Test the Nation

Revision as of 20:52, 7 June 2006

Host

Anne Robinson and Phillip Schofield

Co-hosts

Announcer: Peter Dickson

Broadcast

Talent TV for BBC1, 2002-5

Synopsis

The ultimate in playalong quizzes: a national test, no less, in which absolutely everybody can take part, by interactive TV, t'interweb, SMS text messaging or - crucially - just with a pencil and paper. Nothing too complicated, just 70 multiple choice questions over the course of about an hour and a half, a break for news, then a second programme going through all the answers. It's a brilliantly simple idea, and it works.

One of the reasons it works is that it's presented with some pizzazz. Anne Robinson's "queen of mean" persona on The Weakest Link was never all that convincing, and with Test the Nation it's completely demolished. Here, she gets to be herself, and she's got just the right mix of cheeriness and authority. You could imagine her at the helm of your local pub quiz, which is appropriate since this is basically a pub quiz on a very big scale. Also in the studio are around a dozen celebrities and about 250 members of the public, divided into six groups according to trade, hobby, hair colour or any other attribute that seems like a good idea. The rivalry between these groups adds to the fun. Phillip Schofield runs around a lot, talking to the members of the public and getting ridiculously excited about everything that happens in the studio. Just how much Pip 'n' Anne add to the proceedings is clear when you compare TTN to ITV's series of Great British Tests, which is basically the same format, but drained of the all-important fun factor. The original is still far and away the best.

One of the really clever things about this format is that they chose to launch it with a National IQ Test. The debate over whether or not IQ actually measures anything worth measuring rumbles on, but quite honestly, who cared? The important thing is that it was a test everyone could have a go at, and ensured that the first show was a talking point, with people in schools, offices, shops and (probably) brothels up and down the country all asking each other on Monday morning, "Did you do it? What did you get?". The test was put together by Dr Colin Cooper, a mild-mannered psychologist from Queen's University, who became the latest in a long line of academics to become an apparently unlikely household name. What's more, unlike certain psychologists we could name, he seemed completely uninterested in self-promotion, which just endeared him to the nation even more.

Of course, we've got used to TTN now, and it isn't quite the "event television" that it once was. But it's still a fun way of spending an evening, and so long as they don't do it too often - the current rate of four a year is quite enough - it should remain viable for some time to come.

Episode list

11 May 2002	The National IQ Test
23 December 2002	The National 2002 Test
22 March 2003	The National Relationship Test
4 May 2003	The National IQ Test 2003
6 September 2003	The National Quiz
22 December 2003	The 2003 Test
20 March 2004	The Great British Test
22 May 2004	The IQ Test 2004
2 September 2004	The Popular Music Test
19 December 2004	The 2004 Test
12 March 2005	The Big Entertainment Test
4 June 2005	The 20th Century Test
8 October 2005	Know Your English Test
18 December 2005	The 2005 Test
29 May 2006	Know Your Planet Test
September 2006	The National IQ Test 2006

Key moments

When the results are revealed at the end of the answers show. There's never any statistically significant differences across the country, but somehow Phillip still manages to get unfeasibly excited about a one-point difference between average scores in, say, Belfast and Southampton. More like a thousandth of a point that trips the computer into rounding up rather than down, we're saying.

Catchphrases

None as such, but much use of this formula:

"Is the top scorer among the butchers?" (butchers cheer) "No! Are they among the bakers?" (bakers cheer even louder) "No!" ...repeat for every group in the studio.