TV presenter Paddy McGuinness is replacing Sue Barker as host of game show A Question of Sport.
The star, also known for Top Gear and dating show Take Me Out, sees it as “an honour and opportunity I’m certainly not taking lightly”, to fill the hot seat.
The long-running programme, now in its 51st series, will also see two new team captains join. Rugby player Ugo Monye and hockey star Sam Quek are taking over the role from Phil Tufnell and Matt Dawson.
Barker has sat in the host’s chair since 1996, while Dawson and Tufnell joined the show in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
Big shoes to fill
McGuinness, 47, grew up watching the quiz with host David Vine, then David Coleman, but says former tennis player Barker is the one who really “made this show her own”. She is a true icon, and he hopes he is able to stamp his own mark on it too.
McGuinness is no stranger to the show, having appeared as a panellist on several occasions and featuring in a special programme last year to mark its 50th anniversary.
Quek, who won gold at the Olympics in 2016, is the first ever female team captain in the show’s long history. She says it is her dream job, as she has watched the programme since she was a little girl. Five years ago she fulfilled her ambition to appear on the show, and has now gone one step further. She never imagined that she would become a captain, and the first female in 50 years makes it even more special.
Former England wing Monye has also watched the show his “entire life, so to be named as a captain is truly humbling”, and an “incredible honour”.
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