Weaver's Week 2026-04-05

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A few quick notes on recent shows.

Radio 4's music quiz had its final last week. It's had a new producer this year, Tom du Croz replaced the long-serving Paul Bajoria. A new broom means a new style: most notably, there's no studio audience any more, instead we get some interval music between rounds and an extended introduction from the contestants. There have been no changes to the show's format – assigned questions for each player, with errors available as bonuses. Then a specialist round from subjects prepared by the producers, before a quickfire final round.

After a close opening round in the final, specialist subjects "Classical enchantment" and "Rap pioneers" were left on the shelf, and will come back in the next series. "BBC children's television of the 20th century" includes questions about Floella Benjamin and the Sarcastic Flowers from Teletubbies. "Britpop and triphop" covered two subjects often left on the Pointless finals board, while "What's cooking" proved a little harder than the leader might have hoped.

In the quickfire final round, we learn that Ravel only wrote one string quartet, and that there is actually somebody in the world who doesn't know "Baby shark". The final score shows that Greg Butler is the champion, beating Kevin Wood and Paul Milgate.

Paul Gambaccini returned as host for the show; like with Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge a few years ago, his speech is now noticeably slower and voice softer than it was. As much as we hate to consider our heroes' mortality, perhaps it is time for the Counterpoint team to have a backup presenter, just in case.

After a bit of a hiatus last year, Radio 4's Quizzy Mondays (Sunday Edition) continue with Round the Islands Quiz this weekend. Our Contestant Calls page has a way to apply for BBC Brain, if you are an ultra-clever-clogs.

We also enjoyed the final of Gladiators last weekend. Congratulations to all the finalists, congratulations to all the competitors, this column knows that we'd be off the Duel plinth even before Viper could false start. Truth to tell, this wasn't our favourite series.

Two new events came to the show, though they were rather similar. Destruction involved contenders and a Gladiator pushing their way through barriers of various thickness. Everest involved a contender and Gladiator pushing a barrier between them, with the hope to push their opponent off the end of the track. There are gimmicks – Everest is on a ledge that rises to 7m above the floor and eventually tilts; Destruction has different methods to get through the obstacle. One old event returned, Suspension Bridge, which is roughly Duel on the plastic bridge.

There were a lot of injuries to the various competitors. Legend was injured in an early heat, and brought his unique talents to other aspects of the production such as script operator, referee, and commentator; the character tried to do a Destruction on the fourth wall. Athena had some sort of injury to keep her out of many shows. Bionic had a nasty fall during Hang Tough, and Diamond was injured during a Powerball event. Fury was missing from the quarter-finals, Giant missed the semis.

As a result, the event selection was limited – clearly the producers didn't (or couldn't) risk even more injuries to their stars. Duel popped up on seven episodes, Destruction and The Wall on six, with five outings for Collision, Everest, Unleash, and Hang Tough. The other new game, Suspension Bridge, had three outings; the bridge is also used in Gauntlet, played four times. Powerball's two outings came in the heats, and the massive Atlaspheres were only used three times – once in the original game, and twice on Crash Course.

We were unimpressed that both contenders and Gladiators were shown tackling the Destruction walls head-first: this risks concussion and brain damage, a problem that has ruined lives and is finally being taken seriously by rugby and NFL-ball. We hope and expect the refs to crack down on this dangerous behaviour next year, up to and including disqualifications.

The series format remained compressed, though mercifully without the interruptions that plagued last year – episodes in 2026 were put on I-player first, then shown on BBC1 as soon as possible, and the series was (just!) completed before the clocks sprang forward.

Josh, who won the men's competition, conspired both to lose his heat, and to lose the untelevised Duel-off to determine which fast loser advanced to the next round. He was re-introduced as a substitute for Mark, who was injured during his quarter-final, and won through. Josh defeated Tyler in that quarter-final; Tyler returned following an injury to Mo in the semi-final, and advanced because he'd had to do one event before the Eliminator while Finn had to do a full five.

The women's competition was also won by a fast loser, victorious Emily had been beaten by Ella in the quarters. Emily returned through the usual channels and beat Naomi, the only undefeated player in the final.

Nevertheless, Gladiators was entertaining television. There were quality performances, Giant and Sabre were knocked off their Duel perches, some proper wrestling on The Edge, and the Glads combining to give a contender the dreaded nul points through all events. For this column, it was the weakest series of the revival, and that's primarily through bad luck and injury. Next year's should be better.

"Which band formed on the Isle of Wight…" Level 42 "...had a chart-topping album Moisturiser." Maybe not.

Richard Carr scored eight on Hannibal (the Punic army commander, not the plastic doll from Play School) and advanced to 15. Roger Easy made nine on a familiar composer, you might know his Handel, and totalled 16. Alan Hotchkiss also notched up nine on Masters golf, and closed his account on 15.

Danielle Connolly had a simple equation. She'd scored 11 on the films of Christopher Nolan, and needed just six to win; with a pass in the specialist round, five would not do. And, after a very nervous start, and a very nervous middle, and a really nervy end, Danielle made it over the line with 17 correct answers.

So Danielle Connolly, an administration assistant, takes a well-earned place in the Mastermind grand final, now just three weeks away.

"Just say 'birch'." "Correct!"

Darwin Cambridge snagged the final place in the University Challenge semi-final, defeating Merton Oxford by 175-130. An even start to the show, then Darwin moved away up to the music round, and then Merton came back and briefly took the lead. Lewis Strachan's buzz for a definition of "Impulse" may have turned the tide in Darwin's favour, and the subsequent bonuses gave a 45 point lead with three sets to play. Darwin were right on 50% of all the questions they faced, and 54% of bonuses; Merton leave with 46% overall, 54% bonuses, and three incorrect interruptions.

Amongst the semi-finalists, who stands out as a weak or strong team?

• Edinburgh are 51% overall, 53% bonuses, 7 penalties from 4 games. Strong on Language and Literature, very weak on Science.
• Imperial made 51% overall, 54% bonuses, 9 penalties from 5 games. Very strong on Entertainment and Leisure, good on Language and Literature, best at Science.
• Manchester were 50% overall, 55% bonuses, 10 penalties from 5 games. Strong on Science (particularly the biological side) and Mixed Bag questions, perilously weak on Literature and Philosophy.
• Darwin went 45% overall, 45% bonuses, 7 penalties from 5 games. They're weak on History, Linguistics, and best of a tepid group on Fine Art.

Much will depend on the draw. We expect Manchester and Edinburgh to be kept apart at this stage, as they met in the first quarter-final, so Edinburgh appear likely to get the relatively benign draw of Darwin (although "benign" may be relative: this column incorrectly predicted Darwin to be out without winning one quarter-final match). Manchester likely face Imperial – and that would be a very interesting match.

!!,!?!?!?!,!,!!? The BBC suddenly fired Scott Mills. The former host of the Radio 2 Breakfast Show was let go for a matter in his private life. In addition to his wireless work, Scott was the enthusiastic face of the Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals, having commentated there since 2011. He had also recorded a spin-off programme for the new series of Race Across the World, which had to be hastily re-edited and re-dubbed.

Eurovision Asia appears to be happening. A press release from the EBU – dated 31 March, so it's not an april fish – said that a dozen broadcasters had signed on for the opening event, to be held in Bangkok on 14 November.

There's no official word yet on Junior Eurovision, though the people at SMRTV have suggested that their application has been turned down. Skopje in North Macedonia is rumoured to be the host, and San Marino Village Hall is free for the international model train contest.

The Celebrity Inner Circle has been renewed for an extended series of eight episodes. We reckon the show is about three tweaks away from being perfectly watchable, though one of those tweaks is to change the host. There's no word on the daily show coming back, so we must assume it won't, which is another missed opportunity.

Taskmaster has been renewed on Channel 4 for another six series, across the next three years. The new series starts on Channel 4 this Thursday. Before then, Round the Islands Quiz (Radio 4, Sun), and I'm a Celebrity South Africa (VM1 and ITV network, Mon). Next Saturday sees new series of Celebrity Bridge of Lies and Blankety Blank (BBC1).

Next week, we plan to look at BBC2's Do You Know Your Place?, on the grounds that it's had more viewers than Channel 4's The Hunt (which ends on Tuesday to an audience of two, hello to the other viewer).

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