Rachael Davis hears from Claudia Winkleman about the return of One Question, including her secret quiz strategy and must-have backstage snacks.
Claudia Winkleman is a busy woman. From Strictly Come Dancing to The Traitors, The Piano to quiz show One Question, the 53-year-old BAFTA-winning presenter has her fingers in a lot of pies – and she shan’t be baking any more.
“I’m not doing anything else,” says the prolific presenter.
“I’ve been more than lucky and I think that’s enough. I do believe – and I’m going to sound like my kids – in gratitude. I’m incredibly grateful.
“I love Strictly, I love The Traitors, I love The Piano, I love One Question, and you won’t see me doing anything else.”
It’s a wise decision, considering the incredible success of every venture she’s involved in. Strictly just celebrated its 20th anniversary, The Traitors is going from strength to strength, and The Piano is BAFTA-nominated and looking forward to another series.
Plus, the deceivingly simple quiz game One Question is now returning, and we’re soon to see Winkleman swap the Traitors castle for the sleek gameshow studio.
“I love One Question, it holds a special place in my heart because of the simplicity of it,” says Winkleman.
“When they asked me to do it, they were like: ‘It’s just one question and one answer,’ so I was in. It’s all I needed to know.
“There aren’t flashing lights, there isn’t a glitter cannon, there isn’t complicated decision making. I’m going to give you one question and you just have to find me the answer. I love that.”
As the name suggests, contestants on the show are asked just one question, the correct answer to which will send them home with an incredible £100,000. However, this question is no starter for ten, and while the quizzers are given 16 possible answers, only one is correct. Can they sniff out the right answer and win the jackpot, or will they be sent home empty-handed?
“There might only be one question, but it isn’t an easy question,” Winkleman says.
“Some are easier than others, depending on what might be your specialist subjects, but they are hard questions.
“No spoilers, but someone just went out on a question everyone else in the room knew the answer to! It’s difficult. You either know it or you don’t.”
As such, there isn’t really a strategy to playing One Question – all that stands between the duo of contestants on Winkleman’s sofa and the £100,000 prize is cold, hard general knowledge.
If she were to put herself in the hot seat, Winkleman says her plan of action would simply be to “bring someone really clever to play with me… Probably my husband, or my mum or my dad”.
“I think they know more about the way they think they’re going to play it, but it doesn’t always work out the way they expect it to,” she adds of the contestants.
“The number of people who have said to me backstage: ‘We’re just going to go for it. We came here with nothing, we want to win 100 grand, we’re not taking any of the offers, just watch us…’ But then they get into the studio and they’re so cautious.
“So it’s very easy to say what you’re going to do and have a game plan, but actually doing it is entirely different.”
“Contestants don’t find it easy because this is something you really want to play at home, but when you’re sitting there on the sofa in the studio and not at home and the lights are on, you do second guess yourself,” she adds.
Because the game is so difficult, and Winkleman wants her contestants to win so badly, she isn’t allowed to see the questions or answers until she’s in the studio.
“I really want to help them… That’s why they don’t give me the questions, and certainly not the answers, before we’re in the studio,” she reveals.
“No one trusts me! When we did one of the run-throughs and I knew the answer, the bosses were like: ‘Stop winking and making strange noises’!”
Luckily, the newly-implemented studio audience are on their best behaviour, too.
“It’s so lovely to have an audience in the studio, but I’m so nervous that one of them is going to say something and give away an answer,” Winkleman says.
“I’m like: ‘Guys, do not even blink’, and they’re very good. There are no coughs!”
Despite its difficulty, there is, delightfully, a big win in this series – so big that it made Winkleman forget about her signature smokey eye and have a little weep.
“There is a big win, and obviously I can’t give you any details, but I did cry!” she says.
“I don’t really cry because I’m over 50, wearing too much fake tan and too much eyeliner, but it was a proper moment.
“It was a proper moment for everyone in the studio, and that’s when you know it’s good.”
Of course, hosting a quiz show means that Winkleman needs some brain food backstage. However, those who have listened to her episode of the Off Menu podcast, hosted by comedians James Acaster and The Traitors: Uncloaked’s Ed Gamble, will know that she has very particular preferences when it comes to food – and, indeed, water…
“It’s always going to (be) a beef Hula Hoop and Ribena,” says Winkleman, definitively, of her backstage snacks.
“We do have some Butterkist popcorn which is new. I don’t want a posher snack, this is all I need.”
One Question returns to Channel 4 on Friday, February 14 at 8pm.
