The LAMMY Awards for 2021

Yes, dearly beloved, for the first time since my quizzing lost weekend, on this, the last day of 2021, I’d like to present just a few LAMMY awards. So without further preamble: -

Award for the Best New Quiz Show of 2021

Let’s look at the new shows I have actually watched during the year.

Gordon Ramsey’s Bank Balance – I never reviewed this show at the time, but I found it suffered from a somewhat glacial pace, and just not being a match for Gordon Ramsey’s perceived on-screen persona. It wasn’t quite as much of a mismatch as Jeremy Kyle’s High Stakes of years gone by, but certainly in the same street.

Quizness – I watched the celebrity show a couple of days ago, and you can read my review I the previous post. With slebs it made an entertaining show, with very good play-along-at-homeability.

Moneyball – Ian Wright’s show, delayed due to equipment problems, was one of the shows given the difficult task of holding an audience on an ITV Saturday evening with no big entertainment spectacular, like the X Factor. It’s not a bad game either, but lacking any adversarial ‘head to head’ action is, I think, a weakness.

Sitting On A Fortune – Gary Lineker’s Saturday Evening show made the most inventive use of chairs since “Ejector Seat”. That didn’t last long, and I’m not sure that this early Saturday Evening show will either. It’s a little too big and grand for a weekday teatime show, but I somehow feel it’s too small for Saturday night. It falls between the two, and as I may have mentioned once or twice before, things which fall between two stools often just fall.

The Tournament – Daytime quiz shows come, and daytime quiz shows go. There are things I like about The Tournament – I think that host Alex Scott has potential, and the quickfire nature of the show is very watchable. However I would strongly advise producers to make some tweaks. The ‘battle cries’ each contestant issues at the start of each show are cringe-inducingly embarrassing. Junk them now. Likewise, the show needs a proper endgame, where the winner plays for a guaranteed amount.

Well, ladies and gents, there have been years when none of the new shows have interested me enough to receive the award. I’m glad to say that this isn’t one of them. The LAMMY for the Best New Quiz Show of 2021 goes to –

Quizness. A clear winner in my opinion – and since I’m the only member of the judging panel, it’s the only one which makes a difference.

Award for the Finest Performance in a Broadcast Quiz

As has happened so often in the past we have some very worthy nominees.

Karl Whelan – who had to defeat Mastermind champion Dave McBryan to win Brain of Britain

David Stainer –2019 champion of BOB who became the latest Brain of Brains

Jonathan Gibson – who became the youngest person ever to win a series of Mastermind, beating the record of Gavin Fuller

Puzzle Hunters (Paul Taylor, Katie Steckles, Ali Lloyd) Only Connect Champions, narrowly defeated in a head to head with the previous champions the OO7s in a Christmas special.

The University of Warwick – The team defeated Magdalene, Cambridge to win University Challenge.

As I said, a bumper crop of nominees, all of whom would be worthy winners. However, after due consideration the award goes to

Jonathan Gibson, youngest ever Mastermind Champion. Not only that, but a contender who managed the feat of answering every question in his semi final correctly. Congratulations.

Now that the most serious awards are out of the way, there’s just a couple of more personal ones to dish out.

Award for the Best Contributor to LAM 2021

After the number of false revivals of LAM during my lost weekend over the last 5 years, I was pretty sure that nobody was going to bother reading the blog again. So I would like to recognise the contributions made by those readers who have taken the time and trouble to leave comments on posts, and in particular to pay tribute to the winner –

George Millman

As for my final award, well, in a year in which there has been no Brain of Mensa competition, I would like to make this one

Award for Staging a Quiz Despite the Pandemic

I would give one for every pub, club or venue that has managed to keep a quiz going since the lifting of the second national lockdown. However I hope I will be forgiven for making specific awards to

Aberavon Rugby Club – for keeping the Thursday Quiz going since the late Spring

Neath Gwyn Hall – for the monthly themed film quizzes.

That’s the LAMMY Awards for 2021. May I wish you all a happy and safe New Year.