Unmissable show?
Downton Abbey. It started with an accident. My iPad ran out of battery on a flight so I watched the pilot episode on my wife's. Next thing you know, I was deep in. It's similar to Mad Men, in that everything is changing. There's nostalgia for the way it was and there's excitement for something new. You get to watch the upheaval happen.
TV turn-off?
Arrested Development fans. There was all this furore about Arrested Development being cancelled and what an amazing show it was and blah, blah, blah. If it was an amazing show, people would have watched it. The fans of that show are among the most annoying, oppressive, myopic viewers of television that I can think of. I'm glad that Netflix brought it back, but if it leads to 100 more people telling me to watch Arrested Development… I'm still not going to watch it. I don't enjoy the media telling me to watch a show. I'd rather them cover stuff that people actually consume. The amount of people who write about the show Girls versus the number of people who watch it is staggering. There's one article for every person who watches the show.
TV hard man?
My favourite character of the past 10 years has been Gus Fring on Breaking Bad. I'm in awe of the actor Giancarlo Esposito. He's very animated and funny and sweet in person, but you know that this terror is lurking under the surface.
Mastermind specialist subject?
I'd go for 80s wrestling trivia. Specifically 1987 through 1992, that five-year stretch. That stuff's seared into my brain from childhood. Hulk Hogan was my favourite.
Pitch us a TV show…
There's an idea that Entourage and Girls are the unfiltered versions of twentysomethings in New York and LA, but to my mind both slightly fall into the trappings of serialised television. I would love for the actual explicit unfiltered view. I don't know if it could exist on television, but there would be lots more drugs and lots more sex!
Arrow returns Monday, 8pm, Sky1
