I Don’t Like Mondays
Alan Carr on his fun game show that gives contestants the chance to quit their jobs…
Friday / C4
As much as I love my job, the chance to win a year’s salary, resign and spend 12 months ticking off my bucket list sounds tempting! We get chatty with the brilliant Alan Carr about his game show in which people get to do just that...
Not many of us enjoy the sound of our alarm clock going off on a Monday morning, but for a lucky few that could all be about to change thanks to Alan Carr’s sparkly new game show!
I Don’t Like Mondays sees Alan give contestants the chance to win a year’s salary and quit their job on air. Members of the audience, made up of people from across the UK with a range of salaries, must all bring their resignation letters with them, but only one lucky person will win an entire year off.
There are celebrity guests, studio games and crazy challenges, and here Alan, 41, tells TV Times why he thinks this game show has something for everyone…
Why did the show appeal to you?
I’ve done game shows before and they haven’t always worked, but once I heard the idea I was very interested. Then, when I saw the queue of people to come on the show I thought we could be on to something. It made me realise how many people can’t stand their jobs!
How does the game work?
We pick random people from the audience and ask them questions, and then, at the end of each episode, we have three finalists – all of whom have a salary of between £5,000 and £50,000 a year. The final round is a test of knowledge, and quite a lot of luck, but whichever contestant wins in the end, we pay them the highest salary of all the finalists!
What would people like to spend the money on if they won?
All sorts! There was one episode where an elderly gentleman wanted to quit his job so he could pick up his grandkids from school and spend time with them. Then we had a woman who said she wanted to spend the money on a bum lift to look like Kim Kardashian!
Tell us about the celeb guests…
Well, I need someone to help with all the challenges! Amanda Holden was brilliant for the first episode and later in the series we have Jonathan Ross and Mel Giedroyc.
So, what were your worst jobs before going into comedy?
I’ve had so many rubbish jobs – shampoo packer, call centre worker, flyering, driver’s mate, cleaner, supermarket trolley collector at Tesco. I was telling everyone about my rubbish jobs and people found it funny. They said I should go on stage and say it. The rest, as they say, is history!
Do you have any egg-cellent plans for Easter this week?
Easter’s one of my favourite times of year. Easter egg chocolate tastes better than normal chocolate. I love hot cross buns as well, but I get the high-end ones with little bits of orange in. I like to splash out when it comes to hot cross buns!
We loved you on the Price Is Right revival over Christmas. Will it be coming back?
It went down so well, I was blown away. Even critics who usually hate me were raving about it! I think C4 want to do more and, if they do, I’d love to host it again.