The Great British Quiz Show

Answer: University Challenge

The inspiration for 'University Challenge', a quiz show specifically for university students both young and old, came from the American programme, 'College Bowl'. Bamber Gascoigne was the first presenter of 'University Challenge' and he carried out his role for a quarter of a century, starting in 1962 and ending in 1987.

The show was then retired and it looked as though phrases such as "starter for ten" were a thing of the past. The retirement was, however, only temporary and the show's revival in 1994 was overseen by Jeremy Paxman (a journalist known for making politicians squirm) who went on to present the show for over twenty years.

Answer: Mastermind

The theme tune of 'Mastermind', "Approaching Menace", really set the mood for the rest of the show; a mixture of nervous energy, a ruthlessly silent audience and a spotlight that glared down on each contender, isolating them from their surroundings and highlighting their every move. Time elapsed as the host (originally Magnus Magnusson and later John Humphrys) fired questions rapidly, all the while the camera zoomed in on the contender to such an extent that their pulse was visible to all. Beep, beep, beep: time is up but the quiz master isn't done yet, he has "started, so [he'll] finish".

Answer: Sir Bruce Forsyth

Sir Bruce Forsyth was a game show regular on British television, presenting 'The Price is Right', 'Play Your Cards Right' and 'The Generation Game' amongst others. Sir Bruce started his career as a dancer and entertainer and this provided a natural confidence that was perfectly suited to the rather theatrical 'The Price is Right'. The show proved to be the perfect vehicle for the use of Forsyth's catchphrases such as "nice to see you, to see you nice".

His background in dance also made him well suited to the popular BBC programme 'Strictly Come Dancing', a show which "treated" the audience to a dancing extravaganza from, amongst others, journalist John Sergeant and former Conservative politician, Ann Widdecombe.

Answer: Richard Whiteley

Richard Whiteley was the loveable host of 'Countdown' and was the first person to be seen on Channel 4 when the station first started broadcasting in 1982. A simple game in principle, though difficult to excel at in practice, which involved just numbers and letters. Such a format could become stale rather quickly but the show never fell out of favour with the audience and that was primarily due to the host and his on-screen relationship with the "numbers expert", Carol Vorderman.

Richard Whiteley, a true gentleman, died in 2005 but he will always be "Mr. Countdown".

Answer: Dale Winton

I apologise if I have offended anybody with my comments about 'Hole in the Wall', though I can't imagine that the number offended will be particularly high. The show was awfully cheesy and the whole aim was for contestants to fit through holes (yes, in the wall) so that the wall didn't knock them into the water. I am pretty sure that children's television programmes have been doing things like that for years, only better - such programmes usually had gunge! Dale Winton realised how bad the show was (and let's not forget he was the face of 'Supermarket Sweep') and left after the first series.

When you think you've seen the very worst that broadcasters can offer, and 'Hole in the Wall' really was a good candidate, along comes 'Splash'. The less said about that, the better!

Answer: Darts

One thing that can be said about 'Bullseye' from watching repeats is that it was very 1980s! Even its 1990s output still had that distinct feeling of the Thatcher decade. Part of the reason for that is possibly the nature of the prizes; money hadn't yet become the main focus of quiz shows and prizes tended to be of a more functional nature: a washing machine, a deep fat fryer, television sets and so on. That said, the "special" prize on 'Bullseye' was often a speedboat and I am not quite sure how functional that was for someone living in Derby or Birmingham!

The original run of the show was presented by Jim Bowen and he was assisted by the well known darts referee, Tony Green. Bowen's catchphrase, which he trotted out every time a team gambled everything they had previously won in order to play for the "special" prize and lost, was "come and have a look at what you could have won".

Answer: Eggheads

The opening statement changed over the years when the original team of 'Eggheads' (Kevin Ashman, Daphne Fowler, Judith Keppel, Chris Hughes and CJ de Mooi) expanded to include Barry Simmons and Pat Gibson. The show was first broadcast by the BBC in 2003 and quite amazingly all the original 'Eggheads' remained intact until 2012, when CJ de Mooi decided to leave the show.

He was replaced by Dave Rainford.

Answer: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' became one of the biggest quiz show franchises in world TV history with over eighty versions of the programme popping up all over the globe! The UK version was the original version and was presented by Chris Tarrant who was already well known to the British public for his work on Capital Radio and, to a lesser extent, for his stint as presenter of the rather awful 'Man O Man'.

The first person to win the £1,000,000 jackpot on the UK version of the show was Judith Keppel, the granddaughter of the 9th Earl of Albermarle, who went on to become one of the five original members of the titular 'Eggheads'.

Answer: Fifteen to One

A major criticism levelled at quiz shows from the late noughties and early 2010s was that there weren't enough questions and that the broadcast time was mostly filled with boring chatter. On the other hand 'Fifteen to One', broadcast from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, couldn't seem to get enough questions in and for this it earned a large and loyal following.

At the helm was William G. Stewart, a Lincolnshire lad with an air of authority, who posed the questions for every single episode of the show's original fifteen year run. For those interested in useless statistics, William G. Stewart asked close to 350,000 questions...quite extraordinary!

Answer: The Crystal Maze

'The Crystal Maze' was THE adventure game show of the early 1990s and the cult following it established lasted well into the 21st century. Part of the show's charm was the quite considerable set; it may have been the set and games that initially attracted people to the show but it was presenter Richard O'Brien who was responsible for the audience returning week after week.

Considering that Richard O'Brien penned 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show', a 1975 offering which has satisfied the needs of the unconventional for decades, it is not too surprising that his persona on 'The Crystal Maze' was, well, quirky! O'Brien eventually left the show after a few series and he was replaced by musician Edward Tudor-Pole who, despite his own quirks and oddities, didn't quite manage the success of his predecessor.