She, Max Fosh and others pilot new quiz ideas

Lucy Porter is to host a new history-based quiz on Radio 4.

Déjà News – one in a season of quiz-show pilots  – will use the BBC’s vast news archive to a test of contestants’ abilities to identify moments from broadcasting history. 

In the shows – airing on Sundays June 14 and 21 at 4.30pm – teams of listeners will hear clips from across the past 100 years and guess the stories and events behind them.

Porter said: ‘Déjà News combines two of my favourite things - quizzing and the treasures of the BBC archive. I’m really excited to meet the brilliant contestants, who are going to answer questions about the history of the last hundred years. I’ve lived through over half of those years, so I should be able to give them some hints.’

The show will be made by Jon Holmes’s production company Unusual, which is also behind The Skewer and The Naked Week .

In the following two Sundays, comedian and YouTuber Max Fosh will front a new maths-based quiz Your Number’s Up – made by the team behind QI. 

The BBC describes the show by saying: ‘Two teams of two players from around the UK are put through their number-crunching paces with a series of general knowledge questions, brain-teasers and calculation conundrums. 

Fosh said: ‘I have no maths skills whatsoever and I suspect that I’ve only been asked to host Your Number's Up because I wear glasses and people think I’m much smarter than I am. Regardless I am delighted to take part and give listeners a brilliant half-hour of quizzing!’

Also forming part of the season are Around the World in 80 Ways, a travel quiz fronted by Simon Reeve. Given a starting point and a final destination, our contestants must navigate their own path across the map. To move from one country to the next, they must earn a 'visa' by answering questions on everything from national anthems and local cakes to nature and global sport and politics.

The season will kick off with Bookmarks, a book quiz fronted by Clare Balding, also made by the QI team, promising to cover ‘all kinds of fiction and non-fiction titles – everything from Richard Osman to Stephen King, and Donna Tartt to Delia Smith’. That airs on May 31 and June 7.

And it will end on July 12 and 19 with Around The World In 80 Ways, a travel based quiz hosted by Simon Reeve and made by BBC Studios.

Given a starting point and a final destination, two teams must navigate their own path across the map. To move from one country to the next, they must earn a ‘visa’ by answering questions on everything from national anthems and local cakes to nature and global sport and politics.

Also for quiz-lovers, Paul Sinha’s Perfect Pub Quiz will return in July.

Julia McKenzie, commissioner for comedy and entertainment at  Radio 4, said: ‘Quizzes are one of the things Radio 4 does best and I know how much our listeners value them. 

‘I hope this new season of pilots will bring listeners even more of what they love by bringing fresh ideas, distinctive new formats and a brilliant line-up of presenters. 

‘By piloting a range of formats, we'll be adding to Radio 4's stellar slate of quizzes and seeing where this much-loved genre could go next.’

Published: 6 May 2026