PopMaster, the popular music trivia quiz hosted by DJ Ken Bruce for a quarter of a century, is being turned into a TV show.

Six hour-long episodes are being created for Channel 4 by 12 Yard Productions, the company behind BBC1’s Unbeatable and Channel 5’s Eggheads.

Bruce, 72, hosted the quiz on BBC Radio 2 for more than two decades before leaving the corporation last month.

However, he struck a deal to retain the rights to the quiz, which he co-created with radio producer Phil Swern who wrote the questions.

The TV series will air on More4, with a date for the series yet to be announced.

Bruce joined Bauer Media’s Greatest Hits Radio this month, having fronted his mid-morning Radio 2 show since 1992.

Testing contestants’ knowledge of music and artists from across the years, the quiz sees two players asked a series of 10 questions based on popular music from the 1950s to the present day.

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Questions cover a variety of genres of music and range from naming artists based on the titles of songs or clips of tracks, as well as identifying the year certain songs were hits.

After both players have answered 10 questions – with a total of 39 points up for grabs – the winner goes on to play three-in-10, in which they have 10 seconds to name three hits from one particular artist or group.

Promising to honour the format of the show, with “a few surprises thrown in”, episode winners will advance to a grand final, where one will be crowned overall champion.

‘I might have a face for TV after all’

Bruce said he is looking forward to “challenging music lovers from around the country… under the glare of studio lights and with the added pressure of television cameras”.

He added: “I can’t wait to get started – and find out whether I might have a face for TV after all!”

Channel 4’s head of features and daytime Jo Street said bringing PopMaster to the TV was her “mission in life”.

When Bruce announced in January he would be leaving the BBC after 45 years at the corporation, the presenter stressed it was his own choice, saying “some new opportunities have come up and I would like to continue my career in a slightly different way in the next few years”.

He now hosts a show from 10am to 1pm on Greatest Hits Radio, joining fellow ex-BBC presenters Simon Mayo at drivetime and Jackie Brambles in the early evening.

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Presenter Vernon Kay will replace Bruce as host of Radio 2’s mid-morning show in May, with a new quiz, Ten to the Top, taking the place of PopMaster.

The PopMaster TV show is not its first appearance outside of radio. In 2019 Bruce took the quiz on a UK tour of listeners’ workplaces, and co-creator Swern has written several books about it.

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