Victoria Coren Mitchell: ‘I’m not at all aggressive, which surprises people’

Victoria Coren Mitchell was born and went to college in Hammersmith, west London. She is the young sister of the restaurant critic Giles Coren. Right after researching English at Oxford College, she became a writer, presenter and qualified poker player. She hosts BBC Two quiz Only Link and is competing in the recent collection of Channel 4’s Taskmaster. She is married to the comedian David Mitchell, with whom she has a six-calendar year-aged daughter.

Taskmaster is substantially a lot more demanding than your average panel display. What persuaded you to acquire component?
Do you imagine so? I wouldn’t say that at all. On most panel demonstrates, you have to feel of jokes. Here, you only have to do bodily factors, like make an omelette with yard resources or teach an oyster to communicate. Massively less complicated. I agreed to take portion simply because I like actively playing video games and it looked enjoyment.

You mentioned a single of the early tasks was “the most workout I’ve carried out since school”. Surely not?
I’m not a massive work out taker in a official feeling. I hope I’m fairly healthy simply because I run close to immediately after my daughter, but she’s fairly modest. She does not go that significantly. I can outrun her. And, unlike Alex Horne, she does not insist I concurrently throw balls at her towards the clock.

Are you desperate to get Taskmaster?
I’m not at all aggressive, which surprises people mainly because I enjoy superior-stakes poker. But that is a quite individual endeavour. I do not have a competitive soul in typical. I engage in all types of video games with mates and family members for the sheer pleasure of the point and I generally want other people to get so they truly feel happy and up for participating in once again. What I appreciate is actively playing. The factor I terribly want to gain at is poker.

Are there any other Television set contests you’d fancy using aspect in? You know, Celebrity MasterChef, Strictly Come Dancing, I’m a Celebrity…, that SAS one…
I do not consider any of these certain ones are for me. I’m a huge lover of Strictly as a viewer. This yr, we’re very nervously and proudly viewing Robert Webb in it, but he’s a excellent dancer. I’d be awful and not even in a enjoyable way. Folks would just pity me and glance away awkwardly.

Only Link defeat EastEnders in last week’s scores and routinely pulls in close to 3 million viewers. What is the secret of its achievements?
It is challenging for me to converse in straightforwardly optimistic phrases about nearly anything I’m included in. I battle with compliments. I want to say: “God is aware of! With its clumsy host, weird vibe and unattainable issues, I don’t know why anybody would view!” But I am very pleased of the fantastic persons who operate on it, by which I do not necessarily mean myself, and I consider there is a lesson in its shocking acceptance. Only Link is not obvious or mainstream its spirit is Welsh and clever and BBC 4. It is a bit weird, it does its personal factor and it’s under no circumstances consciously attempted to be popular. Viewers respond to that – they recognise when they are not staying patronised. We have confidence in our viewers and they have faith in us. Also, previous week Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp all went down and folks were being trapped for something to do.

It forms component of a quiz triple bill on Monday evenings, with Mastermind and College Challenge. Would you fancy internet hosting both of those some working day?
I don’t feel so. Those people are fairly really serious demonstrates with authoritative, grownup hosts. I adore Only Hook up deeply but also come across the trappings of a Television quiz inherently silly, which our contestants and viewers in no way intellect me creating very clear. If I hosted 1 of all those major beasts, I’d close up undermining them and upsetting the viewers.

You have a substantial fanbase from hosting Only Link. What’s the strangest factor a lover has ever carried out?
I did when have a postman who was a foot fetishist and he questioned if I would brain answering the door barefoot when there were being parcel deliveries. I reported good. It appeared harmless adequate.

Are you partial to a pub quiz? And do you have a common team name?
It is difficult for me to go to a standard pub quiz now for the reason that people assume me to know every thing and I cannot risk them discovering out the reality. I won’t go on Celeb Mastermind for considerably the identical purpose. Just about every yr, I do the brilliant Christmas pub quiz run by my buddies [comedy writers] Shaun Pye and Alan Connor, as part of a group that goes by the hideous identify of The Funnymen. It was a stupid joke title we took 20 several years back but I get terrified now that newcomers will assume we have selected it with some level of authentic self-description, specifically now my husband’s joined the workforce. It seems awful. And nonetheless we just cannot quite possibly transform it simply because, I never head telling you, that title is engraved on the cup. Various Moments In excess of.

You often joke about how you and David aren’t pretty tech-savvy. What was the past gadget you bought?
Does a saucepan rely as a gadget? I acquired a single of all those just lately. I was delighted. I’ve been working with the similar two scratchy aged saucepans for about 20 many years, just due to the fact they are not pretty much broken. It’s a truly liberating moment when you let on your own to improve.

You applied to evaluation hardcore porn for the Erotic Evaluate. Are you scarred for existence by the things you noticed?
No, this was pre-internet. It was almost nothing that dreadful. I savored it. I have almost never laughed as considerably. Surely not though staying simultaneously mildly aroused.

You ended up generating your very own porn film. What did you learn executing that?
That in some cases you must go away matters to the professionals.

Do you ever request your brother to advise a cafe?
Certainly and he can hardly ever consider of any. The difficulty with cafe critics is they know as well a great deal. You are greater off inquiring a standard particular person, who’s very likely to have picked out their 3 favorite eating places a very long time in the past and just goes to them all the time.

You are a single of the leading experienced poker gamers. Who’s the most effective well known human being you have played against?
It is dependent what you necessarily mean by “famous” and what you mean by “best”. Phil Ivey is one of the most well known gamers in professional poker and in all probability the very best I’ve played against, in conditions of ability and flair. Of the individuals I have played who are renowned for other things, Zac Goldsmith was likely the greatest at poker. But in terms of sitting down across the table and wondering “Wow” for other causes, that would be Steve Martin. Or possibly Roger De Courcey [ventriloquist of Nookie Bear fame]. You haven’t requested who was the worst but I’ll convey to you anyway. It was [darts player] Eric Bristow. And you can interpret that any way you like.

Do you position bets, as perfectly as taking part in poker? If so, what exercise is the most pleasurable to bet on?
Like any gambler, I’ll guess on anything at all. There is unquestionably no way to remedy the second little bit devoid of finding in difficulty.

What has getting a father or mother taught you?
That, owning earlier imagined myself to be a rather nervous human being, I did not have the initially concept.

What was the previous fantastic guide you go through?
I’m a weirdly slow reader. I’ve been reading Phil Wang’s e book Sidesplitter given that August. Luckily, he’s a terrific author. I have laughed out loud at least the moment on each web page.

What kept you sane through the lockdowns?
Luck, money and not shelling out substantially time on the world-wide-web. That’s legitimate when it is not lockdown as nicely.

Only Hook up in on at 8pm on Mondays on BBC Two Taskmaster at 9pm on Thursdays on Channel 4