''We Need Answers'' is a British
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
panel game
A panel show or panel game is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates. Celebrity panelists may compete with each other, such as on ''The News Quiz''; facilitate play by non-celebrity contestants, such as on ' ...
presented by
comedians
Mark Watson
Mark Andrew Watson (born 13 February 1980) is a British comedian and novelist.
Early life
Watson was born in Bristol to a Welsh mother and English father. He has younger twin sisters and a brother, Paul. He attended Bristol Grammar School, ...
,
Tim Key
Timothy David Key (born September 1976) is an English poet, comedian, actor, screenwriter and radio personality. He is best known for playing Alan Partridge's sidekick Simon in '' Mid Morning Matters'', '' Alpha Papa'', and '' This Time'', as ...
and
Alex Horne
Alexander James Jeffery Horne (born 10 September 1978) is a British comedian and musician. Horne is the creator of BAFTA award-winning TV series '' Taskmaster'', in which he also performs as the Taskmaster's assistant. He is the host and ban ...
. The show features a pair of celebrities answering questions which had previously been texted in by the public, or the audience by
text message
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...
.
The show ran for two series between February 2009 and February 2010.
Format
In ''We Need Answers'', Watson acted as the main host, Key as the question master, and Horne as the studio expert, as well as the man responsible for the
computer graphics
Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...
and
sound effect
A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...
s used in the show.
During the show, correct answers scored two points, wrong answers scored nothing, and one point was given to an answer which was "quite right", or partly correct. Recurring themes in the series included "Sad Questions", relating to morbid topics and accompanied by sad music.
The quiz was split into the following rounds:
* Burning Issues and Fiddly Questions: Key asked questions to each contestant in turn, some of which were based around a general theme covering the episode.
* You or Him/Her: The contestant could each answer a question about themselves, or try and score double points by answering questions about their opponent. In the first series this round always featured Horne explaining the doubling rule.
* The Physical Challenge: The contestants took part in a physical challenge based on a question texted to them.
* Quick fire Meltdown Round: A round of quick fire questions on buzzers, with all the questions scoring double points. It was a timed round with a time on the bottom of the TV screen depicting the faces of the contestants. The round ended when the face hit each other. At the end of this round, the contestant with the lowest score lost and left the studio wearing "The
clogs
Clogs are a type of footwear made in part or completely from wood. Used in many parts of the world, their forms can vary by culture, but often remained unchanged for centuries within a culture.
Traditional clogs remain in use as protective f ...
of defeat. The winner received a certificate.
* Big Money/House Prize Showdown: The winner could choose to answer a special question for a small cash prize or, in the second series, an item from one of the hosts' houses.
History
"We Need Answers" first saw the light as a late night comedy show at the Canal Cafe Theatre in London. After a year's development it was taken to Edinburgh Fringe for two years running, sponsored by 63336.
The contestants in Edinburgh were exclusively standup comedians, who were at the festival with their own shows.
In its inaugural year at the fringe, 2007, the competition featured the likes of
Daniel Kitson
Daniel John Kitson (born 2 July 1977) is an English comedian and writer.
Early life
Daniel John Kitson was born in Denby Dale on 2 July 1977, the son of a primary school headteacher mother and a lecturer father. He was a pupil at Scissett Midd ...
,
Simon Amstell
Simon Marc Amstell (born 29 November 1979) is a British comedian, writer and director. He wrote and directed the films '' Carnage'' (2017) and ''Benjamin'' (2018). His work on television has included presenting '' Popworld'' and '' Never Mind th ...
,
Henning Wehn,
Brendon Burns &
Lucy Porter
Lucy Donna Porter (born 27 January 1973) is an English actress, writer and comedian. She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Brighton Festival and many clubs around Britain. She is also a regular voice on BBC Radio 4 in various panel sh ...
taking part in the quiz, which took the format of a traditional sporting tournament over the month; heats leading to quarter and semi finals.
The grand final was between
Josie Long and
Paul Sinha
Supriya Kumar "Paul" Sinha (born 28 May 1970) is a British quizzer, comedian, doctor and broadcaster. He has written and performed extensively on Radio 4, and is one of the six Chasers on the ITV game show '' The Chase''.
Early life
Supriya ...
, with Sinha proving to be the ultimate winner.
Its second year, 2008, saw a final between
Josie Long and
Kristen Schaal
Kristen Joy Schaal (; born January 24, 1978) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is best known for her voice roles as Louise Belcher on ''Bob's Burgers'' and Mabel Pines on ''Gravity Falls''. She's also known for playing Mel on '' ...
: Long emerged victorious.
In late 2008 the BBC produced a pilot at Ginglik comedy club, London, before launching Series 1 on BBC4 early 2009.
Episodes
Series 1
Series 2
No More Women / No More Jockeys
No More Women is an oral game invented in 2002 by the comedians
Mark Watson
Mark Andrew Watson (born 13 February 1980) is a British comedian and novelist.
Early life
Watson was born in Bristol to a Welsh mother and English father. He has younger twin sisters and a brother, Paul. He attended Bristol Grammar School, ...
and
Tim Key
Timothy David Key (born September 1976) is an English poet, comedian, actor, screenwriter and radio personality. He is best known for playing Alan Partridge's sidekick Simon in '' Mid Morning Matters'', '' Alpha Papa'', and '' This Time'', as ...
.
During the writing of a show, Key challenged Watson to name as many famous people as he could. After listing many football and cricket players, Watson commented "OK, no more footballers", and this was developed into a game which the two of them played with
Alex Horne
Alexander James Jeffery Horne (born 10 September 1978) is a British comedian and musician. Horne is the creator of BAFTA award-winning TV series '' Taskmaster'', in which he also performs as the Taskmaster's assistant. He is the host and ban ...
for years.
The rules of the game are that each player in turn declares the name of a famous person and a category into which that person falls, to which no subsequent answer may belong (e.g., "
Marie Curie
Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...
- no more women").
If a player names a person who belongs to a category and is challenged about it, or is unable to think of a person, they are eliminated from the game.
A player may insist their opponent "name another", to prevent the creation of categories which exclude only a single person.
The game can also be played with a
chess clock
A chess clock consists of two adjacent clocks with buttons to stop one clock while starting the other, so that the two clocks never run simultaneously. Chess clocks are used in chess and other two-player games where the players move in turn, and ...
.
A web-exclusive show ''No More Women'' was broadcast on the BBC Comedy website in 2009 as a spin-off from ''We Need Answers''. Watson, Key and Horne have sometimes played the game live on stage, for instance at London's Canal Cafe Theatre one Sunday afternoon in 2006. The game was also played on the Radio 4 show ''It's Your Round'' in March 2011, when Key was one of the panellists and his competitors were
Bridget Christie,
Micky Flanagan
Michael John Flanagan (born 7 October 1962) is an English comedian. Flanagan has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and toured Britain with stand-up shows. He presented ''Micky Flanagan: What Chance Change?'' for Radio 4 and has appeared on vario ...
and
Nick Hancock.
The game was relaunched in June 2020 as No More Jockeys with its own channel on YouTube and codified rules.
A series of games were played as a weekly three-way contest between Horne, Key, and Watson, across a video link, during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. The games continued over the year, and
''Esquire'' magazine called the series a "lockdown phenomenon".
''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' praised the "perfect comic chemistry" of the trio, and described No More Jockeys as a
parlour game
A parlour or parlor game is a group game played indoors using speech (from French Parler). They were often played in a parlour. These games were extremely popular among the upper and middle classes in the United Kingdom and in the United States d ...
"for the ages". A live, ticketed edition of the game was broadcast for the
Leicester Comedy Festival
The Leicester Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival held in a number of venues across Leicester, England early in the year.
History
The festival started in 1994 with 40 events in 23 venues over 7 days throughout Leicestershire, attracting ...
in February 2021, and became the fastest selling show in the festival's history. In March 2021, the
Chortle Awards
The Chortle Awards were set up in 2002 by the comedy website Chortle to honour the best of established stand-up comics currently working in the UK. A panel of reviewers draw up a shortlist, which is presented for public vote at the Chortle websit ...
gave "Legends of Lockdown" prizes to Horne, Key and Watson, partly for No More Jockeys as well as their own individual works. Among the most commonly played names in No More Jockeys are:
Penelope Pitstop
Penelope Pitstop is a fictional character who appeared in the 1968 Hanna-Barbera animated series ''Wacky Races'' and the spin-off ''The Perils of Penelope Pitstop'', and was voiced by Janet Waldo. She also appeared in the 2017 reboot of ''Wacky ...
; Mert Aksaç, star of the Turkish film ''Film'' (2011);
Jack Lisowski
Jack Adam Lisowski (born 25 June 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Churchdown, Gloucestershire. He turned professional in 2010 by finishing first in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. A left-handed player, he is known for his atta ...
; and Wilfred Johnson, newborn son of
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
.
[https://nomorepeoplewevehadbefore.co.uk/names]
References
;General
External links
*
*
*{{British Comedy Guide, tv, we_need_answers
''No More Jockeys''on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
2009 British television series debuts
2010 British television series endings
BBC television comedy
BBC television game shows
BBC high definition shows
British panel games
2000s British game shows
2010s British game shows
Quiz shows
English-language television shows
Television series by BBC Studios