Steve McNeil

Book readings are rubbish. So, when Steve McNeil was asked to do some book readings in support of his excellent book about the history of videogames, Hey! Listen!, he needed to come up with a plan. Employing his stand-up skills, those of his long time tech collaborator Rob Sedgebeer, and director Paul Byrne, Steve set about working towards that seemingly impossible goal - the good book reading. We present the fruits of their labours; Hey! Listen! (Live!). It's half stand-up, half game show, and as little book reading as possible.

WIFI WARS takes the cutting-edge smartphone technology developed by Rob Sedgebeer for Go 8-Bit to the next level. It's a live comedy game show hosted by me, where the audience play along! Two of them become team captains, and the whole audience compete in a range of games, quizzes and challenges, via controls we beam to their smartphones. Basically, I've found a genius and convinced him to let me profit from his hard work. The show was first created to be part of the Royal Institution's 2015 Summer Programme after me and Rob Sedgebeer's appearance on their 2014 BBC Christmas Lectures. In 2016 we gave our second annual lecture there, at which we broke the Guinness World Record for "Most People Playing A Single Game of Pong" (286 people, the previous record was 251). We finished the year by appearing on BBC Click's special Live show from Broadcasting House, on New Year's Eve!

Gaming enthusiast Dara O Briain presides over the mayhem as two stars join team captains – gaming geek Steve McNeil and gaming cynic Sam Pamphilon – to battle each other at their favourite computer games.

Companion show to Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit, featuring lively debates, reviews of video games and a host of guest stars. Resident expert Ellie Gibson hosts.