Pitch-perfect Popmaster triumphs in the battle of the Monday quizzes as CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews the best TV game shows

Only Connect/University Challenge/Popmaster

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D@^&!! and £**$%!! More than 90 per cent of British homes now resound to swearing, profanity and foul language, according to Victoria Coren Mitchell.

Citing a recent poll, the Only Connect host claimed that almost all of us are prone to let loose a stream of invective behind closed doors – and nearly a third felt comfortable with four-letter words at work.

Meanwhile, 87 per cent of us will swear in public if we're in pain. That's easy to believe: it's a long time since I heard anyone mutter, 'Bless my soul!' through gritted teeth.

But I was surprised to learn that four per cent of respondents said it was fine to curse in church. Let's hope all four-in-100 weren't Church of England clergy. You wouldn't want a wedding service to commence with my opening words, D@^&!! and £**$%!! ... 'Damn and blast!'

Only Connect (BBC2), a quiz that Victoria calls 'more agonising than biting a piece of tinfoil', is a rich source of trivia, the only gameshow I can enjoy despite being unable to answer any of the questions. 

University Challenge, which follows, is a more serious business, a contest that most of us play by our own personal rules. I don't expect to outscore any of the teams, or get a single question right in the rounds based on maths, physics or medicine.

But it's galling if I can't come up with at least a couple of general knowledge answers that leave the students baffled. 

This time, to my immense satisfaction, I knew all three books with 'Death' in the title: true, one was an Agatha Christie, and another was by PD James, but the team from St Andrews in Edinburgh was completely stumped. Victory is mine!

Amol Rajan, who made a hesitant beginning in 2023, has settled into the questionmaster's chair, with just the right amount of caustic contempt for the wild guesses and genuine sympathy for the near misses, punctuated by the occasional scathing chuckle.

But in the grand contest of Monday night quiz wranglers, there can only be one champion, and that is Ken Bruce with the pitch-perfect Popmaster (More4).

Ken, who honed the format over thousands of mornings on Radio 2, dubs his show 'the nation's favourite music quiz' and now presents it daily at 10.30am on Greatest Hits Radio.

The TV version has the same brisk pace, with the added pleasure of watching the contestants enjoying both the music and the opportunity to test their knowledge.

A perfect balance of obscurities and classics means no one can fail to score something, nor manage to get everything right. The points-scoring system is neatly constructed, ensuring that the lead keeps changing hands.

I was smug to recognise Kate Bush's Rubberband Girl from just a couple of bars, when none of the players knew it. But I'd never heard of Cilla Black's 1969 release Surround Yourself With Sorrow. Points dropped there... D@^&!! and £**$%!!