Was It Something I Said? Yes, It Was

To readers of this blog, it comes as no surprise that I am a fan of British panel shows in general, and comedian David Mitchell in particular. So imagine my delight when I found Channel 4's Was It Something I Said?, a panel show that is hosted by Mitchell, and if that wasn't enough, features the marvelous Richard Ayoade and Micky Flanagan as team captains.

The show follows a simple format: each week there are are two guest panelists who join Ayoade and Flanagan and a guest narrator who is responsible for reading the quotations. There are various rounds based on these quotations - the first round is called Threesomes, where the teams are given a quote and have to decide which of three famous people said it. This is followed by a round where teams are given two or three words from a famous quote and have to complete it to the best of their ability. Occasionally there's another round where teams are given a bizarre quote and have to figure out what the person was talking about. And before each commercial, Mitchell will pose a Fill in the Blanks quote that the teams try to complete after the break.

This is pretty standard fare and like all panel shows, what makes it stand out is the quality of the panelists and the guest narrator. Their banter can make or break the show, and the best guests often go off on complete tangents that have nothing to do with the quote whatsoever. This brings me to the final round, which in my opinion is the best one. Eponymously titled, Was It Something I Said?, this round features a quote said by someone on the opposing team, the guest narrator, David Mitchell, or some random celebrity. Naturally, determining the quote's origins becomes a matter of dissecting the various personalities on the show, often with hilarious results. In fact, this round most resembles my favorite panel show, Would I Lie To You? because it relies on the panelists' personal knowledge of the other people featured on the show. 

You can find episodes of Was It Something I Said? on 4 on Demand, or through some judicious YouTube searches if you live outside the UK. I particularly recommend Episode 5 with Charles Dance as guest narrator and Robert Webb as a panelist on Micky's team. The show just wrapped its first series and is still tinkering a bit with the format and a somewhat distracting attempt to engage a Twitter audience. But it's a promising start to what will hopefully become a long-lived series on the ever-expanding panel show line-up.