Pop Quiz

Pop Quiz is a British television panel game show that originally aired on BBC1 from 4 July 1981 to 28 December 1984 with a Top of the Pops special on 4 January 1994 hosted by Mike Read. It was then revived from 21 May to 9 July 1994 on the same channel but this time hosted by Chris Tarrant. It was revived again on Red TV from 14 June to 30 August 2008 with Mike Read returning as host; he also hosted two specials on BBC Four in December 2016 and January 2017.

Format

The teams are made up of three pop stars with one acting as team captain, although no permanent team captains. Guests who have appeared as captains include Bev Bevan, Dave Edmunds, Robert Plant, Phil Lynott, Bob Geldof, Morrissey, Roger Taylor, Cliff Richard, Midge Ure, George Michael, John Taylor, Phil Collins, David Gilmour, Dave Gahan and Ian Gillan. Occasionally, non-musical or music-associated guests such as Paula Yates, John Peel, or the double act of Syd Little and Eddie Large also appeared as guests.

The Red TV version featured members of the public instead of celebrities.

Rounds

The show has both team and individual rounds. The individual rounds see each player given a song then asked a question about the song (like a guest player on the recording), asked to identify three different artists who sang the same song in the correct order, or asked to name a song where a certain lyric appears. Team rounds include a naming a list of number one hits by a group, a compilation of songs of a particular theme where the teams guess the artist, or identifying a mystery guest from a clip (as in A Question of Sport), along with identifying the song playing backwards over the clip. Each episode ended with a quick-fire round of music trivia questions.

Transmissions

Series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	4 July 1981	29 August 1981	8
2	3 April 1982	19 June 1982	11
3	9 April 1983	25 June 1983	11
4	26 May 1984	9 October 1984	12
5	21 May 1994	9 July 1994	8
6	14 June 2008	30 August 2008	12

Specials

Date	Entitle
29 December 1981	Christmas Special
28 December 1982	Christmas Special
24 December 1983	Christmas Special
24 December 1984	Christmas Special
28 December 1984	Duran Duran vs. Spandau Ballet
4 January 1994	Top of the Pops 30th Anniversary Special
15 December 2011	The Vintage Christmas Pop Quiz
28 December 2016	The Comeback (Part 1)
4 January 2017	The Comeback (Part 2)

Theme tune

The theme tune is called "The Saturn Stomp" and was composed by Howard Massey, it was released as a single in 1981. "The Saturn Stomp" was rerecorded for the fourth series, and rearranged by Marc Sylvan for the 2016 specials.