Life is "Pointless" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Teatime - 5:15 pm

"Pointless" was a tea-time quiz show that ran in competition with ITV's "The Chase" for many of its running years on BBC One. That may have been a particularly sore point when "The Chase" beat them to a National TV Award for Best Daytime Show in 2016.

A regular episode lasted for 45 minutes and was a fairly leisurely affair - ideal for people who've just come back from work or school and couldn't put 100% of their attention to the screen. According to a 2017 Radio Times interview, series would be filmed in blocks: four regular episodes would be filmed a day, four times a week.

Answer: Pointless Celebrities

This special edition of the program ran for an extra five minutes compared to the regular show, and most of that extra time was spent nattering with the celebrities about nothing in particular. As the name suggests, 'celebrity' was often pretty relative - think your Ann Widdecombes or Jedwards more than your Helena Bonham Carters or Brad Pitts.

Although some daytime episodes were commissioned, this version of the show found a home on Saturday evenings.

Answer: Richard Osman

As the story goes, Richard Osman was pitching the concept of the show to the BBC and stood in as the assistant presenter. He proved to be an instant hit and was offered the actual gig alongside Alexander Armstrong. He's hard to miss being 6ft 7 inches tall, and can probably be best described as being charmingly nerdy. He's also had presenting roles on "The One Show" (as a guest), "Child Genius" and "Richard Osman's House of Games".

Not to ruin the magic of the show or anything, but the laptop he has on his desk is only a prop - he gets his fun facts either through his earpiece or his brilliance. Osman once said on an episode of the Chris Evans Breakfast Show in 2016 that "I've never pretended it's on. I've done nearly 1,000 shows and I've never looked at it once - so I think I was giving clues all along."

Alexander Armstrong was the other original host, Bradley Walsh presented "The Chase" and Chris Tarrant was the main presenter of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?".

Answer: Samoa (Apia)

Members of the public were given 100 seconds to think of as many valid answers as possible to the open-ended questions used on the show. So, the answer with the lowest score needed to be correct but one that most members of the public wouldn't be as likely to think of. A pointless answer was extra desirable, but it was sometimes more strategically sound to go for an answer that would score low but which one knew for sure was correct.

Apia is the capital of Samoa, and should net a pretty low score in comparison to Athens in Greece which is extremely well known - the Oceanic countries usually netted very low scores on the actual show. "Pointless" considered the letter 'Y' to be a consonant, so Yerevan would be out for Armenia. East Timor is a good, obscure country, but its capital is Dili and the question is asking about the capital having the vowel and not the country - people on the show have sometimes made this mistake!

Answer: The team would be locked into the first valid answer posed

This one's tripped a few people up over the years. Unless you were the last contestant to answer in any given round, the first word or phrase you say that could be classed as a valid answer to the question would have been taken as your answer. Without that rule in place, there could be a risk of collusion between teams. Whilst there's usually a bit of fluffy dialogue with Armstrong before answering the question, it was better for contestants to share their answer only when they were sure about it.

Whilst New Zealand would be incorrect - some people mistakenly identify Auckland as the capital - Norway would be valid with Oslo as an answer.

Answer: 2

In the elimination rounds, each member of the team answered one question each. If contestants got a question completely wrong, they got 100 points, so it would take just two incorrect questions for their team to join the exclusive 200 club.

What happens if two teams got 200 points each, you ask? The show entered a tie-breaker phase, where the teams were able to confer to answer another question each. In at least one instance, the teams actually both got 100 points again - totaling 300 - and had to answer a fourth question. At least they can say they did something most contestants never could.

Answer: Yes

From the third series on, a best-of-three format was adopted where the team with the lowest score in the elimination rounds would get to go first. Normally, there were five answer choices either to identify themed pictures, songs from clips, or facts about specific topics. The ability to confer in the head-to-head rounds stood in contrast to the elimination rounds which gave everyone a chance to answer exactly one question each.

Of course, as with the tie-breaker situation, if neither team could give a scoring answer there could be a fourth or fifth question to answer. This happened rarely, since there was usually at least one easier answer to play for.

Answer: £250

Well, £1 would be a little stingy even for the BBC! Every episode, £1000 would be added to the jackpot, which would be rolled over if the contestants failed to win. Each pointless answer outside the final would add £250 to the jackpot, so it was still important to win the overall game to reap the benefits of pointless answers.

In reference to the show's 1000th episode where Armstrong and Osman swapped roles, Osman admitted that the show was one of the cheapest he'd ever worked on - 'run on a shoestring' - and that there simply wasn't any more money available for anything flashier. The tight budget is likely why the jackpot bonus for a pointless answer feels a little... well, pointless.

Answer: Find a pointless answer from open-ended categories

The categories could be quite wide-ranging, from "1990s Music" to "Iron" to "England Footballers" to "Hosts of 'An Audience With...'". By the ninth series, contestants had to pick answers relating to three subcategories, making sure to state which subcategory their answer belonged with. To build suspense, the contestants would usually receive the results from their least confident answers first. Alas, getting multiple pointless answers in the final round didn't result in any extra additions to the jackpot - the money just wasn't there for that.

The other options relate to the rather more physical "Gladiators", prisoner's dilemma inspired "Golden Balls" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" again.

Answer: No

Many people have had a life ambition to obtain the coveted "Pointless" trophy, and have been prepared to fight their partner to the death for it. Great news - each finalist got one each whether they won or lost in the final. According to the Express newspaper, the trophy was glass with dimensions of 12cm high, 5.5cm wide and 5.5cm deep. I know you were all dying to know that.

Unfortunately, whilst each team on a regular show would usually get to play in two episodes, reaching the final waived that for a first-timer. Bad luck for us.