New series of I Literally Just Told You with Jimmy Carr

A big call from the 51-year-old comedian who has made a name for himself as not only a hugely popular stand-up, but also as the host of Channel 4 shows 8 Out of 10 Cats and …Does Countdown, The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, Distraction and Your Face or Mine?

So no wonder Jimmy was keen to return with another run of the game show with a unique twist.

In case you have missed the I Literally Just Told You so far, here is the premise:

to win up to £25,000, contestants have to answer questions that have been written live as the show is being filmed.

These questions can be about absolutely anything that happens during the programme, from celebrity cameos to a comment from resident expert question writers, or even a joke from the host himself.

Four players are whittled down to two before the nerve-wracking final showdown, where the pair go head-to-head answering questions that they’ve chosen for their opponents about what’s just happened in the show.

The answers are all there; can anyone remember them?

“The show has an enormous play-at-home factor which most game shows don’t have,” Jimmy adds.

“Most game shows are binary, you either know the answer or you don’t. All you have to know for this show is what’s just happened, you just have to pay attention, and you can get the whole thing.

“We had real fun with the fact that anything could happen – 15-second celebrity cameos, false ad breaks, you can really mess with people’s minds.

“It felt really exciting as a premise for a show.”

Following the Christmas celebrity special in which AJ Odudu, Ben Shephard, Bill Bailey and Sarah Millican played for their chosen charities, tonight’s edition sees regular members of the public taking up the challenge again.

But does Jimmy think he’d be any good at the game himself?

“I’m used to being on stage and having to remember someone’s name from 15 minutes ago so I can do a call-back to that guy on stage so my memory’s not bad,” he says.

“If you’re a one-liner guy, and I’m a one-liner guy, you need to remember 300 jokes in a row every night, so you work that muscle a lot.

“Random things happen – we’ll show them a film and I’ll say ‘Dave, roll VT’ and then the question ends up being ‘what was the name of the VT operator?’

“It’s tangential, weird, wonderful stuff – we messed around a lot.

“It feels like a really fair, level playing field for everyone playing the game.”

But despite claiming he’d be decent at the game himself, Jimmy does admit that he’s prone to the odd lapse of concentration.

“Well I lost a pair of sunglasses when I was 14,” he says. “That’s the last thing I lost. Oh and hang on, I did forget to pay my taxes for a while.”

That definitely wasn’t the best thing he’s ever done.