There’s a lot of anxiety around PopMaster TV – and rightly so. The radio version of the music quiz – hosted by BBC Radio 2 stalwart turned Greatest Hits newbie Ken Bruce – has been running for 25 years, gathering a legion of steadfast fans who will do anything to see its legacy protected. Will a TV show do the radio juggernaut justice? Or will the beloved quiz be bastardised into a silly, shiny-floor gameshow?
No need to panic. PopMaster TV is essentially a carbon copy of the radio quiz – a highly produced, beautifully lit, visual version of the show we already know and love. The no frills set, all soft pinks and oranges, is like stepping back in time; if someone told me this was a programme from the 80s, I’d believe them. Only the sharp picture and questions about Rita Ora would give the game away.
It’s not entirely the same, though. It runs at an hour including ads (a bit long if you ask me), there are new rounds to fill the time, and there are five contestants, not two.
But the DNA is identical, from Bruce’s gentle banter with the nervous contestants to the intimidating range of possible questions – to be successful at PopMaster is to know both Sandy Shaw and Maroon 5’s careers intimately. It’s a soft, soothing treat of a TV show: the optical version of easy-listening radio.
Television is chock full of flashy gameshows. Some are fantastic (The 1% Club), some are just about bearable (Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel, sorry) and others are abysmal (Jimmy Carr’s I Literally Just Told You, not sorry), but all are an assault on the senses.
The tension is always needlessly dialed up to 11 paired with an underlying sense of fakery, thanks to zealous over-production and bad editing. With its slow pace, friendly air of competition and Bruce’s laidback demeanour, PopMaster TV could not be more different.
It’s much closer to a musical version of Only Connect than it is to its closest cousin The Hit List, the BBC’s glossy musical gameshow hosted by married former popstars Rochelle Humes and Marvin Humes.
Perhaps what really sets the programme apart from its stablemates is the lower stakes. Just as with the radio version, there’s no cash up for grabs – while top earners on Greatest Hits take home a smart speaker and a year’s subscription to the premium tier of the station, here they take home a gold disc (or a silver if they can’t name the Three in Ten). Who needs a grand? For these musical brainiacs, the cachet of being named a PopMaster is just as good. It’ll probably fetch much more than that on eBay in a couple of years, anyway.
It is surprising that PopMaster has taken this long to make it TV (largely because it sounds as though the BBC wasn’t interested in investing in the format – a decision I’m sure bosses are delighted with now). It’s a simple, malleable format with a built-in audience who, as proven by the move away from Radio 2, will follow Ken Bruce anywhere. It really is a no-brainer.
It’s hard to launch a successful TV quiz and it seems that broadcasters have decided each new series needs to be bigger and flashier with more laser lights and a bigger prize than the last. PopMaster bucks the trend with delight, essentially bringing the magic of radio to television. Did it need to come to TV? Not really. But I’m glad it has.
PopMaster TV starts on Monday 26 June at 8pm on More 4.
