MONEY TRAP

DAVINA MCCALL TELLS US WHAT SHE LOVES ABOUT BEING A QUIZ SHOW HOST…

It’s only been back on for a fortnight and already our nails are chewed right down to the quick thanks to the tension caused by watching just a few minutes of The £100k Drop. It’s clear that the slightly smaller prize fund hasn’t affected the show’s appeal with its viewers now that the second series is well underway – though when we chatted to host Davina Mccall, she admitted she had been worried about that…

How are you finding being back for a second series?

Television is so competitive nowadays, so to do well enough to get a second series was really lovely. And I was worried the first time we did it, thinking, ‘Oh, £100k from £1 million… Is it still going to be as good? Is it still going to be as exciting?’ But when you think about it, the bundles are £2,500 – that’s still so much money, and we were really pleased to see that all the tension was there.

Do you ever get given the answers in advance?

I’m completely in the dark, because my poker face is absolutely pants! I don’t ever want to be in a situation where I feel like I might be leading people towards something or giving anything away. And I’ve found that sometimes I believe I know the answer but I don’t, so I’ll be thinking, ‘Oh, no, they’ve put their money on the wrong answer, this is terrible!’, and they’re actually right!

Is diversity of work important to you? You do this,

Long Lost Family, This Time Next Year, and they’re all very different shows… Yes – I was really excited to be asked to do The Million Pound Drop originally because

it was something I hadn’t done before, and I thought I’d never get the opportunity to do a quiz. What I like about it is it’s so formulaic that once you know how to do it, it’s just fun. You don’t need a script – you can just turn up and make everybody else feel comfortable because you’ve done it so many times before!