‘Josh sometimes forgets it’s a comedy quiz’
As Rob Beckett’s new panel show Smart TV, featuring Alison Hammond and Josh Widdicombe, comes to Sky Max, Rachael Davis finds out more
You might think no-one would know telly better than the people who make it. A new panel quiz show hosted by comedian Rob Beckett is testing this theory, bringing together a bunch of hilarious TV types to test their knowledge of the shows they love across a series of wacky rounds of trivia.
From the makers of longrunning BBC comedy quiz show Never Mind The Buzzcocks comes Rob Beckett’s Smart TV, hosted by the 38-year-old comic and joined by team captains Alison Hammond of Big Brother, This Morning and The Great British Bake Off fame and The Last Leg’s Josh Widdicombe.
Hammond and Widdicombe’s teams are made up of famous faces – actors, presenters, reality stars and comedians – who go head-to-head in a series of chaotic rounds of quizzing to see who knows the most about TV.
From traditional trivia to inventive rounds – like You’ve Got The Part, in which players have to identify actors who have played a small but significant role in popular series; Doubling Up, which has them guessing who was the body double for a famous actor on a programme; and How You Reviewin’?, which sees them guess which show is being talked about from its reviews – Smart TV promises lots of laughs and a competition that’ll have us screaming answers at the telly from home.
Let’s hear from the host himself about what we’ve got to look forward to.
Tell us more about the new show, Rob
So, basically, it’s a quiz about TV. It’s the same people who did Never Mind The Buzzcocks, so they know exactly how to do a quiz show. The rounds are amazing, so you can properly play along at home, which is always good.
The team captains are Josh Widdicombe and Alison Hammond. What I love about good panel shows is there’s chemistry, where you all know each other, you get on, and you can wind each other up – we’ve got that, because Alison’s a good mate, Josh is a good mate… also, he is a TV nerd superfan that is obsessed with winning the quiz.
Alison loves TV, but doesn’t really [care] about winning, but only wants to beat Josh, so she does [care] about winning because she finds it hilarious when she beats Josh, because Josh really cares! They properly go at each other and wind each other up.
So it’s really good fun because there’s proper chemistry, and we all like each other.
What sort of rounds do you play?
We have the showdown one, where you go head to head:
Someone picks a specialist subject, and they have to go head to head against three of the other team. And we sit ’em really close so they’re stressed and under pressure. So that’s good.
We’ve got You’ve Got the Part, which is great. You get two supporting actors on and they say ‘I was in Game of Thrones’ or ‘I was in Line of Duty, playing this role’. We show ’em the role, blur their faces, and then they have to ask them questions to see who’s lying. That’s really good – we love that one ‘cause it’s all, like, deceit and stuff like that. We have the Guess What Happens Next round…
Loads of different stuff, but it’s not all just questions read out. There’s a quickfire one
at the end, a more traditional quiz one, but there’s loads of different ways where it’s clips, or it’s act-outs, or props – all sorts.
What would be your own specialist subject?
The Office, probably, or Bottom. I love Bottom, but I’d say The Office I’ve got more knowledge on, cause I watched it when I was a bit older. I was young when I watched Bottom – The Office is probably my number one show, I think, that I know most about.
And then I love The Sopranos – that was a big show of mine when I was growing up. At the moment it’s Gladiators again, because of the kids. They’re obsessed with it!
Which guests have you got lined up?
We’ve got some amazing guests. Romesh Ranganathan, Richard Ayoade, David Tennant… Alan Davies comes on and does a Jonathan Creek quiz to Jonathan Creek superfans. David Morrissey from The Walking Dead, Natasia Demetriou from that big huge vampire show in the States [What We Do in the Shadows]… Amazing guests in the line-up, and they’re all super funny.
Did anyone surprise you with their TV knowledge? Richard Ayoade’s more into Made In Chelsea than he likes to let on – that was quite interesting. Because I sort of stitched him up, where
I knew he’d sort of… he’s snipey about stuff, isn’t he? So I knew he’d take the mick out of Made In Chelsea, but then I found a tweet where he’d mentioned it eight years ago, so I was like, ‘Ah, you do watch it!’, just to wind him up.
But yeah, the secret Doctor Who fans coming out is always quite good. And Josh is just obsessed with telly. Josh knows everything about telly, it’s mental.
He sometimes forgets it’s a comedy quiz and just starts answering. You’re like, ‘Mate, you’re not actually at a pub quiz here, we’re allowed to have a laugh as well!’
Rob Beckett’s Smart TV comes to Sky Max on Thursday at 9pm