Rumoured to be the reason why Mark left the show (apparently he felt that the show was getting stale). Shortly thereafter he quietly exiled himself away from showbiz, seemingly having no interest in being in the limelight nowadays.
Similarly, Sean left the show because he, in Mark's words: "retired from pop quizzes and from public life". He spent much of the 2000s doing small acting gigs (including a stint on Coronation Street and a recurring role on The Last Detective) before returning to stand-up comedy, his last shows being mainly centred around his multiple creator breakdowns and still mostly shunning the whole showbiz circuit. He commented in one interview that he hoped he wouldn't be remembered for Buzzcocks but for his earlier work on his sitcom Sean's Show. Years of alcohol abuse sadly caught up to him and he died in 2017, aged just 51.
The Cast Showoff: While this was before he became team captain, one Christmas special had Bill play the song intros on guitar with Rick Wakeman for the Intros Round. And it was both awesome and hilarious.
Channel Hop: Was on BBC Two between its creation in 1996 and its cancellation in 2015. When it was revived in 2021, it was shown on Sky Max.
In the series 2 episode 1 edition of the Connections round, Sean's team are asked to guess the link between Def Leppard and 80's indie band The Wedding Present. Sean quips that "one of them’s from Sheffield (Def Leppard), one’s from Leeds (The Wedding Present) so the connection would be the M62". The motorway that connects the two Yorkshire cities is actually the M1, not the M62.
In series 4 episode 4, Mark makes a declaration to beat up every member of pop band Aqua with a lead pipe, saying "I'll find you if I have to knock on every door in Stockholm fresh from the plumber's merchants". Aqua are actually from Denmark, not Sweden.
The following episode, one of the songs in the Indecipherable Lyrics round was "Promised You A Miracle" by Simple Minds. The supposedly "correct" answer Mark recites is actually incorrectnote Mark claimed one of the lines was "only love sea, sees he controls on love", whereas the actual lyric is "one love she sees, he controls on love". (it wouldn't have affected the scores, but it's still a fail on behalf of the researchers).
Sean's old Channel 4 sitcom Sean's Show, which Mark claimed they doubled the viewing figures of every time they showed a clip to everyone on both teams.
Also Phill's involvement with Red Wedge (see Springtime for Hitler on the main page).
When Vic Reeves was on, Mark tormented him (in revenge for constantly being referred to as a "Fifties Throwback" on Shooting Stars) by repeatedly playing the opening bars of a bizarre song apparently entitled "Bo, Fantasia!" that Vic recorded in his youth.
Marc Maron isn't a fan of the American remake that he hosted. When asked if the show will ever be rereleased, he replied "God, I hope not."
Fake Irish: About a third of the jokes aimed at Sean implied this, as he was actually born in London (albeit grew up in Ireland and had Irish parents).
Hostility on the Set: According to Sean in a 2013 interview, former Public Image Ltd. bassist Jah Wobble slapped him in the face in the green room before filming began for that week's episode (series 4 episode 5). As Wobble was on his team, Sean was on edge through the whole recording, so when you see him mouth to the cameras "help me!" during the Intros round, that's genuine fear.
In Memoriam: When Athelston passed away in the late 2000's, a photo of him flashed up in tribute at the end of the following episode.
Don't expect the episode featuring Ian Watkins to be shown again any time soon.
The episode with Russell Brand as team captain was pulled on account of his involvement in the prank phone calls to Andrew Sachs row. It finally aired in early 2011.
Catherine Tate joked about not knowing much about music but agreeing to host the show because her kitchen extension wouldn't pay for itself.
Frankie Boyle made it clear he was hosting the show for this reason.
When I was asked to host this show, I was delighted. I've always hated this programme, but I have a book to sell and a mistress in London.
As part of an overall pattern of self-deprecation while hosting, James Blunt asked where the world would be without his hit song "You're Beautiful," and then followed it up by saying that he'd be living in a "much much much smaller house."
While guest hosting, Josh Groban claimed that he made a guest appearance on Glee for artistic reasons: "I made a statue — out of cash."
Schedule Slip: The two episodes aired in January 2000 were originally intended to be the start of the seventh series, however the series was cut short, allegedly due to Mark suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome and needing time off to recuperate. The two episodes in question have since been retroactively classed as being part of series six, and the official seventh series started production later that year.
Series 19, episode 3, the one featuring Bill Oddie being "utterly mental", is comedy gold. The other member of Bill Bailey's team in this particular episode was Tony Mortimer of East 17, but during his introduction, Simon casually mentions that Mortimer is only there because Amy Winehouse cancelled. Winehouse appeared the following week and was "a bit tipsy", as Simon put it. Can you imagine what an episode with Winehouse and Oddie on the same team would have been like?
In the unaired pilot, comedian Keith Allen was a team captain opposite Sean. Phill was brought in later, and Allen would later appear on the show as a panellist.
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