I won’t be wokest link - goodbye, says Anne
THE BBC revived The Weakest Link last year with funnyman Romesh Ranganathan as the cuddly new host — dividing viewers who remembered Anne Robinson’s trademark beastliness in the long-running original.
It can now be revealed that the BBC actually twice offered Robinson her old job back, but she said no.
She didn’t want to change the show into the kindly new version that the Beeb wanted — which you might even call The Wokest Link.
Robinson, 77, tells me: ‘Wokeness has taken the heart out of comedy. Times have really changed.
‘I wouldn’t want to be a cheesy gameshow host, and that is what the BBC wanted. Where’s the fun if you can’t ask, “What do you do when you’re not eating?” or “Have you had that hair cut for a bet?”
‘No one saw anything wrong with it, but you couldn’t say it today.’
Talking about her input into the original Weakest Link — which ran on the BBC from 2000 until 2012 — the former journalist recalled: ‘Initially, it was a completely different show to the one which went out. Then we started to test it with real contestants.
‘I asked one of them why someone else should go, and he said acidly, “Well, anyone who comes on the show should know the names of the Teletubbies.” And I thought, “Ah!”
‘From then on I could be me — the person I was in a newspaper newsroom. When we were doing the pilot, someone p **** d me off and I said, “You are the weakest link,” and added “Goodbye.” I was very much part of the development.’
Anne says that last year Kate Phillips, BBC controller of entertainment, chatted with her about having ‘another go’ at The Weakest Link. ‘But it was obvious that the character I created would have to be changed,’ she says. ‘It’s a slightly pantomime version of who I am.
‘Originally, I was approached via a fax which said they would like me to do it because “Anne will look as if she knows the answers to the questions and she can ease the disappointment of the contestants as they leave the podiums”. I have that framed in all my loos in all my houses!’
The Weakest Link reboot made its debut in December 2021 with a series of celebrity shows.
Ranganathan told an interviewer: ‘Anne was amazing at it, and she was a big reason why that show was so popular. But I don’t think any good can come from trying to emulate that. And it’s just me doing it my own way.’
Ms Robinson announced on Monday that she is stepping down from her role as the host of Channel 4’s Countdown. Could it be a case of history repeating itself that Ranganathan is an early bookie’s favourite to succeed her?