I've spoken about this before of course – as you can read here.
We now need to add Pointless to the list. For those of you who haven't seen it, Pointless is a rather clever quiz show on BBC early evenings. As part of preparation for the quiz 100 people are given 100 seconds to come up with answers to a question. For example they might be asked to name as many authors as they can who have won The Booker Prize.
The contestants, to win the big prize, then have to answer the same question. In this instance they'd have to name an author who has actually won the Booker Prize, but whom none of the 100 people have named – i.e. a Pointless answer, (which in this case would likely be Keri Hulme).
Anyway, the big question yesterday was to name a “pointless” local BBC Radio Station (!) The contestants failed, unluckily as it happens, for their guess at BBC Channel Islands was pretty good considering the mere handful of “pointless” answers included both BBC Jersey and BBC Guernsey. Also “pointless” was a couple of other bedraggled islands lost in the mists of time, or off the coast of Scotland, consisting of three people and some sheep clinging to rocks. Plus Gloucestershire.
And, of course, Shropshire. Quite literally pointless!