Your starter for ten: who on earth thought it a good idea to hire Ross Kemp to present a quiz show? Or Gary Lineker? Or Lucy Worsley? And don’t get me started on Amol Rajan.
Back in the mists of time, the general rule was to hire either specialist – Nicholas Parsons and Robert Robinson for instance, who had cut their teeth on similar roles before moving to TV – or popular stand-up comics such as Bob Monkhouse and Bruce Forsyth who knew how to ad lib.
Now the television commissioners seem intent on ramming square pegs into round holes. Kemp, a former EastEnders star, may be a passable soap actor and documentary frontman but when it comes to shepherding members of the public through the complicated format of the BBC’s Bridge of Lies game show, he’s as wooden as the bar of the Queen Vic and radiates the same amount of warmth as Grant Mitchell.
The roll call of comics turned successful gameshow hosts stretches back years, from Brucie and Monkhouse
But he is not alone.
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