''Fact Hunt'' (2005) is a comedic TV

quiz show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, sh ...

which originally aired late at night on various

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

regions. It was hosted by

Al Murray Alastair James Hay Murray (born 10 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor, musician and writer from Hammersmith. In 2003, he was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2007 he was voted the 16th gr ...

in character as the Pub Landlord, the character he has long played in stand-up routines and in the

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

Time Gentlemen Please ''Time Gentlemen Please'' is a British sitcom primarily written by Richard Herring and Al Murray and broadcast on Sky One from 2000 to 2002. Premise The show is set in a forgotten, unwelcoming pub whose opinionated landlord, 'Guv' (short for ...

''. Fact Hunt was originally a section of Al Murray's Edinburgh stage show, where two male members of the audience were called on stage to answer questions. These were invariably chosen to be one thin and one quite large contestant. T-shirts were given to them (the XXXL given to the skinny guy and the S given to the large) with the quiz logo and made obvious allusion to the potential

spoonerism A spoonerism is an occurrence in speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words in a phrase. These are named after the Oxford don and ordained minister William Archibald Spooner, w ...

"Fat Cunt", accentuated by the mismatched sizes. In typical "Pub" style, the prize was a pub meal - Chicken and Chips which was actually a frozen chicken and a bag of potatoes - the typically sexist, landlord wouldn't cook it as "that's women's work". A female member of the audience was selected to hold the prizes and encouraged to exhibit them enticingly (by both Murray and the audience) while sitting on a bar stool. The audience would shout out "Fact Hunt" when prompted. The idea was further developed into a fictional pub quiz machine (and on-going plot device) of the same name from a sitcom starring Al Murray called ''Time Gentlemen Please''. This programme ran for two complete seasons between 2000 and 2002 on Sky One and was the first time Al Murray's Pub landlord character was in a scripted sitcom format. It wasn't until the success of Al Murray's main ITV show that a further spin off show wholly based on the quiz, which was called ''Fact Hunt''.

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* 2000s British game shows 2000s British comedy television series 2005 British television series debuts 2005 British television series endings ITV comedy ITV game shows Television series by ITV Studios {{Comedy-tv-prog-stub