Are you the next ‘Brain of Britain’? Best brush up on your telly and Twitter

Pop culture to the fore for cerebral BBC quiz show after producers asked for less challenging questions

BBC RADIO 4’s Brain of Britain, as the title implies, is one of the nation’s most cerebral quiz shows. However, regular listeners may find the new series a little less taxing.

One of the question-setters on the programme has disclosed that she has made the questions easier after producers told her they were too challenging.

Elissa Mattinson said she had also introduced more pop culture questions to broaden its appeal.

In an interview with Radio Times, Ms Mattinson said “producers have occasionally said to me, ‘Can you just make the questions a bit easier this series?’

“So I’ll introduce a clue into a question. For example, if it’s about a poet I might go, ‘Which early 20th-century poet…’ or something like that.”

She has devised more questions about pop music, film and television rather than sticking to topics found in “dusty old tomes in libraries”.

Ms Mattinson said her daughters are 18 “and I know that their friends listen to the radio and would love it if there was a question about [pop star] Dua Lipa or [writer, actor and director] Michaela Coel or [US poet] Amanda Gorman.

“And the producers have been absolutely brilliant in encouraging that.

“Contestants may not have watched Coel’s I May Destroy You, but it’s important those questions are included, otherwise it’s too myopic.”

She added: “With all the different streaming platforms and social media, there’s just so much more knowledge out there to keep up with. It’s not just BBC One and BBC Two now; contestants are expected to be aware of Tiger King, Squid Game and Succession as well as Shakespeare and classical music.”

Ms Mattinson also sets questions for Mastermind and University Challenge, and said Brain of Britain remained a tough challenge. “People listening at home have got to be impressed and think, ‘Wow, they’re bright.’ They’ve got to be the elite of the population.”

The 69th series, which starts on Radio 4 next week, will include questions about BBC shows, including Doctor Who and Peaky Blinders.

Russell Davies, the show’s presenter, said his worry was that BBC executives may scrap the show for being too oldfashioned, middle-aged and elitist. Davies said: “I regularly imagine all those things being said. I wouldn’t be surprised. But I would be sorry.”