We Need Answers

Tim Key didn't lose last weeks No More Women

Just so we know where we are, this blog is being written by me (Tim Key). I am a 33-year-old male.

No More Women for T4's Rick Edwards

So, after four tense head-to-heads between Mark Watson (losing) and Tim Key (winning), we thought it was time to take No More Women to the next level with what can only be described as 'An Exhibition Match'...

No More Women - Perfect Christmas Day Entertainment

Mum and Dad are bickering, your little brother's whinging and Uncle Errol has already set light to the cat. And its only 2:30! After the turkey's been eaten, what better way to top off Christmas Day but to play a light round of No More Women?!

We Need Answers Review

In spite of its faults, We Need Answers does sporadically spark to suggest this could be nurtured into a real gem.

We Need Answers is brilliant in its modest splendour

We Need Answers has gone largely unnoticed but it is a whimsical, gleeful delight - and the best comedy quiz since Shooting Stars.

Tim Key on We Need Answers' No More Women game

Tim Key on the We Need Answers game No More Women, and the distraction and cheating techniques he used to beat Mark Watson.

We Need Answers is now in its second series. This is an excruciatingly student-y comedy quiz hosted by Mark Watson, Tim Key and Alex Horne, which was transferred to television after proving a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe. Two celebrities (in this week's case, Vanessa Feltz and The Inbetweeners' Simon Bird) are quizzed on themed questions originally sent by members of the public to the text message answering service. Watson is the host and link to the audience, Key is the quizmaster (who is spat out into the studio on a railed leather armchair through a concealed door), and Horne provides supportive music cues, sound effects, action-replays, and homespun graphics from a laptop.

It's incredibly cheap, very silly, and not particularly funny. I suspect that by crossing over into my 30s, this kind of comedy has stopped looking hilariously anarchic and intellectual-but-daft, to just become annoying and puerile. That said, the trio behind it are aged 29-33, so maybe it's just me who's stonily bored by Shooting Stars-esque absurdity, particularly when it's in the guise of a cheapo '70s series. We Need Answers ran at the Fringe for two successful years, but I'm guessing it helps if you're a half-drunk festivalgoer attending the show in a live format. On television, it's another matter. There's a distance that Watson, Key and Horne can't bridge.

Anyone looking for a glimpse into the post-credit crunch TV future needed only to tune in to We Need Answers, surely the cheapest TV show ever made. Inside what looked like a shoebox constructed out of orange and white cardboard, three blokes in cheap suits waved their arms about and shouted a lot. Yet even though it was done on a budget of £1.50, it was still way more funny than a typical 20 minutes of I'm A Celebrity.

We Need Answers doesn't really have a format, other than a mild crib off Family Fortunes. It just lures two (very cheap) celebs - first up Martin Offiah and Radio 4's Jenni Murray - and pokes mild fun at them. That it climaxed with Murray bellowing: 'Both my parents are Nigerian!' into a microphone to see how loud she could shout (105.4 decibels, since you ask) tells you all you need to know. It's fitfully funny, in an 'it's either this or trim my toenails' kind of way.

Series two of the show that's like a comedy quiz as seen in a cheese dream. On a blinding set dominated by a glaring, lo-fi computer screen, two celebrity contestants are faced with questions that have been sent to text-message answer services. Tonight: Martin Offiah v Jenni Murray. The random goofing is indebted to Shooting Stars and can feel indulgent and exclusive, although you can't argue with the hilarity of Murray being made to shout "Both my parents are Nigerians!" into a decibel-meter. Tilting his head strangely backwards, Mark Watson hosts.