Chris Moyles' Quiz Night, Sunday 10pm, Channel 4

Our verdict: One star rating

Posted by Stewart Turner

Chris MoylesCrop circles, unidentified flying objects, and the enduring popularity of Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles – just three of the great mysteries of our age. Last night, scientists at Channel 4 ran a series of tests on the latter by devoting 50 minutes of Sunday night TV to the man they call Moylesy, presumably to see if hosting one of the biggest piles of steaming nonsense ever to air would manage to dent the big man’s stock.

Have you ever popped into your local pub for a quiet pint only to find you’ve stumbled into a ropey quiz presided over by a question master with about as much charisma as a half-eaten packet of pork scratchings? Well, it seems that’s the experience the producers of Chris Moyles Quiz Night set out to emulate. The show saw three hapless celebrities – Mark Ronson, Louis Walsh and Barbara Windsor, all of who are doubtless on the phone firing their agents this very minute – compete against Moyles in a “current affairs” quiz, with Sharon Osbourne helpfully asking the questions on a pre-recorded video.

Of course, when we say “current affairs”, we’re talking current affairs of a distinctly Moylesian variety; describing the appearance of a Viagra pill, identifying Christian Bale and Agyness Deyn’s mums, that sort of hilarity. The winner went home with a colour TV donated by Chris from his living room (Ha Ha HA!), while the loser faced the unsavoury prospect of singing ABBA’s ‘Mamma Mia’ to close the show. Frankly, if first prize involves visiting Chez Moyles to pick up the telly myself, I’d choose the latter any time.

Very much a man for whom the phrase “a face for radio” could’ve been invented, while Moyles’ success on the wireless is something that continually baffles me, I’m even more confused why Channel 4 would want to waste their time on giving him a TV show after his 2002 donkey Live with Chris Moyles was packed off to the knacker’s yard after being universally panned. Still, the studio audience, presumably all forcibly hooked up to a hefty supply of nitrous oxide for the duration of filming, positively lapped it up. I guess there’s no accounting for taste.

Originally published here

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