In all honesty, I didn’t realise how much work goes in to creating a quiz show even after countless Zoom quizzes in lockdown
Sometimes when we’re sat at home watching a quiz show on telly from the comfort of our sofa, we all think “I’d be class at that.” Well, it’s a lot harder than it looks.
I visited the set of Celebrity Puzzling, Channel 5’s game show which is hosted by Jeremy Vine and features team captains Sally Linsday and Carol Vorderman. In each episode, the captains are joined by a fellow celebrity who compete in a variety of puzzle related rounds in the hopes of winning the Celebrity Puzzling cube- basically a small puzzle cube which has the faces of Jeremy, Sally and Carol strewn across it.
Now, before I tell you about my time visiting Enfys studios in Cardiff, let me start off by saying that TV quiz shows are my absolute guilty pleasure.
Actually, I’m not even remotely guilty about just how much I bloody love a quiz whether that’s ITV’s The Chase, a bit of Pointless on BBC or perhaps just heading to my local pub quiz on a Wednesday. Any chance to show of my ridiculous amount of useless general knowledge, I’m in.
So, when I was invited on set to meet the cast and crew, I was thoroughly excited and when I was told I’d be able to take part in a short version of the game, I felt like my dream had come true. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter
As soon as I arrived, I was greeted by so many friendly faces behind the scenes of the show. The majority of the crew were Welsh, and it was lovely to hear them speaking Welsh to each other as well as exchanging the occasional Welsh phrases with host Jeremy Vine.
TV Times reporter Steven Perkins and I had the opportunity to watch the show being recorded before we were able to become Celebrities for the evening and take part in some exciting puzzles. We saw Carol joined by Dr Ranj Singh, and Sally was joined by comedian Ed Byrne.
They all entered in to complete and utter competitive mode whilst taking on the various rounds of puzzles, and I couldn’t help feeling a little competitive watching from the sidelines.
I’d never seen a quiz show recorded before and I was shocked at how long it took to set up each round, with many of them needing to be set up manually. They also had to occasionally pause to query an answer, and these are all things that we don’t often see on screen. They explained that each 45 minute episode takes roughly two hour or so to film, because of the labour that we don’t see.
In all honesty, I didn’t realise how much work goes in to creating a quiz show. It is vastly different from my weekly Zoom quizzes during lockdown let me tell you, and they were intense.
It was finally my time to shine. I was called down to the studio where I was given a mic, and I was patted down with a lint roller because apparently Pomeranian hair doesn’t look good on camera.
I teamed up with my fellow Welshie Carol, who was so friendly when we had a little chat before we started to film, and Steven teamed up with Sally.
Before we started the game Steven did inform me that he had once appeared on the BBC show Only Connect, so I knew I had truly met my match and it was game on.
Throughout the games we sped through the questions. My heart was beating so fast, and under the lights of the studio it is so easy for your mind to go blank. The adrenaline is absolutely real, and it took me ages to fall asleep when I got home that night as I was still buzzing from an exciting few rounds.
I was asked a question about the ingredients in the mojito, it felt like fate. This is my favourite cocktail, so I inevitably smashed it. My competitor was successful when asked about Superman, which I thankfully avoided.
We both showed off our keen quizzing abilities across three rounds with Carol and Sally taking a back seat to let us truly experience the game. Then it was time to find out who won.
Unfortunately, myself and Carol were beaten by a couple of points right at the end. The quizzer in me is still heartbroken to this day, but I am still so thrilled that I had the chance to play.
After the adrenaline of a high paced game of Celebrity Puzzling wore off, we sat down to interview Jeremy, Sally and Carol.
The three of them were so lovely and welcoming, and were so excited to be back in Cardiff filming. Despite being extremely tired from a very long day of filming, the three stars of the show all stayed behind to chat to me about their time in the Welsh capital.
I was so impressed by how much knowledge both captains and the host possessed, where our interview became more of a chat about how amazing it was too see two powerful women fronting a quiz show. When you look back at older game shows, women used to be models to show off the prizes you could win, but in the case of Celebrity Puzzling they are showing off their intelligence (as well as looking good of course).
As a woman in her mid 20s it is amazing to see such great representation in the media, and it makes me feel hopeful that maybe one day I too will be able front my own show. A girl can dream.
Overall, I had a great time at Enfys Studios on the set of Celebrity Puzzling. The cast and crew were so welcoming, and you can see how close they have all become especially as many of them also worked on the first season of the show too. I can now confirm that when you hear people talking about how lovely Welsh crews are, they are absolutely right. I was made to feel comfortable from the moment I stepped on set, to the moment Carol waved me off in the car park.
You can watch Celebrity Puzzling on Channel 5 from Monday to Friday at 7pm.
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