Rick Edwards presides over a studio where 30 contestants begin each series, though few survive more than a handful of episodes. The format is pitiless: every question has three potential answers, one of which is literally impossible, a category that never existed, a date that never happened, a measurement beyond physics. Pick that phantom and you're out immediately, your seat on the curved neon-lit set left empty for the next show.
Episodes run 45 minutes on BBC Two, stretched to an hour for the celebrity editions that began in 2018, and the mechanics stay identical throughout. Players bank money for correct answers, lose everything for choosing the impossible, and the last remaining contestant in each series faces a final question for the accumulated £10,000. Production company Mighty Films tapes at dock10 studios in Salford, using the same HQ1 space that houses BBC Breakfast, and keeps the set design deliberately sparse so the lighting rig can change colour each time someone is eliminated.
The show ran for eight regular series plus two celebrity runs between January 2017 and April 2021, producing 225 standard episodes and 12 star specials before the BBC quietly declined to recommission. Contestants have included taxi drivers, retired teachers and a surprising number of quiz-league veterans, all undone by answers like "a 31st of June" or "a Mozart symphony numbered 63". Edwards, whose hosting style mixes mock-solemnity with barely suppressed delight at each elimination, has since moved to Channel 4's daytime schedule.
Production Details
BBC Two / 8 Seasons / 230 Episodes / 2017 - Present
Main Cast
Rick Edwards as Host
