A lot of people confuse me for Stavros Flatley. Something I have to deal with almost every week
Actor and comic Omid Djalili is making daytime TV fun with his new quiz show... just don’t expect him to dance, says EMMA JOHNSON
BRITS just can’t get enough of gameshows and quizzes and now we have a new brain-busting challenge on ITV, from the team behind The Chase. Presented by funnyman Omid Djalili, Winning Combination sees nine contestants compete in a series of fast-paced general knowledge rounds to get themselves, and their number, through to the final where four players try and win a four-digit jackpot defined by their digits.
Here, Londoner Omid, 55, tells us more about the weekday show.
How would you explain your new show, Winning Combination?
NINE players are randomly assigned a number. It’s up to them to try and get themselves and their number into the final.
The four that make it combine their numbers to make up the jackpot. It’s then a race against the clock.
You’ll probably get it quicker than something like Pointless.
It’s quite simple and you’ll pick it up pretty rapidly.
How would you describe your hosting style?
I WASN’T really aware of any style I had... but if I had to describe it I’d say it’s a mixture of genial host and a Friars Club ‘Roast’ master.
It’s not exactly a new take but it’s me – and who ever thought I’d be doing something like this? – so it’s bound to be something new you’ve not seen before!
What’s your favourite round?
THE Battle round – very exciting.
You can sense the tension. And it’s the most difficult part to host as I have to prompt contestants who forget to nominate someone to take a point off while I ask the questions.
It’s high pressure. But the drama is spell binding.
That’s the beauty of the show: on the one hand they battle against each other and it’s highly competitive.
But then, when they get into the combination, everybody has to work as a team.
It’s kind of a metaphor for life: work with some, compete against others.
Do you have some examples of what contestants wanted to spend their winnings on?
YES, it’s anything from the most humble to the outlandish.
One wanted to buy more plants for their patio. A realistic wish, as they have to share the prize money four ways. One person from Nottingham said they wanted to go to New York on a First Class flight. I had to be honest and tell them, “You’ll get as far as Leicester”.
What were some of the funniest answers from contestants?
SO MANY to choose from... but this one guy, Freddie, an Elvis impersonator, kept buzzing in early before I’d finished the questions, giving wildly wrong answers.
I told him to calm down and wait for the whole question.
Then came the question ‘Who voices Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story?’ he buzzed in and said, ‘It’s Woody…. wait...wait.. I know this... Woody... Allen!’
I lost it. He’d confused the characters of Woody, voiced by Tom Hanks, and Tim Allen who voices Buzz to get Woody Allen, literally the last person you’d think of getting to voice Buzz Lightyear. It took me a few minutes to get my composure back.
I was laughing so much.
Have the contestants lucked out by being in lockdown doing so many quizzes?
A LOT of them hadn’t been with human beings for a long time.
Some of them said, ‘I’ve literally been all alone the whole time in lockdown’ or ‘I’ve only seen my family for the last five months, no one else’... there was a real frisson of nerves and excitement.
We observed social distancing very diligently but you could tell some of them couldn’t believe they were there – not seeing anyone for months then suddenly being in a studio.
But online quizzes are a great thing. You’ve got to keep your brain alive.
If there was a board of answers about you – what would be an obscure fact that could come up?
A LOT of people don’t know I was in the Oscar-winning film Gladiator.
Not a bad little part either. But sadly my character had no name. Just “slave trader” (selling Russell Crowe to Oliver Reed). Notting Hill too. My part got cut down so it’s basically blink and you miss it, but I give Hugh Grant the orange juice he then pours over Julia Roberts’ character.
Also a lot of people confuse me for Stavros Flatley. Something I have to deal with almost every week. And that’s not even his real name.
If your show had an ‘ask the host’ feature – how would you fare?
VERY badly. I hope it never comes to that. I’m the kind of person who gives myself a point watching University Challenge if I understand a question!
Once I shouted out ‘Henry VIII!’ and the answer was nitrogen… an unwanted risk asking this host.
If Winning Combination was turned into a drama, who would you want to play you?
THERE’S no reason why I shouldn’t
Doppelganger: Demetrious Demetrioun and his son Lagi – aka Stavros Flatley
play myself. I’m not ancient and I’m not too young.
If it happens in the next 10 years, I imagine I’d play myself. I must say it would be gutting if I was played by Stavros Flatley…
Imagine – I’m totally available – and my agent calls to say, ‘They’ve gone with Stavros Flatley.’
What? Why? ‘They just think he’s got more screen presence than you.’
In the first episode you joke about getting heckles. What is the best heckle you’ve ever had?
THE most remarkable heckle I ever had was upstairs at a pub gig and there were about 100 people.
I tried out a new joke that got absolutely nothing. It was silent.
Then I audibly heard someone at the back say, ‘There used to be a pool table in here’. Which is less of a heckle, more of a wistful reminder of a happier time.
Being a quiz host is a new role for you. Have you ever turned down a role that you regretted?
YES. Well that’s one reason I couldn’t turn this opportunity down.
Years ago I was offered a role in the very first episode of Game of Thrones. I read the script and thought ‘This makes no sense’.
All I had to do was go in and have a meeting, and I didn’t. It slipped my mind. Probably because I was convinced there was no point and nothing would come of it. I still haven’t watched it in case I love it.
Because then I’d have to lock myself in a room and primal scream into a pillow for a week.
‘IDON’T know how you found that out; I thought I’d only told one person that,” exclaims Michael McIntyre with alarm. “But yes, I did think of it in the bath.”
The “it” the British comedian and star of Michael McIntyre’s Big Show is referring to is his new primetime BBC1 game show, Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel.
A format unlike anything you’ve witnessed on television before, The Wheel sees three contestants join forces with a variety of celebrity “expert” guests in a bid to win life-changing sums of money.
The quirk, as you may have guessed, is that the celebrity guests are all strapped to a rotating wheel.
“I didn’t want to be a game show host, I just wanted to be me hosting a game show,” declares Michael, 44.
“I just thought, there hasn’t been any brand new formats for game shows, quiz shows – and they’re so well loved and they always do so well.
“So, I thought, ‘I’m going to try and think of one’. And I did – well, I thought of two in the bath... It sort of came to me as like a human roulette wheel.
“I have to say, I’ve enjoyed the roaming around thing; I feel a bit like Noel Edmonds when I’m doing it.”
Initial descriptions aside, there is more to this game show than first meets the eye.
Each episode features three contestants who find themselves on a wheel located directly beneath the main celebrity wheel.
After one person is selected at random, they find themselves elevated to the centre of the celebrity wheel above and remain there until they get a question wrong.
“The theory was that you build a good rapport with these three people and you start rooting for one of them and also, only one of them can win and two of them can’t,” says Michael.
“No-one’s felt sick to be honest. I mean, a couple of people looked a bit ropey at the beginning because we do spin them too much before for shots, so I’ve stopped them doing that.
“I don’t want everyone starting the show dizzy and confused.”
It is then up to the contestant to pick a topic, answering their question and building up the prize fund with the help of one of the seven celebrities located on the wheel.
But with each celebrity specialising in a different topic area and the wheel being spun to select the helper at random, there’s every chance the contestant could be hindered rather than helped by landing on a celebrity with next to no knowledge of their chosen topic.
“We had Carol Vorderman on numbers; we had Professor Green on rap music; Chris Kamara on football; we’ve got Joey Essex on dating; we’ve got Mel B on the Spice Girls; Dermot O’Leary is doing World War Two – he says he’s an expert, we’ll find out.
“We did struggle to get certain bookings because of a vertigo issue,” the comedian confesses, despite the wheel being stationed at ground level and rotating horizontally.
“I ran into David Walliams and he just kept saying, ‘Will my head get cut off?’
“I’m like, ‘You don’t seem to understand what I’m trying to explain to you, it’s just round in a circle! It’s like a massive tea cup’.” But then comes one final twist, as the celebrities – who have been playing along throughout, secretly answering every question using their keypad – find themselves the subject of scrutiny.
“I don’t know whether [the celebrities] just haven’t been explained the game, but there’s a wonderful moment at the end.
“We collate their scores and then I reveal th the rank order of how they perform – from the best celebrity expert to the worst – and I’m telling you, the contorting of their bodies in their chair. They’re looking around like, ‘Nobody told me we were going to be judged here!”’
With the contestant then required to pick either the highest, middle or lowest ranking celebrity helper to answer one final question – with their selection affecting the final prize pot – you’d be forgiven for thinking the audience would be teetering on the edge of their seats.
“It’s a very strange situation,” says the comedian.
“There is a studio audience but they’re not even with us, they’re all in masks behind a wall. It’s a very bleak
We had Chris Eubank doing boxing That was something... At one point he stopped talking, just kept doing the thumbs up. But we got him back.
situation. I’m so grateful to them for coming but they’re there to create an atmosphere – but we can’t really hear it.
“I love audiences – I did the Big Show in a theatre for that reason. I don’t want to be in a studio. The more people laughing, the more relaxed I’m going to be.”
However, it might just be the combination of awkward celebrity moments and artful suspense that elevates Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel to “must-watch” status.
“I wanted video gaming to be one of the categories – because, obviously, that’s what people do 100% of the time now if they’re under 18 years old because of the
situation,” says Michael.
“So, I got this guy, Vikkstar – he’s a YouTuber, he’s got over 10 million followers – I mean, I’m going to be honest with you, I couldn’t pick him out of a line-up.
“We had Chris Eubank doing boxing – I’ve got to tell you, you don’t want to miss that.
“That was really something... he took to the game. At one point he stopped talking, just kept doing the thumbs up. But we got him back.”
A show perfectly designed to adhere to social distancing guidelines (even if that wasn’t the intention), The Wheel, Michael hopes, will serve up dramatic tension and joyful celebration in equal measure.
“The wheel can stop at random, that’s the key thing I keep forgetting to say, because I’m so worried that people will think in any way that the wheel is fixed,” says the comedian.
“I’m used to cynical viewers with the Big Show – I don’t think I’ve met a single person who believes any of those things are real.
“The other night, nobody won and I found it very, very depressing – but apparently you have to have it.
“I always want someone to win – especially in 2020. Can we please just have a happy ending?”
Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel starts on BBC1, tonight at 8.30pm