Anne Robinson was a good choice of presenter. She previously presented Points of View in a cynical way. Calling her the "queen of mean" is generous hyperbole. It's clearly an act and she can be seen breaking character by smiling or even laughing in a few instances.
The game is a basic quiz show with a banking mechanic and a voting system. Contestants would often vote off who they saw as the most competition. These two mechanics I've not seen implemented before on a quiz show. I know shows like Catchphrase had a banking mechanic, but it was automatic and didn't rely on the contestants saying bank. In the Weakest Link they would often forget or say pass by mistake, losing the team money. The cash prizes were often pretty small, I think £10, 000 was the maximum and most players took home around £4,000 or less. The game was cheap as the questions got harder and more obscure as the game went on, not to mention more long-winded to run the clock down.
Overall, this was a cold and cynical gameshow with a metallic set to match; see also Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Shafted and Golden Balls for more of the same. Anne Robinson was a hit with viewers and the show ran for a massive 12 years as a regular series and had a US spin-off with Anne also presenting. There was also a spin-off game for PS1, PS2 and Windows which I wouldn't recommend as it's dull and for trivia fans Anne Robinson was sampled in a cheesy hard house record by the usually excellent Pants & Corset (Paul King).
The series was rebooted in 2021 for the Christmas season with Romesh Ranganathan on presenting duty. To be fair he does a good job, but it is the quiz show nobody asked to be resurrected. The cynic in me says the BBC are stuck for new ideas and programmes to fill the primetime slots.
