Steve Wright's Quiz of the Year
Synopsis
The Radio Times tells us:
- Steve Wright left his drivetime Radio 2 show this year, but he hasn’t left the network completely. There’s still Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs, and here he'll be having quiz fun in the company of fellow Radio 2 presenters Zoe Ball, Jeremy Vine, James King, Ken Bruce and Jo Whiley, plus comedians Romesh Ranganathan, Kate Robbins and Tom Allen.
The Radio Times neglected to point out that it's a quiz based on music and entertainment in the year 2022, and not any other year Steve Wright might have broadcast in.
It turned out to be a meringue of a programme, light and airy and sweet and very well constructed. Lunchtime on Boxing Day means people are dipping in and out, so there's no room for a complex format. Just give us familiar voices, gentle brainteasers, a chat about what the panel have done this year and are planning for the new year.
The quiz was a peg around which to structure the discussion, the show could have worked without rounds like "Who's Zoe interviewing?" or "What the blazes is Jeremy Vine talking about?". Around the questions were Radio 2's hits of the year, proof that the Light Programme still plays a lot of contemporary music.
Some argued that Steve Wright's style never moved on from 1980. Others say that he moved with the times. This show proved both right: it worked as radio in 2022, and it was fine for people who still miss John Dunn.
