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Outlook: A quizmaster’s accidental route to fame

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Jay Flynn sits on a bench and smiles at the camera

06/01/2022 GMT

A quizmaster’s accidental route to fame

BBC World Service - Outlook, A quizmaster’s accidental route to fame

How quizmaster Jay Flynn started the UK's most in-demand pub quiz by accident

Jay Flynn once slept on a bench on the streets of London, now he hosts quizzes for thousands.

Jay Flynn worked in a pub and loved hosting pub quizzes every week. When pubs were ordered to close at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK, he started his own virtual pub quiz for family and friends but he forgot to make it private and in the end, thousands of strangers across the country played along too, and have been ever since. He’s been credited with helping people’s mental health through the pandemic. Jay spent time living on the streets in London and went through his own mental health crisis. He spoke to Andrea Kennedy. Their conversation touches on the moments he contemplated suicide.

If you are affected by issues raised in this programme there is confidential support on the BBC Action line website, or at Befrienders.org
Kamini Zantoko is a successful writer and musician, much of his work is inspired by his experience of growing up as part of the only black family in a rural French village in the 1980s. From childhood Kamini and his family faced prejudice. His father was the local doctor and treated the villagers for decades. When he died thousands turned out for his funeral. Kamini turned his family's story into an acclaimed film called The African Doctor. Today he is a comedian, rapper, writer and TV host. 

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Presenter: Emily Webb

(Photo: Jay Flynn. Credit: Courtesy of Jay Flynn)

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