"Hello, and welcome to Was it Something I Said! The panel show that celebrates the world of quotations. And you can quote me on that.” That’s how the host David Mitchell started one of the shows. And that is basically what it’s about; celebrities answering questions having to do with quotes from other famous people.
The show aired for one series of 8 episodes in 2011 on Channel 4. It featured two teams with two captains: Richard Ayoade and Micky Flanagan. The show also featured a different celebrity guest narrator for each episode - such as Brian Blessed, Charles Dance, and David Harewood, whose task was to read out the quotes and, of course, chime in on the banter. The contestants are brilliant as well. All these comedians are so very talented: Bob Mortimer, Miles Jupp, Jimmy Carr, Katherine Ryan, Rhod Gilbert, etc.
The programme was broadcast live and included a play-along second screen game based entirely on Twitter. Mitchell asked home viewers to complete a famous quote via Twitter, and the panel had to complete it after the end of the first round. That round, Threesome, had the panel guess which of three celebrities said a quote read out by the guest narrator. The same celebrity could have more than one quote. The next round is Key Words. Here, the contestants are given specific key words from a quote (with its author) and must complete the entire quotation. For example, the words "small" and "giant" would lead to Neil Armstrong’s quote on the Moon. Then, during the What Are They Talking About round, a quote is given out of context and the panelists have to find out the context of why the it was said. And finally, the last round (eponymous to the show’s title) is where teams have to determine if a quote was said by either of the opposing team members, David Mitchell, the guest narrator, or a random celebrity.
“Was it Something I Said?” had the advantage of being about popular culture from the lens of history and interesting trivia. Also, the cast was made up of some of BBC’s funniest and most educated personalities. David Mitchell must get a well-deserved second opportunity.
