It’s a young man’s game
I’M forever receiving emails from TV publicists, boasting that such-and-such a show of theirs has attracted such-and-such a percentage of viewers within such-andsuch an age group. And the age group they get particularly excited about appealing to is 16-to-24-year-olds. This is partly because it makes their advertisers happy, of course, but mostly because it shows us they’re down wiv da kids.
Television people, I’ve noticed, rarely make such a song and dance when their shows attract the 60-plus age group, which is strange when you consider how consistently they do precisely that. If I didn’t know better, I’d say these people were actually quite embarrassed to be making programmes that appeal to such an unfashionable demographic, and that this attitude of theirs just confirms what utter ninnies they are.
But obviously I do know better, so I am not going to say that. On BBC2 tonight we have a programme, mind you, that seems to be taking an altogether different approach to its audience.
THE GREAT BRITISH INTELLIGENCE TEST (9pm), hosted by Hannah Fry and Michael Mosley, seems less concerned with playing up to the 16-to-24-yearolds than with persuading everyone over 60 to switch it off.
Put together with the help of Imperial College, London, it’s apparently “the largest intelligence test of its kind ever undertaken” and has already seen more than 250,000 people taking part online.
While it poses fascinating questions about intelligence – how we define it, the factors that shape it, the means by which we can boost our own and play to its strengths – I wonder how many 60-plus viewers will stick around beyond 10 minutes.
By this point, its opening item, a problem-solving challenge involving coloured shapes, has shown a team of older participants to be far less sharp than a trio of pesky whippersnappers.
Which is apparently par for the course. “Do you have any other bad news for me?” chuckles presenter Michael, who’s 63, to co-host Hannah, who isn’t.
“Oh, yes!” Hannah replies, “there’s plenty more bad news for you, I’m afraid, Michael. Because it’s not just problemsolving ability.
“It won’t be any surprise to learn that our memory also gets worse as we get older, as does our spatial intelligence and our ability to focus without getting distracted…”
Hannah says something else after this but unfortunately
I get distracted and sit on my remote control.
Elsewhere, Sheridan Smith stars in the first of ITV’S ISOLATION STORIES (9pm), an inventive four-night series of lockdown-themed mini dramas.