Set to air this March, journalist and newsreader Michael Buerk presents Can I Improve My Memory? – a one-off special on Channel 4. This unique memory competition challenges three celebrities to learn hundreds of facts on a subject they know absolutely nothing about in just two weeks.
The aim of the competition is to encourage each celebrity to learn new memory techniques, which are taught to them by world memory Grandmaster Mark Channon, (who memorised more than 700 random numbers in the World Memory Championships).
With the competition unfolding in front of a live studio audience, fashion consultant and TV presenter Gok Wan is quizzed on all the elements and hundreds of facts relating to the Periodic Table. “My mind doesn’t ever hold any information whatsoever, just shoes and dresses!”
Veteran broadcaster and former Blue Peter host Valerie Singleton is immersing herself in one of the most exciting urban music scenes in Britain – UK grime, memorising facts about key artists, album tracks, song lyrics and a dictionary of slang terms. “We get to the stage when we’re older that when we begin to forget things, we start worrying.”
With history lessons not really being his forte back at school, reality star Joey Essex must answer questions on the life and times of William the Conqueror, including key dates and facts about The Doomsday Book and the Bayeux Tapestry. “I want to improve my memory because I want to prove to myself that I can remember something in this world!”
After putting their new memory techniques to the test, they are then faced with a final round of the classic memory challenge where they have to memorise 25 random objects. With only two minutes on the clock, how many will they be able to remember under such intense pressure? With the points added up from both rounds, who will have the most success putting their newly learned techniques into practice and be crowned the Can I Improve My Memory Champion?
Can I Improve My Memory? airs w/c 18th March (Week 12) on Channel 4
For more information or interview requests, please contact: Lucy Plosker at Avalon on 020 7598 7222 / [email protected]
Notes to Editors
Can I Improve My Memory? is produced by Avalon for Channel 4.
About Avalon
Avalon is a multi-award winning talent management, live promotion and television production group with offices in the UK and the USA. Avalon and ARG, the talent management arm has discovered and represents many artists which are household names, both in the UK, the USA, and around the world. In 2018 Avalon was again named the number one true independent television production company in the UK and has produced numerous ground-breaking television shows including: Emmy and Peabody award winner Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), multi-award winning and Emmy-nominated Catastrophe (Channel 4/Amazon Prime), RTS and Rose d’Or winning Not Going Out (the BBC’s longest running sitcom currently on air), BAFTA and RTS-nominated Taskmaster (DAVE/UKTV), multi-BAFTA award winning TV Burp (ITV1), Russell Howard’s Good News (BBC2), Fantasy Football League (BBC/ITV) and Workaholics (Comedy Central USA). Avalon and Topical Television form the television arm of the company and other shows recently in production include: Taskmaster USA (Comedy Central), Man Down (C4), Dave Gorman’s Modern Life is Goodish (Dave/UKTV), The Chris Ramsey Show (Comedy Central), and The Button (BBC One); whilst the catalogue is sold worldwide by Avalon Distribution. Avalon produced Newman and Baddiel: Live at Wembley, the UK’s first arena comedy show; Jerry Springer: The Opera, the first West End show to win all four UK ‘Best New Musical’ awards; and has continued to produce live shows globally, as well as promoting more winners and nominees of the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award than any other company. For Avalon news visit: www.avalon-entertainment.com or @avalonent.
