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Pop Quiz Series 1
Pop Quiz Series 2
Pop Quiz Chris Tarrant
Pop Quiz Vintage TV
Pop Quiz The Comeback

About | Series 1 | Series 2 | Series 3 | Series 4 | Series 5 | Series 6 | Specials | History | Stats | Contact Us

At 6.15pm on Saturday, 4 July 1981, the BBC broadcast the first episode of Pop Quiz. It was hosted by Mike Read, who presented 48 episodes of the show on BBC1, between 1981 and 1994. These were made up of 42 regular episodes over 5 series, four Christmas specials, a Battle of the Bands special and a Top of the Pops 30th Anniversary special.

A revamped sixth series appeared in 1994, this time hosted by Chris Tarrant. It ran for just 8 episodes before disappearing from our screens. Mark Tinkler, archive consultant for the 1994 series, has kindly provided details of all the clips used and where they were sourced from, based on notes he made at the time.

Mike Read brought back Pop Quiz as part of his show on Red TV, a low-budget, short-lived, satellite-only channel. 12 episodes were shown between 14 June 2008 and 30 August 2008, featuring members of the public instead of pop stars (presumably because they didn't have to pay them!) The current archive status of this series is unknown. The shows have never been repeated and may only exist as off-air recordings, if at all!

A festive edition of Pop Quiz, once again presented by Mike Read, aired on another low-budget, satellite-only channel, Vintage TV. Entitled The Vintage Christmas Pop Quiz, it was shown many times over the Christmas 2011 period, and brought together six musicians who were popular between the 1960s and 1980s: Toyah Willcox, Geno Washington, Paul Young, Jay Aston, Nick Heyward and Dave Hill. Three of these stars appeared on the original shows in the 1980s and 1990s.

The last incarnation of Pop Quiz was on BBC Four with Christmas and New Year specials, hosted by Mike Read, and entitled Pop Quiz - The Comeback.

The header images at the top of this page use screencaps from 35 years of Pop Quiz. The first image is from the 1981 series. The second image appeared in Series 2-5, 1982-1984. The third image is from Series 6, 1994, the fourth was used for the 2011 Christmas Special and the final image was taken from the most recent edition.

Do you have any episodes of Pop Quiz from 2008 as shown on Red TV? If so, please get in touch...


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