Eggheads

A reasonable quiz in that it is better than many now available for entertainment. Mastermind has become rather boring, the question subjects are so mundane,(TV programmes, pop groups.) Not quite the selection of intellectual specialities it used to have.

Anyway, Eggheads is quite entertaining with a touch of added humour (always good in my book) Some of the visiting teams do appear to have been vetted for little other than novelty value. The questions do seem to vary in their difficulty quotient rather, especially in the head-to-head extra questions.

There are always 3 stronger cast members, Chris with his trains, Keven (had to be) who looks as if he would rather not be there at all, Daphne, CJ's surrogate Mum(Tell him to sort out his hair, he looks more like Widow Twankie as the weeks go on!) Then there is The Posh Traveller, Judith, and the non-conformist CJ 'Do I look good in this' Da Mooi. They seem to hit on the right answers more by luck than judgement. Anyway 'A nice little earner' Passes the time. Thanks

As a personal 'must see' in the early evenings here in the UK, I catch Eggheads when I can. The show at the time of posting has now been going ten years. The format is easy-going. A team of 'challengers' take on what is commonly described as 'Possibly the best team of quizzers in Britain' as the Eggheads team consists of those who have become champions in former TV quiz shows in the UK. The two 'strongest' members it has to be said are Kevin Ashman and Daphne Fowler. The show has lost CJ De Mooi who was a regular on the team.

The team(s) consist of five members, but the Eggheads team has its standard five, but others who alternate leaving two others off the team when on in the 'five'. This 'alternating' team also consists of Barry Simmons, Pat Gibson, Judith Keppel, Chris Hughes and Dave Rainford. There is talk of CJ De Mooi returning after pursuing an acting career.

The challengers' team will be asked which of their number wants to take on which Egghead as long as that one hasn't already been on (after first being asked if your team wants to go 'first or second'). If you lose the multiple choice answers (3) to the question, well you lose! If at the end of three it's a draw, then a 'sudden death' shootout takes place without the 'multiple choice' help, so the winning answers in that case have to come from the depths of your knowledge. Series have been hosted by Dermot Murnaghan and Jeremy Vine (Brother of comedian Tim vine).

The show offers a prize, per show of £1,000 but this rolls over if the challengers fail to win, by another £1,000. As mostly is the case, when the Eggheads win, this will then mean tens of thousands of pounds further down the line to a team that does beat them.

As can be seen on the message boards about Eggheads, many have their pet-hates of the Eggheads team or particular members and some are asking if it's fair, that, some of the challenging teams aren't really from a broad perspective of knowledge and thrown in to the arena without a real cat-in-hell's-chance of winning - but some have won in spectacular fashion. A team of students were once all knocked out leaving just one challenger to continue in the final against ALL the Egghead team. This challenger won through and a total of £75,000! My favourite persons are probably Judith and Pat. Others have described Chris, Daphne, Kevin, Barry and CJ as unbelievably smug and a few of that number do indeed seem to sulk at losing or show extreme annoyance! Dave seems morose but I think that's just his manner, he's not really! Chris and Barry do remind you somewhat of the dodgy uncle tucking you into bed at night Daphne can be sickening in pretending, I believe, in not knowing the answer when she does and CJ often lost his round, only to be flailing his arms around when the rest of the Eggheads don't get a question right (even though, as I say, he's often already been knocked out). A good show, just to see them lose - hee-hee-hee!

The questions are of a decent enough difficulty not to exclude people like university challenge does, but there are two problems with this show One is the fact that it takes too long to do anything (they need to get on with it sometimes). Everything takes place so slowly.

The largest problem is the fact that I can't help but want to punch the TV screen when I see the Eggheads' smug little faces - especially CJ, who is aim assiv tw@, not only in my opinion, it seems.

That's the problem with this premise. Sure, it's interesting and challenging to take on some of the smartest people in the country, but in watching this, you know you're massaging their egos all the way, huffing under your breath that you hate them.

Dermot Murnaghan the host has I think helped to spoil what could have been a better quiz format than it sadly turned out to be. I find him irritating, too cosy and avuncular with his patronising air and repetitious phrases you've heard in every programme ad nauseam and his chuckle and the implied siding with the underdogs efforts against the "dream team" although he knows full well they have little if any chance. He generally talks too much twittering on to fill the gaps because there are not enough questions per programme to keep interest levels up IMO. Other problems inducing exasperation if one watches it a lot is the "dream team" wins too often and their opponents rarely compete on anything like a level playing field.

As a big fan of general knowledge quizzes, I tune in to Eggheads even though I am not totally swayed by it. Even so, it is probably better than most BBC quiz shows, and that includes the irritating and past its sell-by-date Weakest Link.

Let's be positive to begin with and state the good points:

1. It has two of the best quizzers in the country, Kevin Ashman and Daphne Fowler.

2. It shows how lucky Judith Keppel got with her Millionaire win. She is well above average for her general knowledge, but if she had to go through the 15 questions on WWTBAM again, I'd place money on her not winning - even if she had another ten attempts. But fair dos and congratulations to her.

3. You can join in with the fun and answer questions before the rest of your family. Well, usually.

4. Occasionally the opponents really do have the Eggheads on the ropes, and there is a smidgen of tension as we await the outcome.

Now, since I'm struggling to think of the good points, here are the bad points.

1. Most of the questions are pretty easy, just to give the opponents a chance, and then hope one of the Eggheads will slip up. Also, the caliber of people on the public side is pretty poor sometimes.

2. The people going on to the show should really sort out their tactics better. Play Kevin on entertainment, Daphne on sport, although these pair are pretty good on everything anyway.

3. Judith and CJ are strange choices. Their general knowledge is well below the other three, but like I've said before - they are well above average.

4. Will Chris stop going on about trains and railways - and why do so many questions regarding his pet subjects keep coming up? Is he the question-setter?

5. The set is horrible - too much like the Weakest Link.

6. Kevin and Daphne are not given the opportunity so show their talent.

7. There are not enough questions, and too much talking.