'I think it's become like a cult show'

English television and radio presenter Freddie Flintoff discusses why Bullseye is an iconic game show

- 

Freddie Flintoff remembers watching Bullseye on a Sunday with his family as a child in the 1980s.

But when the 47-year-old former international cricketer knew he would be presenting the darts-themed television game show last year - for its Christmas special-he decided to relive some of his earliest memories and watch it back.

He was fascinated by how Bullseye was filmed back then, and how former presenter Jim Bowen managed to walk from one place to the next whilst making mistakes, and just going with it-all in one take.

"There's something really nice about that. At the end of the day, it's fun - it's a bendy bully and a game of darts," says Flintoff, who is back hosting ITV's new four-part series of Bullseye with English darts master of ceremonies Richard Ashdown, 47, as the scorer.

"We stop when I mess up on the auto-cue."

The upcoming episodes of Bullseye will be in the same classic format of three teams of contestants, where an amateur darts player-also known as the "thrower" - and a quizzing expert-also known as the "knower"-compete to win cash and prizes.

The original Bullseye, which ran between 1981 and 1995, always featured the animated brown bull mascot named Bully, who wore a red and white striped shirt and blue trousers.

Ahead of Bullseye's return, Flintoff, who was a presenter on Top Gear from 2019 until he got into an accident while filming in late 2022, discusses why he has returned to host the game show and which professional darts players viewers can expect to see.