Big Fat Quiz of the Year

⭐⭐⭐ based on 1 review.

tl;dr: Whilst it's best days may be behind it, it's still one of the best annual Christmas specials on British TV.

2022

Spoilers Ahead: My reviews are not spoiler-free. You have been warned.

I'd say this was a pretty strong lineup, though as much as I enjoyed the "geek squad" of Richard Ayoade and Stephen Merchant, they didn't quite manage that magic of previous "outcast" teams. Still, there were no duds on the roster: Rose Matafeo and Katherine Ryan both had some fun moments; Jonathan Ross has clearly just evolved into the weird uncle of comedy, constantly coming out with the most banal and hard-to-predict anecdotes; and I'd say Maisie Adam slightly stole the show. Not only was she consistently funny (I mean, they all were) but she just brought a lovely energy to proceedings, and her fangirling moment over the Lionesses was brilliant television.

The guests this year weren't overly interesting, and whilst Jimmy Carr hosted it as well as ever, they didn't seem to try as hard with his own bits, nor did they manage to make it feel all that tense (probably in large part because Katherine and Maisie never really seemed to stand a chance 😅). The result was still very entertaining, and still had me laughing, but nothing too special.