There’s a chance to see somebody’s life change. That’s what got me really excited
Hotseat
ACTOR Craig Charles is best known for starring in sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf as Dave Lister and for playing cabbie Lloyd Mullaney in Coronation Street.
The 57-year-old has also turned his hand to DJing as well as radio presenting. Now he has added quizshow host to his CV with Channel 4’s Moneybags, from the makers of Million Pound Drop and Pointless.
Contestants get the chance to win bags of cash up to £1m each week.
In each episode, players hope to be selected to take their place in front of the money belt for one of the three head-to-head battles.
They face a series of questions with the answers on moneybags that pass along a conveyor belt in front of them.
Grab a right answer and you get that bag’s value – anything from £1,000 to £100,000. But pick a wrong bag and you could lose everything.
Whoever banks the most cash in each round will compete in the ‘triple-header’ – a tense three-way battle in which whoever grabs, or steals, the most cash will play to win it all in the final.
Here Craig talks about the new show, his own quizzing skills, and his multi-skilled work life.
Can you tell us about Moneybags?
It’s lots of fun and there are major reversals of fortune within the game.
One minute you can look like you’re going to be going away with a load of money and perhaps be way ahead of your opponents and then in the next minute you could lose it all in a bankruptcy.
Or you could be someone doing really badly, and then you get a Steal bag, and you can steal your opponent’s value. It’s really quite exciting and quite tense.
This is your first time hosting a quiz show, how have you found it?
I’ve been offered quiz shows before, and they’ve never really seemed right to me.
When this came along, it just felt like the right fit for me. It suited my personality and the tone of the game was really working for me.
Plus, the fact that there’s a lot of money up for grabs for the players really appealed to me as well.
There’s a chance to be in the middle of somebody’s life-changing moment and that’s what got me really excited.
There are a few afternoon quiz shows out there – do you see them as rivals or are you happy doing your own thing?
This is a Channel 4 show, and I think it is happy in its own skin.
I don’t know if they’ve kept it in, but we did take the mick out of some of the other shows.
Sometimes I’d tell a contestant, “Fifty thousand pounds in that bag! You’d have to win Pointless 50 times to take that much home, you know!”.
So yes, I did have some slight digs but they’re only playful.
Is it hard to keep a poker face when you know the contestants have gone wrong?
Yeah, I do. I also find it hard not to unintentionally indicate what the right answer is.
In the studio, of course, I’ve got lots of people looking at me to make sure I don’t give any tells.
You do have to keep a straight face because you don’t want to give anything away.
How would you get on if you were playing as a contestant?
I have done a few quizzes lately where I’ve done really quite badly.
Me and my son and daughter did Britain’s Brightest Family – it turns out, we’re Britain’s Thickest Family!
What is your all-time favourite quiz?
I do like Pointless. And I like The Chase. I like Eggheads as well. I like quizzes a lot, actually.
I love Countdown... I suppose you wouldn’t call that a quiz, really. I’ve just recently filmed some episodes of Countdown where I’ll be in Dictionary Corner and I did quite well.
You’ve recently started a new show on BBC Radio 6 Music after nearly 20 years at the station. What do you enjoy about doing radio?
I enjoy the immediacy of radio. I think it was brought home during lockdown just how intimate radio can be as a way of entertaining and communicating with people.
I’ve always been a radio person. I asked Terry Wogan, “Terry, how do you feel broadcasting for eight million people a morning?”, and he turned around and said, “I don’t, Craig. I just broadcast to one”.
So, he used to broadcast like he was just talking to YOU, and that’s what made it so special. I’ve been on the network since the start. I’m like the Ken Barlow of 6 Music.
We can’t not mention the legendary Red Dwarf...
At our peak, we were getting something like 8.9 million viewers, the highest-rated BBC2 comedy ever – I don’t think that’ll ever get beaten now. And they called it a cult [show]!
We were getting twice the viewing figures of Top Gear and they still called it cult. I don’t understand that.
What else do you have coming up?
I’ve got an album coming out this month called Craig Charles Trunk of Funk Volume 2. I’ve got The Gadget Show [on Channel 5].
And I’ve got a Sky History series on UFOs about all this new material and footage that has been released by the Americans.
We’ve interviewed all sorts of people like pilots, and crew on aircraft carriers who have seen unidentified flying objects or have had close encounters. I’ve done that with Sarah Cruddas, she’s an astrophysicist and that’s coming out in January. And then of course I’ve got six days a week for the radio.
CRAIG CHARLES FRONTS CHANNEL 4’S NEW QUIZ SHOW, MONEYBAGS, DEVISED BY THE TEAM BEHIND POINTLESS. JANE HAASE FINDS OUT HOW HE FEELS ABOUT BECOMING A GAME-SHOW HOST
Me and my son and daughter did Britain’s Brightest Family – it turns out, we’re Britain’s Thickest Family! Moneybags host Craig Charles
You’re a busy boy then?
You could say that! It’s taken me a long time to become a media darling. You’ll all be sick of the sight of me by January!
Moneybags airs weekdays at 3pm on Channel 4 and streams on All 4