Weaver's Week 2026-09-13

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"What's my lino?"

Our wonky history of the 1990s continues, following Julian Clary's New Year. We've spun forwards to spring 1990, when BBC1 had the same shows at 7pm right through the year. Three nights a week, Wogan brought us topical whimsy, flimsy chitter-chatter, and a chance for musical performers to drop a tune into the ear of grown-ups. Young people had their fun on Thursday, when Top of the Pops brought us fantastic performances, sharp shot direction, cutting-edge beats, and we always hoped it was hosted by Jakki Brambles or Mark Goodier, because they were cool.

But what of Tuesday nights? A year or so earlier, the BBC had signed Janet Street-Porter, on the assumption that she was the greatest producer working in television. She certainly had the broadcasting pedigree, working on The Six O'Clock Show, Saturday Night Out, and as the editor of super-fashionable show Network 7. She was hired to run BBC2's youth department, cancelling No Limits and The Old Grey Whistle Test in favour of exciting new shows like Dance Energy, Snub TV, and Rapido.

Street-Porter also tried to get her shows commissioned on BBC1. And when Janet Street-Porter wanted something, she was persistent enough to make sure she got it. The controller of BBC1 said, "fine, have three months at 7pm on Tuesday, and make it good".

We're watching an episode that - at the time of writing - is available online. Picture quality is not perfect, but we have to remember it's been digitised from a VHS tape that's possibly older than you.

First thing we see of this show is the opening titles. Back in 1990, it wasn't good enough to bung a caption onto a generic shot from the programme. No, a good and groovy show would have a good and groovy theme tune, and a good and groovy title sequence. Style Trial certainly thinks it has a good and groovy theme tune, urgent brass notes and synth stabs. And it's definitely got a good and groovy opening title, being a 30-second hand-drawn animation. This wouldn't have been cheap, even with the repeated elements there's likely a week's work for artists Yuval Zommer and Simonetti Stockton.

Like all good panel games of the early 1990s, Style Trial is recorded in front of a studio audience – from a panning shot, we reckon they're mostly young women. The three panellists enter by walking down a silver set. Who are these people?

James Whale was famed for The James Whale Radio Show, which was frank and blunt conversation between consenting adults at 1am; some episodes were simulcast on late-night ITV. James would later work for the national stations Talk Radio and LBC, and appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2016. James died in 2025.

Jenny Lecoat, described as a "cabaret comic". She'd later write for magazines and television, and these days is mostly known as an author.

Richard Jobson, previously the singer with The Skids, but by 1990 he was better known as a reporter on daytime show The Garden Party and on arts show 01 for London. Described as a male model, which is a bit of a stretch.

The host is Helen Atkinson-Wood, a comedian who you might know from Blackadder the Third or from sketch show SKYTV. While the other panellists sit on stools like they're auditioning for the next Irish boy band, Helen cushions herself on a banquette in the shape of some lips.

At heart, Style Trial is quite simple. The panel of "self-confessed style addicts" attempt to guess the lifestyle of two selected members of the public. They'll try to guess the people's name, and what they spend their money on – just from a short clip of film.

First Impressions is the first round. Style Trial have followed their guest for half a day. We see their house, the cluttered study and busy calendar. We see them playing Monopoly with friends, because Tribond has yet to be popularised. We see the eco-friendly laundry detergent, and the framed photo of our subject and his wife. Chickens in the back yard, and a group indulging in some sort of ecstatic dancing in a wood-floored room. Our man catches the train to Waterloo, clutching a copy of Viz magazine.

Having seen this film, each contestant is asked to deliver a stream of consciousness about the subject. "Hugo (or Trevor or Tony) gets his clothes from Mr. Byrite, he drinks Aqua Libra, teaches a meditation class. He wears trainers that aren't designer trainers. Possibly works in television, one of those people who are ridiculously over-paid but nobody knows what he does. Drives a BMW, eats a lot of health food".

Hugo (or Trevor, or Tony) watches all of this from behind the scenes, and we viewers see him giving visual responses during the speeches. Then Helen recaps what the panel said, and brings our guest out. "Welcome, you lovely old jumper!" Martin is 40, and lives on a commune in Dorset.

What did the panel get right? Ten points for something that's exactly right, five points for a remark that's in the right ballpark. Martin says that before moving to the commune, he spent ten years as an estate agent, but the rat race didn't suit him. Any mention of estate agents causes the studio audience to boo and jeer, because estate agents in 1990 were seen as slippery and untrustworthy and the sort of person you'd throw out of a balloon even if you didn't need to lose some ballast.

Get personal in round two, some pointed questions about Martin's life. He lives on a commune, and there must be points of disagreement? Sure, but everyone's able to talk through their views, and come to a rough consensus. Panel, what is the special trick he uses to keep in touch with people's emotions? (And remember, panel, this is going out at 7.10 on a sunny Tuesday evening, don't be too risqué.)

Is it some sort of knitting course, asks one of the panel, referring to Martin's chunky cable-knit jumper, the sort of thing Tom Daley would be very interested in. Turns out that he runs a workshop called "The art of loving", trying to find and teach the skills to nurture a communicative and emotional bond. James Whale visibly scoffs while Martin explains his piece, perhaps bringing a chunk of the audience along with him.

Delve deeper in round three, Martin says that he's given up a lot of trappings of consumerist life – the fast car, the semi-detached house in West Drayton, the designer clothes. But he has kept one memento from that time: what is it? What has he kept? A supply of Grecian 2000? Chocolate? No, no, no, turns out that he still enjoys playing stud poker. Victoria Coren would be interested, except that she was more concerned with her driving test and A-levels.

Finally, the team try to fill in the guest's Style File. Quick responses to his: favourite drink, tv programme, saying, who he fancies, food, and pressure group.

It is a contest, they do keep score, and James has won this round. He'll go on to win the entire show, because Style Trial is played with two members of the public dropping in, each gets a literal fifteen minutes of fame. The show also has a voiceover from Tim Whitnall, who has gone on to be a respected stage and screen actor.

Style Trial was devised by Danny Baker, Janet Street-Porter, and Andy Lipman, and was a Walltowall production for BBC1.

The core game should be familiar to viewers, a sort of Through the Keyhole but reversed so that the public are the stars. And the idea of building a world from very few clues is familiar to anyone who's tried to train in improvisation: see something, describe it, build up a world, incorporate new evidence as it arises. The result feels like the sort of cheap daytime programme that percolated up the channels: from UK Living in 1997 to Channel 5 in 2003 and ITV in 2009.

The whole set-up feels rather dated: Style Trial is all about lifestyle marketing, how you are what you eat / drive / read / consume. And while early summer 1990 still felt optimistic to a lot of people, it was tempered by changes in fashion: conspicuous consumption was over, the hottest ticket in town was for The Green Show at the big hall in the Birmingham NEC.

Why is Helen Atkinson-Wood so jolly? Throughout the programme, she turns everything into a joke, even when Malcolm is making some serious points. She's a great comedy talent, but this programme fitted her like a leather glove fits our head.

Who are we rooting for in this battle? Are we trying to play along and see if we're better than the panel at reading random members of the public? Are we cheering for our favourite panellist (or just jeering against James Whale)? Ultimately, why are we watching this programme? Is there something more interesting on the other side?

Needless to say, Style Trial was not recommissioned. It remains a viable idea, the sort of minigame that a light-hearted psychological show like Nobody's Fool might use for a task. But everyone involved went on to bigger and better things, and Style Trial was forgotten by the end of the year.

NFL ball returns this weekend, and NFL Big Game Night moves to a new, later, slot, at 9pm on Channel 5. Dermot O'Leary, Osi Umenyiora, and Sam Quek continue to pop up with silly things to do while the host broadcasters are being dull and showing adverts.

Channel 4 has taken the axe to An Extra Slice, the spin-off show from Bake Off. In its place will be Second Helpings – episodes will go out immediately after the main programme. Jon Richardson and Judi Love will be joined by guests, celebrities, celebrity guests, and people eliminated from the programme.

Truth or lie? 40 more episodes for Bridge of Lies, plus another ten celebrity episodes to support Saturday evenings. Good: if there's one show to ease Pointless back to 4.30, it's this one.

Has ITV got talent? The channel thinks so, and will make Got Talent The Champions for autumn 2027. Six two-hour editions will end in a live final, according to a press release we're going to hold them to.

Tom Jones has been resigned from The Voice of Holland of These Islands by ITV. According to an ITV press release, the great singer will act as a "super mentor" to all of the finalists on the English-language programme. According to a statement from Mr. Jones, he was "fired" and did not want to leave as he "loves the show".

Contestants on BBC Brain were played a clip of "Ordinary", reminded that the singer started out as a video clip prankster, and told it was the most-streamed single of 2025. The question: Who's the performer? We could hear the sound of tumbleweed rolling across the FM dial, none of the contenders could dredge up the name of ... oh, wotsisface...

Winners at the ITV Television Awards were announced, in a rain-splattered ceremony at the Millennium Tent in South Newham. Top of the televote in the game show categories were:

• Entertainment – Michael McIntyre's Big Show
• TV Presenter – David Attenborough
• Reality Competition – The Celebrity Traitors
• Quiz Show – The 1% Club
• Talent Show – Strictly Come Dancing

A Special Recognition award was given to Alan Carr.

TV Times Awards are presented by the venerable listings magazine, which still exists. Game show nominees are:

• Favourite presenter: Ant and Dec, Rob Brydon, Alan Carr, Joel Dommett, Bradley Walsh, Claudia Winkleman
• Favourite entertainment show: Got Talent, Gladiators, Gogglebox, I'm a Celebrity, Last One Laughing, The Wheel, Strictly Come Dancing, The 1% Club, Bake Off, The Traitors

Voting closes on 29 September, when we can find these winners, who's on top in lots of drama categories, and which dog or cat has been voted Favourite Animal Star. More ceremonies need awards for animals!

"That's absolutely zarjaz!" Chris Matterface won this week's Mastermind, taking the comic 2000 AD as his specialist subject. A strong performance was backed up with a clinical general knowledge round, ending on a correct guess about Grandma Moses. He beat Jane Gibbons and Ali Morgan, who were perfect in their specialist rounds on two strong women: Madonna in film, and the war soldier Pauline Gower. Lewis Demmon completed the show, taking the essays of George Orwell.

"If people say they're doing an iron man… [Victoria pauses, and sniggers]" Ad Astra took a commanding lead in their Second Chance Only Connect match, beating Culture Club by 26-19. Descriptions of the mullet haircut, music by Hammers, the films of Macauley Macauley Culkin Culkin, and the construction of a Twister mat. But the Culture Club weren't out of it, words with "y" as the only vowel, the endpoints of the M3, and a superb wall kept them in touch. But after narrowly losing it in their opening match, Ad Astra came good in the Missing Vowels. They progress to the Group A qualifier, and Culture Club leave with our thanks.

This week's edition of University Challenge has been kicked down the schedules since late July, we suspect so that Amol Rajan could record a new voiceover for a question about a map that's changed since recording. This didn't alter the result, as Birmingham beat Leicester by 190-125. This would have been a surprise at the second picture round, when Leicester led by 125-70, but the East Midlanders didn't score another point all night. Leicester's bonus rate was 52%, overall rate finished at 43%, and those aren't usually winning performances.

Birmingham won with the night's last six starters, raising their bonus rate to 70% and overall rate to 61%. Three penalties for incorrect interruptions did not help. Lots of questions on Geography this week, and the setters only put Geography in the early rounds. And kudos to Teddy Fogel, six starters made him the night's best buzzer, and his 89 points are the most from seat 2 this year.

It's all kicking off this week. Give your remote control a work out, The Celebrity Inner Circle returns (BBC1, Sat) and Big Brother has a new series (ITV2, from Sun).

Fun things for Sunday night include Wagging Rights (Dave and W, Sun), dogs try to train their celebrities to behave. And The Great Pottery Throw Down gets a celebrity edition (C4, Sun). Something more boisterous? Mock the Week is back (TLC, Sun), and NFL Big Game Night has a second series (C5, Sun),

We're not sure if The Apocalypse counts as a game show (C4, Sun), so we'll bill it for this week. Irish channel TG4 has another series of Survivor CBS (Wed). And with all this beginning, some things end: winners are found on Sewing Bee (BBC1, Tue), Popmaster tv (More4, Tue), and Celebrity Masterchef (Fri).

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