Pointless Celebrities (BBC1, 2011-present)
One of my favourite game shows from the past decade has been Pointless, and it eventually became popular enough with viewers for there to be an inevitable spin-off celebrity series hosted by Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman. There have now been so many editions of this series it seems that just about everyone from every field of fame has had a go at facing the questions, but I wanted to focus on one particular edition.
If you are a regular visitor to this blog you might remember my story about when I went mildly giddy about the reformation of Bananarama. And having enjoyed a lot of 80s pop music and game shows, I wondered if the two things could be combined. I don’t mean Never Mind The Buzzcocks because that’s more of a comedy panel game, I mean a show where they were being asked proper quiz questions and playing for prizes. 
So I was very pleased when I remembered that Sara and Keren from Bananarama appeared as a team on a music-themed edition of Pointless Celebrities in November 2013 (which is before the reunion was announced). Their opponents were Ali Campbell and Mike Rutherford, Sandie Shaw and Sheila Ferguson, and Ritchie Neville and Scott Robinson from Five. How would they get on? 
The first round was about films that have a colon in their title. Sara and Keren both give correct answers that score 27 points and they progress through to the next round. Alexander did acknowledge that they had known one another since they were four years old and indeed they seem to be so close that they even gave answers that scored the same amount of points. Ali and Mike were eliminated. 
The second round was about female athletes who won a medal for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics. Again Sara and Keren both give correct answers to progress to the next round with a score of 55, but then there’s an odd moment which I think has only happened about three or four times in the entire run of Pointless. The opposing teams give so many incorrect answers that they actually have to abandon the question and they are asked about something different for the tiebreaker. Well Richard didn’t know where to look! Sandie and Sheila are eventually eliminated. 
We are now into the third round where it’s Sara and Keren against Ritchie and Scott in the best-of-three. The first question is about David Bowie singles and the ladies win this one by a comfortable margin of 4-70. Question two is about Dr Suess books, but they give a wrong answer here so it’s now one each. The third and deciding question is on Strictly Come Dancing which they win 3-73 so they are into the final! 
And of course as Sara and Keren have made the final they win the almost coveted Pointless trophy! Who needs a Brit Award when you’ve got this! Now they have won something for themselves, they’ll be playing for the star prize of £2,500 for charity. There are a choice of four categories and they choose France. Can they get the pointless answer at the crucial time? They decide to choose some African countries that have French as an official language. Will it go all the way? Their best-performing answer scores only one point, oh they were so close! Despite this disappointment it was still great seeing them take part. 
ADAM'S NOSTALGIC MEMORIES 