It may be the BBC's flagship news programme, but Today's first foray into light entertainment has proved a flop.

Programme makers have been forced to admit that a news quiz running on Today's corner of the Radio Four website is failing after eight people attempted it last week.

The dismal take-up may have something to do with the prizes which this week include a signed Charlie Dimmock calendar, a guide to pre-menstrual syndrome, the new Rolf Harris single and a re-issued King Crimson CD.

Listeners who log on to the quiz must rack their sleep-fuddled memories to recollect the "strange, ludicrous, mendacious or plain stupid" things people have said or done on the previous week's Today programmes.

A fairly typical question comments waspishly on Tory MP Sir Peter Tapsell, who "prior to putting the phone down on our producer ... told him that Today only ever called him about silly things and that if we wanted him on the programme we should talk to him about economics or monetary policy".

The quiz asks: "As a listener to Today, with what degree of urgency do YOU think we should take up Sir Peter's suggestion?" The suggested answers range from "very great urgency" to "a fairly relaxed degree of urgency."

As an on-screen message admits: "We are all, in a sense, the weakest link. Goodbye."