Jimmy Carr on hosting ‘mad’ new game show I Literally Just Told You

Virgin Radio

14 Dec 2021, 12:27

Comedian Jimmy Carr joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about presenting a ‘crazy’ new comedy quiz show, how it was inspired by scientist Brian Cox, and how some of the contestants give terrible answers! 

I Literally Just Told You, which begins this Thursday (16th December), sees four contestants battling it out for a chance to win up to £25,000. Jimmy explained: “The idea of the show is... I literally just told you. I give you all the answers to all the questions before I ask any of them. We just bombard people with information, and it’s kind of a memory test. It’s got this lovely play-at-home factor.”

He added: “It’s mad, and it also falls to pieces fully on episode two! Basically, we get four contestants on that break the format! It sort of implodes in upon itself. It’s the most fun thing I think I’ve ever done.”

The six-part series is created by former Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon, who came up with the idea after attending a lecture by physicist Brian Cox. Jimmy told Chris: “He said he went to see Brian Cox speak. He was just so enamoured with him, and he was watching him on stage, and then he became aware, ‘I’m forgetting this stuff instantly. I’m really enjoying it, but I’m forgetting the science. It’s going in, I’m enjoying it, it’s going out the other ear. It’s like quicksilver in my hands.’ And then he went, ‘I think there might be a show in that.’

“He pitched it to me and I thought, ‘Is that the worst idea I’ve ever heard, or the best?’ but it was a real knife-edge of going, ‘Well, this could go either way. I’d like to be involved regardless.’”

Questions are written live as the show is being filmed. Jimmy said: “The reason sport does so well on TV is because it’s happening live and it’s not the usual narrative, so you’re really not sure what’s going to happen. And with this it feels like kind of a sport. It feels like something crazy could happen at any moment here.”

The comedian-turned-host told Chris that sometimes contestants get the answers very wrong. “If someone makes a stupid guess I’m very open, very open, late-night-Channel-4 open, about going, ‘Well that’s the worst guess there’s ever been!’” he said. 

He added: “There’s a couple of moments in the show where I feel like, even if this gets cancelled, the £200 from TV’s Weirdest Moments is in the bag, because some of the answers were so crazy.”

As well as the regular series of this new quiz format, there will also be a Celebrity I Literally Just Told You on Thursday 30th December, with Lorraine Kelly, Aisling Bea, Asim Chaudhry and Alex Horne, all competing for a charity star prize of £25,000.

Jimmy’s autobiography, Before & Laughter: A Life Changing Book came out this year, and he is currently touring his Terribly Funny stand-up show. He told Chris that he has had a difficult time explaining to his friends that he has also been working on this new quiz show. “Friends will say, ‘Oh what have you been working on?’ And I’ll say, ‘I Literally Just Told You’, and they go, ‘Oh. Little bit rude!’”

I Literally Just Told You begins this Thursday 16th December on Channel 4 at 10pm.

Jimmy’s book: Before & Laughter is out now. For tickets to the Terribly Funny tour, visit jimmycarr.com.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.