Weaver's Week 2026-03-01

The Week at 25 | Weaver's Week Index | Next week

"It's Chico time!" shouted Sue Perkins on Just a Minute this week. Thanks, Sue, there's an image we really didn't want to bring back.

Just a short one this week, we're more than slightly exhausted after two very long editions in the past fortnight.

It feels like this series of Mastermind has been going forever. One of the contestants took a round on events of summer 2012, which surely couldn't have been written when heat one went out. Anyway, after waiting over two months for a Perfect Round, we got two in the same episode. Congrats to Kim MacKenzie who took the architect Frank Geary, who died after this episode was recorded; and Pete Simmonds on the BBC House of Cards trilogy. In the general knowledge round, Pete Simmonds won with a superb performance, more than doubling his score. The other contenders, Angus Burns and Mark Pagan, both reached double figures on general knowledge and that's a significant achievement.

"It felt like you were competing with each other to get things wrong! Like it was some sort of wind-up!" Amol Rajan can be a bit kind sometimes, this column was almost channelling Romesh from The Weakest Link. Anyway, on University Challenge, Edinburgh beat Merton Oxford by 105-85. The show set many records, few of them good.

• 105 is the second-lowest winning score in the BBC revival series, behind Emmanuel Cambridge's 85-80 victory over King's London (see the Week of 2022-03-13), and amongst the lowest winning scores in any student episode known to the show's statistician Sean Blanchflower.
• The aggregate of 190 is the third-lowest in the revival, behind Emmanuel-King's, and also behind St John's Oxford 115-40 Wolfson Cambridge, in the first round of 2019-20.
• Eight penalties for incorrect interruptions, ties the record for this series (with the Trinity Hall Cambridge vs LSE first round match)
• Five penalties for Merton Oxford, ties the record for this series (with New Oxford in their repêchage against Sheffield)
• A call of "there's plenty of time" before the first picture round, which we don't recall seeing before.
• The first picture round coming as the ninth starter, it is usually fourth or fifth.

Both sides played to their strengths – Edinburgh on literature, Merton on sciences, but so many speculative buzzes destroyed Merton's chances before they'd begun. And, to be fair, Edinburgh demonstrated that they're pretty good at a wide range of topics (other than science), and that's a good grounding for success. The big hole on science is going to count against Edinburgh at some point, but not this week.

Merton probably play Warwick for a spot in the semis; they should avoid Edinburgh until the final.

Thanks to everyone who joined this column's anniversary stream last week. If you're quick, you might catch the replay at https://twitch.tv/quizzydan – it's in three parts for technical reasons, start with the last in the list. Thanks also to Lewis, Chris, and Guinevere for questions that didn't get answered, we will answer them at some point over the summer.

Tempting Fortune is back for a third series, selling tiny cups of coffee to desperate hikers for £100, and charging £2000 for a night's accommodation, as though it's a swish hotel in central London. Rob Beckett is the new maître d', replacing Paddy McGuinness.

Parents' Evening is heading to Spain, one of the shows we rather thought could travel cultures more easily. ITV's domestic series has been renewed for six more eps and a festive special.

Coming up this week, Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing is a very Channel 4 reality contest with a big prize (C4, Mon, Tue). New compilations of Celebrity Antiques Road Trip (BBC1, weekdays). Finals for Secret Genius (C4, Sun; we plan to review the show next week), Landscape Artist of the Year (Artsworld, Wed), and The Heat (ITV2, Fri).

To have Weaver's Week emailed to you on publication day, receive our exclusive TV roundup of the game shows in the week ahead, and chat to other ukgameshows.com readers, sign up to our Google Group.

The Week at 25 | Weaver's Week Index | Next week