Welcome to
the quiz where simply knowing the answer isn’t enough. Hang on a moment – BBC4 –
Teams of 3 - am I getting a little déjà vu here? Well, you can’t blame BBC4 for
looking for another Only Connect. OC is, by some distance, the finest new quiz
of the last decade, and I don’t know how willingly 4 relinquished it to 2, but
I doubt very much they were hounding it out of the door. But that’s OC, and
this is Hive Minds.
This is a
board game, and the board is a giant hexagon, containing 37 smaller hexagons.
Each one will show a letter in it. The game simply involves finding answers to
questions or clues by tracking along from one hexagon to another. Actually, I
say simply, but the game isn’t simple at all, which is all to the good. The
rounds did vary a bit, which kept the game from becoming repetitive. The
hardest, round three, the Super Hive, involved finding a solution to – for example
– a set of fish – which has to involve using every hexagon, and has several,
should you excuse the pun, red herrings to trip you up. I’d argue that although
a very good general knowledge would not guarantee that you’d do well in this
game, a poor grasp of general knowledge would prevent you from doing so, and this
was especially true of the last round. This simply involved finding answers to
clues – eg a ship used by Columbus. Yes,OK,
a ship used by Columbus actually had three possible answers, but at least you
knew what you were looking for. As for an Italian Nationalist – well, honestly,
who else could it be apart from Garibaldi. Well, alright, Giuseppi Mazzini, but
90 times out of 100 it’s going to be Garibaldi. Likewise, flower of the genus
Taraxacum is going to be dandelion every day of the week. No, this isn’t a
complaint about the show. I’m afraid that I always rather like it when the best
pure quizzers of the bunch are at an advantage. It was reassuring to see names
like Jack Whaley-Cohen and Richard Morgale involved with setting and verifying
the questions on the credits.
I’m really
not sure about Fiona Bruce in the hot seat. According to my wife I was within
about 3 feet of Fiona Bruce who was being touched up – ooh Matron – at the same
time as I was having my slap applied for my appearance on the Antiques Roadshow
last year (apparently I have Queen Anne legs and a walnut kneehole) but I didn’t
notice she was there. She’s no Victoria Coren-Mitchell, but then most people
aren’t (all bar one in fact). So we’ll reserve judgement for the time being.
As for the
overall verdict – well, I didn’t think I was going to like it that much . . .
but I did. I found the play-along-at-home-ability was rather high, as with the
best shows, and it was generally rather interesting and challenging. Now, I’ve
been wrong about new shows more often than I’ve been right, but from one
viewing, I’d say it’s got legs. Is it the new Only Connect? No, it’s the
original Hive Minds – and that in itself seems to be no bad thing. I shall be
watching it again.
3 comments:
A little too gimmicky and fiddly for my taste. Hard to play along without the pause button.
Well, I think it's worth persisting with. As always, though, just my opinion, and feel free to disagree.
Just caught this - although I think I was watching a different episode to you. What a stupendous waste of everyone's time! I just about forced myself to get through the full 28 minutes, but that certainly won't happen again.
Not only was it a complete borefest, but it was also very low-grade on the actual knowledge front: no show that claims that Albinoni wrote 'the famous adagio' can be trusted on anything. And whoever writes Fiona Bruce's 'jokes' should be thrown straight out of Broadcasting House and sent pack to polishing milk bottles.
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