There was the Zoom quiz, of course: a staple of the first lockdown during which many of us combined video-conferencing technology and general knowledge in order to stay both vaguely sane and in touch with our friends. But also, TV quiz shows seem to have colonised greater chunks of the schedules.

There is an obvious practical element to this: the quiz show is filmed in a controlled and contained environment and was, therefore, from a logistical point of view, easier to bring back under pandemic conditions than drama.

• Dealing with the anxiety of a global crisis: at a time when many of us have learned to doubt anything claiming to represent objective fact, there is a certain truth about quizzes: you are either right or wrong.
• The certainty of knowledge: Quizshows a...