Music to our ears...
MARION McMULLEN finds out why The Hit List is the perfect partnership for married presenters Marvin and Rochelle Humes
IT’S all about the bops and not the flops on The Hit List.
Back with a new series, BBC1’s popular Saturday night quiz sees music lovers compete to name as many song titles and artists as possible for the chance to win £10,000.
Real-life pop star couple Marvin and Rochelle Humes host the show and tell us it certainly gets hearts racing when contestants try to name some of the world’s biggest hits in the fastest time ... and reveal that viewers love shouting the answers at the telly.
For those that have never watched The Hit List, can you tell viewers what the show is about?
■ Rochelle: Well first of all where have you been? Secondly, it is the ultimate music quiz, it is a show for the whole family, it’s fun, it’s light, it’s that feel-good telly that you will want to watch on a Saturday night.
■ Marvin: Everyone can get involved, we play music from across the decades, 70s, 80s, 90s, Noughties, 10s and 20s, but like Roch said it’s feel-good family entertainment. You’ll be shouting at the TV screen and you’ll want to apply for the show!
What made you want to do The Hit List as a joint project?
■ Rochelle: It was really important for us to work on a show together that we were both equally as passionate about, and obviously music is what we’re both known for [Rochelle was in girl band The Saturdays while Marvin was in JLS] and it’s something that we’ve always really bonded over, so it was just like a no brainer, really.
■ Marvin: I was just desperate to work with Rochelle to be honest.
■ Rochelle: That’s not true!
■ Marvin: So it was the fact I got to work with my wife.
■ Rochelle: He just likes to know where I am!
■ Marvin: Exactly.
If you played The Hit List, what music era would you both be the best and worst at?
■ Rochelle: My strongest would be 80s or 90s, probably 90s. My worst would be 50s and 60s.
■ Marvin: My best, in all honesty, will probably be now, or the 2000s or the 10s. I’ve been on Capital Radio for 10 years now and my job is intros to records.
■ Rochelle: Yeah that’s true. You’ve got an unfair advantage!
■ Marvin: So I feel like that would be my best and I guess 70s is going to be my trickiest one.
Has music from The Saturdays or JLS ever come up on The Hit List?
■ Rochelle: They have both come up, but I don’t think they got either of them.
They knew the song but said different boy bands and different girl bands. I think it’s quite funny.
There are some brilliant celebrities in the series. What can you tell us about them and their episodes?
■ Rochelle: We’ve got some great specials. I loved our show that we had with Judi Love and Charlene White. I think theirs was such a good team. Judi just had us all in fits, so that was brilliant, a real sort of powerful female team.
Their song selection wasn’t incredible, but for vibe and personality they were probably my favourite.
■ Marvin: Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing and rugby star Ugo Monye were very funny on the Strictly special. They weren’t the greatest in terms of their musical knowledge but the show was brilliant with them on it, just taking the mickey out of each other the whole time and the reaction when they got one right was so funny!
The 1990s one was great, and the Christmas one is wicked with Mrs. Brown Boys. We had Fiona O’Carroll and Eilish O’Carroll from the O’Carroll family.
It’s funny because they film Mrs. Brown’s Boys in Glasgow where we film The Hit List, so they obviously feel right at home up there, and they were really good as well.
So there are some really great celeb specials that we can’t wait for everybody to see.
Are there any memorable moments you can tell us about from the new series?
It’s feel-good telly that you will want to watch on a Saturday night. Rochelle Humes on The Hit List
■ Marvin: In the 90s special there was a lot of banter flying about between Westlife’s Brian McFadden and Boyzone’s Keith Duffy with the S Club guys and Lee from 911.
Obviously they’ve spent a lot of time on the road together so I feel like, as much as they love seeing each other again, there was a lot of banter.
■ Rochelle: It was quite a lot wasn’t it? At some points I was like, “Is this
OK? Do they know each other, to be bantering this much?”. But they seemed very friendly. It was like they were back on the tour bus together again.
If you created your own Hit List, what songs would be on it?
■ Rochelle: For me anything that’s 90’s R’n’B, that’s a moment for me.
■ Marvin: I think on Rochelle’s Hit List would be This Will Be by Natalie Cole, it’s one of her favourite songs. Roch would also have Sister Sledge Thinking of You.
■ Rochelle: Yeah that would be one of mine.
■ Marvin: I would have Set Adrift on Memory Bliss by PM Dawn and I would also have a bit of Bob Marley, maybe Three Little Birds, and then I think for Roch and I we would probably have to have a song from Encanto the Disney movie.
■ Rochelle: Our kids are obsessed!
■ Marvin: All our kids love it, even our little son Blake sings along to it.
■ The Hit List can be seen on BBC1 tonight at 6.45pm and is also available on BBC iPlayer