So… I was poking around the BBC website the other day, looking to see if there were any “Just a Minute” archives online. (which is a story for another time) and I found this panel show called “The Write Stuff.”
In Great Britain there is this tradition of “panel shows” where very bright erudite people sit around and get quized, or say funny things, or do funny things (much like “Who’s Line is it Anyways,” which was based on a British show of the same name).
Usually there’s a winner, but the winner doesn’t usually receive anything of value. Which is probably why it never caught on here. (The exception is probably NPR’s “Wait, wait, don’t tell me!” which is a kind of panel show.)
In any event, I found this show, which is a literary quiz show. Each week there’s a featured writer (the last two have been John Grisham and Jonathan Swift). There’s a quiz about that writer, several general literature quizes and then, at the end, each of the writers has to give a pastiche/tribute of the writer on a topic of the narrator’s choosing. (last week, they did a Jonathan Swiftian take on automated operators and commuting cyclists, for example).
I’ve listened to the previous two shows, and managed to answer one question correctly. Here’s a link to the most recent show. Give it a half hour (And you’ll need real player to listen). It’s fairly mind blowing.
(and Chris & John, you should play it for KitKat; this week’s theme is Hans Christian Andersen).
