire.

"You've just won one million pounds, and made an old lady quite tearful in the process". That trip to the Maldives our winner gave up earlier in the series? That's been won back, along with cars, holidays, and a meet and greet with Take That. And a million quid.

There's a branch of the Royal Television Society in each region, and they all have their own local awards ceremony. RTS North West has announced its nods:

• Best Entertainment Programme - Countdown series 90 (from late last year), The Voice series 13, and two others.
• Best Factual Entertainment Programme - Four in a Bed series 17, and three others
• Best Inclusive Practice for Programmes with Deaf, Disabled, and/or Neurodivergent Contribution - University Challenge series 31 (last winter), Four in a Bed series 17, and two others
• Best Presenter of a North West Show - Joel Mawhinny (Blue Peter), Helen Skelton, Gethin Jones (both Morning Live, both ex Blue Peter), Roger Johnson (BBC North West Tonight). Blue Peter is also up for Best School-Age Children's Programme

Winners to be named on 21 November.

From one teatime show to another; great to hear mention of a classic sax solo on Pointless this week. The instrumental break on "Baker Street" was, of course, played by Raf Ravenscroft.

"They play rugby in Australia?!" Ellie Leach was amazed by news about Adam Hills' sporting career: not that he was a famous sportsperson before turning to comedy, but that they can throw oval balls around while walking on their hands. In other House of Games (3) news, Peter Serafinowicz dressed up like he was going to an awards ceremony, Vicki Michelle was elegant, and Yinka Bokinni was right up there throughout the week.

Peter won one of the days, and chose the cash equivalent of one of the prizes. How much does Osman Corps pay for its plant pots? The manufacturing price is 78 new pence, so collect about 1.282 million planters and you can go home with Mel and Sue's Million Pounds!

Peter Glanvill took the win on Mastermind; ten on the Jurassic coast, ten on general knowledge. He applied for the series in 1974, which might be the longest gap between sending in the form and actually sitting in the chair. Second place for Matthew McStea, who got one more on general knowledge, but had accrued a three-point gap after taking Queen.

Hot and cold on Only Connect, and not just the Missing Vowels categories. Keyboard Worriers won the match, defeating Jive Bunnies 21-19. The lead had been nine points after the Sequences, thanks to Yoda's speech and "line" words. But the Worriers had an absolute 'mare on their wall, while the Bunnies said "that's what I like" and helped themselves to ten. An early error from the Bunnies meant they were playing catch-up, and couldn't quite complete the trick.

Oh, yes. Churchill Cambridge won their heat on University Challenge, defeating Imperial by 175-160. A very slow start to the show, as late as the music bonuses, the sides had missed more questions than they had correct. It all came good in the final ten minutes, when the Imperial lead was whittled away, and turned into a sizeable Churchill lead. But that went, too, with Imperial banging out a set of bonuses on Korean cuisine in no time at all. The game came down to the final starter.

The difference was Imperial's three penalties for incorrect interruptions. Both sides ended with bonus rates in the low 50% range, which is a little below average for the series so far.

Quizzy Mondays moves to Tuesday next week, because of other stuff. Also this week, the BBC New Comedy Award open (BBC3, Wed). Ongoing shows continue: Bake Off (C4, Tue), The Celebrity Traitors (BBC1, Wed and Thu), Big Brother (ITV2, Sun-Fri). Next week, we expect to look at The Inner Circle (BBC1, Mon-Sat).

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