On the same evening that ITV1 unleashes its ratings juggernaut The X Factor, the Beeb launches this new comedy game show aimed squarely at families. It's a talent show meets guessing game, hosted by the always charming Alexander Armstrong, with fast-rising stand-up Micky Flanagan as his foil. Eccentric members of the public demonstrate their unusual talents to a panel of comedians, headed by Flanagan, who put a secret cash value on the skill, based on originality, personality and performance. The contestant must then guess the total amount bid to win the cash or they leave with nothing. It's hardly ground-breaking, bearing a distinct resemblance to 1990s ITV show You Bet!, but is still frothy fun.

A quick chat with Alexander Armstrong

Where do people with less conventional gifts go to show off their party pieces? Step forward Alexander Armstrong, host of Epic Win, a new game show in which people with strange skills perform in front of a panel of judges in a bid to win a cash prize.

Alexander Armstrong interview

Alexander Armstrong chats to TV Choice about his 'pointless' talent show Epic Win, and lots of other stuff...

Interview: Alexander Armstrong

Comedian and presenter Alexander Armstrong is all over the TV schedules this summer, but he'll always put family ahead of his career.

My TV hero: Alexander Armstrong on Mark Gatiss

I like the idea of old-fashioned being classic rather than brown and dingy. And that's what Mark Gatiss has done with Sherlock. There's something quintessentially British about his work.

Alexander Armstrong: can't curb his enthusiasm

Daytime TV, Saturday night talent shows, ads for shopping centres in Durham: is there nothing the more puppyish half of Armstrong & Miller won't do?

There are quite a few things to be said about this panel show pilot made for digital channel Dave. First of all, it's better than Compete for the Meat.

Hosted by Alexander Armstrong, the main hook of this show is that the panellists - in this case Robert Webb, Katy Brand and Griff Rhys Jones - have to come up with the questions and they score points if their opponents fail to get them right. It has already been described as QI without the researchers.

There were some interesting things that popped up during the course of the show, such as the fact that in Victorian times green dye contained arsenic, so people were being slowly killed by their wallpaper. Not all the questions were based on far-flung info through, as one round consisted of trying to come up with funny questions to ask famous people. There was one example by Webb towards Louis Spence which I won't repeat here, but I can tell you mentioned the f-word.

One aspect that grabbed my attention was Dave Lamb, who was in the show's "Fact Bunker" checking out all the answers, and who only appeared on a television inside the studio. The thing is, I reviewed his radio show last week, in which he played an agoraphobic conspiracy theorist, and now he's on a TV show with a studio audience, but not appearing in front of them in the flesh. Is this where he gets his ideas from?

In terms of intellectual comedy, I don't think you can top QI, but Big Ask is a decent attempt and is no doubt much cheaper, which is important to a digital channel facing competition from bigger broadcasters. On this show they don''need to spend money on researchers - instead they spend the money on electronic tablets for each of the panellists, because let's be fair it is a bit of bore just using your mouth.

Having said that, I still think that it was an entertaining pilot and I hope a full series comes out of it.