A Question of Sport

A Question of Sport
Genre Sports quiz show
Created by Nick Hunter
Presented by Current:
Sue Barker (1997-)

Former:
Stuart Hall (1968: Pilot)
David Vine (1970-1977)
David Coleman (1979-1997)
Starring Team Captains:
Current:
Matt Dawson (2004-)
Phil Tufnell (2008-)

Former:
Cliff Morgan (1968 Pilot-1975)
Henry Cooper (1968 Pilot-1979)
Fred Trueman (1976-1977)
Brendan Foster (1977-1979)
Emlyn Hughes (1979-1981, 1984-1988)
Gareth Edwards (1979-1981)
Willie Carson (1982-1983)
Bill Beaumont (1982-1996)
Ian Botham (1988-1996)
John Parrott (1996-2002)
Ally McCoist (1996-2007)
Frankie Dettori (2002-2004)
Theme music composer Richie Close
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 48
No. of episodes 1,202+1 pilot
(as of 12 September 2018)

Landmarks:
4 March 2013:
1,000th episode[1]
Production
Executive producer(s) Gareth JM Edwards
Producer(s) Dave Gymer
Production location(s) dock10 (studios HQ1 and HQ2 on rotation), MediaCityUK[2]
Running time 30 minutes
Release
Original network BBC One
First shown in 2 December 1968 (1968-12-02)
Original release 5 January 1970 (1970-01-05) – present
External links
A Question of Sport

A Question of Sport is a British sports quiz show created by Nick Hunter for the BBC. The show centres on a light-hearted contest involving two teams of three sports stars, each with a regular resident team captain, competing for points by answering questions on their own and other sports over several sports-themed quiz rounds. Captains have also been playing sports-themed games alongside the quizzes in later series.

The show premiered on BBC One in January 1970, 13 months after Stuart Hall hosted a pilot episode, and was originally hosted by David Vine with Cliff Morgan and Henry Cooper serving as team captains. It took an 18-month hiatus from June 1977 before relaunching in 1979 with David Coleman replacing Vine. It has been hosted since 1997 by former tennis star Sue Barker, with former England rugby player Matt Dawson and former England cricketer Phil Tufnell serving as captains since 2004 and 2008 respectively.

On 8 January 2010, the BBC broadcast a 40th anniversary special, where Barker, Dawson, and Tufnell were joined by Pat Cash, David Coulthard, Laura Davies, and Michael Johnson.[3]

Series 42, episode 17 marked the 1,000th episode where each captain was joined by two former captains. Tufnell was joined by Bill Beaumont and Ally McCoist, while Dawson was joined by Willie Carson and John Parrott—with Tufnell’s side winning.[4][5][6][7]

With more than 45 series broadcast since its launch, A Question of Sport is one of the BBC’s longest-running shows. In a Christmas special broadcast in 2014, the show was awarded a Guinness World Record for the world’s longest-running sports quiz show.

Quiz format

The rounds played include:

  • Picture Board – numbered squares reveal sports person for the contestant to identify
  • Action Round – contestants are asked questions about a montage of sporting action
  • What Happened Next? – sports footage is halted at optimum moment and teams are asked what occurred thereafter.
  • Observation Round – sports action is shown and contestants are asked questions about details of what they have just seen, e.g. "What colour hat was a certain person wearing?" or "How many balls can you see in the following clip?" The footage for the latter question will be of many different events and all show balls, or whatever item has been asked
  • Mystery Guest – teams have to identify a sports star in unfamiliar circumstances and with unconventional camera angles.
  • Home or Away – contestants can answer a question on their own sport for one point ('home'), or a question on any sport for two points ("away"). Team captains always receive "away" questions. In recent times the "away" question has had 3 answers, one point for each.
  • Captain's Challenge – the captains have a contest in different feats.
  • One Minute Round – teams are asked nine questions in 60 seconds
  • On the Buzzer – teams answer questions at quickfire pace (this was only introduced in later years – in the Vine and Coleman eras, the show would end with the remaining six Picture Board questions)
  • Sprint Finish - team captains act out up to 10 sporting terms in 60 seconds without using the words given

Presenters and team members

Presenters

The show was hosted regionally in the North of England by Stuart Hall from 1968, then nationally by David Vine from 1970 to 1977, and then from 1979 until 1997 was anchored by veteran BBC sports commentator David Coleman, although Vine returned for part of one series in 1989 when illness forced Coleman to temporarily stand down from hosting duties. Coleman was also unavailable for two shows in 1996, so one of the team captains, Bill Beaumont, sat in as host (the only team captain to host the programme), while the rugby star Will Carling took Beaumont's place as captain. In Coleman's final series as host, ex-tennis star Sue Barker stood-in for a couple of shows including one at Christmas, a role that she continued after Coleman's retirement.

Regular captains

Many team captains have enjoyed stints on the show down the years, including:

Guest captains

Over the years there have been several guest captains standing in for one of the regulars when they have other commitments. Following Ally McCoist's departure, several guests, including Phil Tufnell, sat in the captain's chair before Tufnell was eventually selected as McCoist's permanent replacement:

Of these Barnes, Cooper, Charlton, Moore, Hughes, Beaumont, Carson, Botham, Parrott, McCoist, Dettori, Owen, Rutherford, Speed and Dawson were still active participants in their sport while appearing in the show. The others had retired.

Notable incidents

Sports stars often say they know they have 'made it' when they are invited to appear on A Question Of Sport. The sports personality with most guest appearances is Steve Davis, who has appeared 18 times.

In 1987, Princess Anne appeared as a guest on Emlyn Hughes' team, just weeks after Hughes thought a photo of her on a horse in the "Mystery Guest" round was jockey John Reid. The show achieved A Question of Sport's highest ever ratings of approximately 19 million viewers. It was the first time a member of the royal family had appeared on a television quiz show. Anne's daughter Zara Phillips also appeared on the show twice in 2006, the latter for a Sport Relief edition.

However, Hughes's embarrassment would not be as bad as Ally McCoist or Shane Warne in 2007. During the part of the show called Mystery Guest (see Quiz Format), it was McCoist's turn and he failed to realise it was his own boss at Rangers, Walter Smith, who was disguised. Also, in the 700th edition of the show, a compilation of Mystery Guests was shown as a special round. Here McCoist also failed to recognise himself as a showjumper from a clip some years previous. As for Warne, when the opposing team incorrectly guessed Venus Williams as the sports star shown, the answer was Serena Williams but Warne thought differently and thought it was Roger Federer, despite the two being different colours and gender. Another embarrassing moment for a team captain happened in 2003, when during the Home or Away round where the captains had to guess an anagram, and Frankie Dettori did not recognize his own name. When this question was passed over to Ally McCoist, McCoist did not answer verbally but climbed onto the desk in front of him and copied Dettori's famous flying dismount.

Transmissions

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
Pilot2 December 19681
15 January 1970[8]18 May 1970[9]20[9]
211 January 1971[10]5 April 1971[11]13[11]
320 March 1972[12]19 June 1972[13]14[13]
48 January 1974[14]2 April 1974[15]13[15]
510 July 1975[16]28 August 1975[17]8[17]
63 May 1976[18]21 June 1976[19]8[19]
718 April 1977[20]6 June 1977[21]8[21]
88 January 1979[22]2 April 1979[23]13[23]
97 January 1980[24]18 March 1980[25]11[25]
1027 February 1981[26]15 May 1981[27]12[27]
115 January 1982[28]30 March 1982[29]13[29]
1212 January 1983[30]30 March 1983[31]11[31]
1329 December 1983[32]8 May 1984[33]14[33]
1431 December 1984[34]11 April 1985[35]14[35]
155 December 1985[36]1 May 1986[37]21[37]
1611 December 1986[38]14 May 1987[39]21[39]
173 December 1987[40]26 April 1988[41]20[41]
1825 October 1988[42]11 April 1989[43]24[43]
1924 October 1989[44]1 May 1990[45]26[45]
2023 October 1990[46]23 April 1991[47]26[47]
2115 October 1991[48]21 April 1992[49]26[49]
2227 October 1992[50]20 April 1993[51]26[51]
2319 October 1993[52]30 May 1994[53]28[53]
2411 October 1994[54]2 May 1995[55]26[55]
2520 October 1995[56]3 May 1996[57]27[57]
261 October 199630 May 199729
277 October 19971 May 199826
284 November 199821 June 199927
296 September 19992 July 200030
3016 October 200021 May 200132
315 September 200124 July 200229
3218 October 200215 August 200331
333 October 200313 August 200442
3417 September 200415 July 200541
3510 September 20058 September 200642
3615 September 200618 May 200734
3715 September 200711 June 200836
385 September 200812 June 200937
392 October 200927 August 201033
4029 November 20101 August 201130
418 August 201120 August 201244
421 September 201231 July 201334
4321 October 201313 August 201430
4420 August 201415 July 201531
4512 August 20155 August 201636
4624 August 201631 May 201736
4716 August 201723 May 201835
4818 July 2018TBA 2019??

97 episodes (mainly ones from Series 1–25) were wiped from the BBC archives. The episodes that survived in the archives are:[58]

  • Series 4: Episodes 2 & 11–12
  • Series 5: Episodes 1–2 & 8
  • Series 7: Episode 8
  • Series 8: Episodes 1–5, 7–11 & 13
  • Series 9: Episodes 1–2, 4–7 & 9–11
  • Series 10: All 12 episodes
  • Series 11: All 13 episodes
  • Series 12: Episodes 1, 4–6 & 8–11
  • Series 13: Episodes 1–8, 10–11 & 13–14
  • Series 14: Episodes 1–5, 7, 9–12 & 14–15
  • Series 15: All 20 episodes
  • Series 16: All 21 episodes
  • Series 17: Episodes 1–16 & 18–21
  • Series 18: All 24 episodes
  • Series 19–21 & 24: All 26 episodes
  • Series 22: Episodes 1–7, 9, 12–22 & 24–25
  • Series 23: Episodes 1–2, 4–5 & 7–28
  • Series 25: Episodes 1–18 & 20–27

Spin-offs

The A Question of Sport format has been applied to various other areas of knowledge. The following spin-off series were all made by the BBC:

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
119 April 197124 May 19716
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
124 April 198828 August 198818
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
3 January 2000[59]1
18 April 20003 June 20009
28 December 2000[60]1
228 April 200128 July 200112
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
15 July 200129 August 20018

Roslin also hosted a one-off special, A Question of EastEnders, in 2000. Another one-off special, "A Question of Comedy" was to have been aired on 16 March 2007 as a part of Comic Relief 2007, but after a scandal involving contestant Jade Goody it was replaced with a special edition of Top Gear.

A Question of Spit was a short segment aired in 1988 as part of the inaugural Red Nose Day telethon, featuring Daley Thompson, Barry McGuigan and Mike Gatting forming a team, with their opponents being their own Spitting Image puppets, captained by an Emlyn Hughes puppet. The quiz was hosted by the Spitting Image puppet of David Coleman, with the real Coleman and the puppet Steve Davis also making an appearance.

On 21 March 2012, One Media Radio's Final Whistle produced a one off end of year special entitled, Final Quizzle: Final Whistle does A Question of Sport. Presented by Barry Landy, the show featured two teams consisting of Stuart Hodge, Rory Wilde, Phil Peacock, Steve Sanders, Ben Mouncer and Lewis Davies and included rounds such as 'Tiger's Eighteen Holes' and 'Whelan or Fortune'.

In November 2012, One Media Radio's Head of Sport Edmund Doc Crosthwaite confirmed that Final Quizzle would return for a one off Christmas special on 12 December 2012.

A Question of Sport Relief is a special version of the show usually presented by a guest presenter on Sport Relief night since 2002. The 2002, 2004 & 2006 versions were hosted by Stephen Fry. 2008's version was hosted by Jimmy Carr after Fry had to pull out having broken his arm.

BBC One Scotland aired a one-off A Question of Scotland as part of Children in Need 2008, with Jackie Bird as quizmaster.

The CBBC programme Dick and Dom In Da Bungalow made a parody called A Question of Muck as part of the creamy muck muck grand finale game.

The CBBC programme The Saturday Show did a segment called A Question of Busted featuring the pop band Busted answering questions about themselves it was presented by Fearne Cotton who in each segment was dressed as Sue Barker.

The What Happened Next? round was spoofed in an episode of A Bit of Fry & Laurie as David Coleman (Fry) asks Emlyn Hughes (Laurie) to guess what happened after the action stopped in the previous sketch. The host's refusal to confirm whether the given answer is correct then leads into another round of the game, with the question of what happened following the original What Happened Next? sketch.

The show was one of many British TV shows reinterpreted by Chanel 9, a recurring sketch on The Fast Show, where it was titled Questo Sporta and featured the mystery guest round.

References

  1. ↑ "1,000th Episode".
  2. ↑ "A Question of Sport Studio".
  3. ↑ "40th Anniversary Special".
  4. ↑ "As a Question of Sport hits 1,000 episodes, Sportsmail celebrates a national institution". Daily Mail. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  5. ↑ "A Question of Sport: 1,000th episode, BBC One, review". Daily Telegraph. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  6. ↑ "A Question of Sport reaches its 1,000th show – but is it past its sell-by date?". Guardian UK. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  7. ↑ "1,000 episodes of A Question of Sport down: But 'What Happens Next' for BBC favourite and can it last another 30 years?". Mirror. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  8. ↑ "A Question of Sport World Cup Edition". The Radio Times. 28 May 1970. p. 23.
  9. 1 2 "A Question of Sport World Cup Edition". The Radio Times. 28 May 1970. p. 23. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  10. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 11 January 1971". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  11. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 5 April 1971". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  12. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 20 March 1972". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  13. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 19 June 1972". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  14. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 8 January 1974". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  15. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 2 April 1974". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  16. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 10 July 1975". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  17. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 28 August 1975". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  18. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 3 May 1976". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  19. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 12 July 1976". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  20. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 18 April 1977". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  21. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 30 May 1977". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  22. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 8 January 1979". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  23. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 2 April 1979". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  24. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 7 January 1980". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  25. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 18 March 1980". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  26. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 27 February 1981". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  27. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 22 May 1981". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  28. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 5 January 1982". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  29. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 30 March 1982". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  30. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 12 January 1983". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  31. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 30 March 1983". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  32. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 29 December 1983". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  33. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 8 May 1984". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  34. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 31 December 1984". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  35. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 11 April 1985". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  36. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 5 December 1985". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  37. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 1 May 1986". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  38. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 11 December 1986". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  39. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 14 May 1987". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  40. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 3 December 1987". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  41. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 26 April 1988". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  42. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 25 October 1988". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  43. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 11 April 1989". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  44. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 24 October 1989". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  45. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 1 May 1990". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  46. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 23 October 1990". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  47. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 23 April 1991". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  48. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 15 October 1991". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  49. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 21 April 1992". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  50. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 27 October 1992". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  51. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 20 April 1993". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  52. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 19 October 1993". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  53. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 30 May 1994". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  54. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 11 October 1994". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  55. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 2 May 1995". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  56. ↑ "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 11 October 1995". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  57. 1 2 "A Question of Sport – BBC One London – 3 May 1996". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  58. ↑ "TVBrain - Kaleidoscope - Lost shows - TV Archive - TV History". www.lostshows.com.
  59. ↑ "A Question of Pop". 30 December 1999. p. 90 – via BBC Genome.
  60. ↑ "A Question of Pop". 21 December 2000. p. 118 – via BBC Genome.


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