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词条 Top of the Form (quiz show)
释义

  1. Hosts

  2. Format

  3. Transmission

     Radio  Television 

  4. Theme

  5. Producers

  6. Contestants

     Top of the Form finalists  Television Top of the Form finalists  Notable contestants 

  7. Popular culture

  8. See also

  9. References

  10. External links

     Video clips  Audio clips 
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|runtime = 30 mins
|country = UK
|language = English
|home_station = BBC Radio 4
|syndicates =
|television = BBC 1 (1962–75)
|presenter =
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|narrated =
|rec_location =
|first_aired = 1 May 1948
|last_aired = 2 December 1986
|num_series =
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|opentheme = Marching Strings
|othertheme = Fanfare for the Common Man (ELP prog rock version)
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Top of the Form was a BBC radio and television quiz show for teams from secondary schools in the United Kingdom which ran for 38 years, from 1948 to 1986.

The programme began on Saturday 1 May 1948, as a radio series, at 7.30pm on the Light Programme. It progressed to become a TV series from 1962 to 1975. A decision to stop the programme was announced on 28 September 1986 and the last broadcast was on Tuesday 2 December. The producer, Graham Frost, was reported to have said it had been cancelled because the competitive nature of the show jarred with modern educational philosophy.

Hosts

{{div col}}
  • Wynford Vaughan-Thomas
  • Lionel Gamlin
  • Richard Dimbleby
  • David Dimbleby
  • John Ellison
  • Robert MacDermot
  • Kenneth Horne
  • John Edmunds
  • John Dunn
  • Tim Gudgin (1965–86)
  • Bob Holness (1974–76)
  • Paddy Feeny (1965–86)
  • Geoffrey Wheeler (1962–75)
{{div col end}}

Format

Each school fielded a team of four pupils ranging in age from under 13 to under 18.

Transmission

Radio

  • BBC Light Programme from 1948–67
  • BBC Radio 2 (sometimes simulcast on BBC Radio 1) 1967–70
  • BBC Radio 4 from 26 September 1970 – 1986.

Television

The programme was first aired on TV in two special experiments the first on 25 April 1953, featuring Sheffield High School (girls) v. Marylebone Grammar School (boys).[1] A second TV broadcast was performed in 1954 featuring Lady Margaret High School for Girls (Cardiff) v Solihull School for Boys. The programme fully migrated to TV later. It ran from 1962 to 1975, and was called Television Top of the Form. It began on Monday 12 November 1962, when the Controller of BBC1 was Stuart Hood (Scottish).

The questions were set by polymath and author Boswell Taylor on behalf of BBC TV and he was assisted by the BBC's Mary Craig who doubled as the scorer and electronic score board operator. In order to set appropriate questions the selected contestants from each school filled in a questionnaire listing their interests, books recently read and favourite music. The teams from co-ed schools usually included two girls and two boys.

Compared to many television quiz shows in recent years, Top of the Form had a resolutely grandiose outlook; nothing would ever be dumbed down. Consequently, on Monday 18 June 1973 it had its first bilingual competition, with Paris v London. The competition on Monday 25 March 1974 was all in the Welsh language.

In 1967 UK schools took on Australian schools in Top of the Form: Transworld Edition. The following year this was renamed Transworld Top Team, under which title it ran until 1973. Each series involved teams from the UK taking on teams from another country. Countries participating over the course of the run included Canada, The Netherlands, the US and Hong Kong.[2]

In 1975 the TV version moved to 4.10–4.35pm on Sundays, then from 3.55–4.20, with the last final on 9 August 1975. One of the producers of the TV version was Bill Wright, who would later devise Mastermind in the early 1970s.

Theme

The tune Marching Strings (composition credited to "Marshall Ross", a pseudonym of Ray Martin) was the theme for many years, though for the last few series, Emerson, Lake & Palmer's recording of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man was used. Earlier, Debussy's Golliwog's Cakewalk, from his Children's Corner suite, had introduced the radio series.

Producers

Producers have included:

  • Paul Mayhew-Archer (1970s), later to produce BBC radio comedy
  • Griff Rhys Jones

Contestants

The series tended to feature grammar schools; in later years, as these schools became less numerous, comprehensive schools sometimes featured, but less often, and there was an increasing dominance by independent schools.

However, as comprehensive schools were becoming more commonplace under the Harold Wilson government, the autumn 1967 TV series of Top of the Form featured only comprehensive schools.[3]

Top of the Form finalists

  • 19 December 1948 High School for Boys, Cardiff v Royal High School, Edinburgh (winners)
  • 9 January 1950 Elgin Academy for Boys, Moray (winners) v Grove Park Grammar School for Girls, Wrexham, Denbighshire
  • 9 January 1951 Manchester High School for Girls v Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen (boys, winners)
  • 19 January 1952 St. Dominic's High School for Girls, Belfast v Morgan Academy, Dundee (winners)
  • 21 January 1954 The Methodist College, Belfast (boys) v The Nicolson Institute, Stornaway, Isle of Lewis (boys)
  • 9 January 1955 The Academy, Dumfries (girls) v Grove Park School, Wrexham (boys, winners)
  • 14 January 1956 Newtown Girls' Grammar School, Wales (winners) v The Royal School, Armagh, Northern Ireland (boys)
  • 7 January 1957 Glanmôr County Secondary School for Girls, Swansea v Sutton Coldfield High School for Girls (winners)
  • 2 January 1958 High School, High Wycombe (girls, winners) v Dr Williams School, Dolgellau (girls)
  • 8 January 1959 South Hampstead High School, London (girls)
  • 24 December 1959 Rotherham Grammar School v Mackie Academy, Stonehaven
  • 5 January 1961 High School for Girls, Dungannon
  • 21 December 1961 Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School, York (boys, winners)
  • 20 December 1962 High School of Stirling (boys) v Hull Grammar School (winners)
  • 22 December 1963 Cambridgeshire High School for Boys, Cambridge (winners)
  • 20 December 1964 The Academy, Montrose (girls)
  • 26 December 1965 The High School, Falkirk (boys)
  • 27 December 1966 The Grammar School, Bassaleg (boys)
  • 28 December 1967 Kirkton High School, Dundee (mixed, winners) v Burnt Hill School, Harlow
  • 7 January 1968 King's Norton Grammar School for Girls, Birmingham v Greenock Academy (girls)
  • 22 December 1968 Leyton Senior High School for Girls v Grove Park School, Wrexham (boys, won)
  • 21 December 1969 The High School for Girls, Stroud v Queen Elizabeth Grammar School for Girls, Carmarthen
  • 2 January 1971 Harris Academy, Dundee (boys) v Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys, Leicester (winners)
  • 22 January 1972 Cheadle Hulme School, Cheshire (winners) v Cardinal Vaughan School, London
  • 27 January 1973 Musselburgh Grammar School v The County Girls Grammar School, Newbury (winners)
  • 2 February 1974 Kirkcudbright Academy, Kirkcudbright v Broadoak School, Weston-super-Mare
  • 4 January 1975 Magdalen College School, Brackley v The Grammar School, Cheltenham
  • 29 February 1976 King William's College, Isle of Man v Paisley Grammar School, Scotland
  • 22 February 1977 Macclesfield County High School for Girls (winners) v Thomas Magnus School, Newark-on-Trent
  • 23 February 1978 Collingwood School, Camberley v Wellington School, Somerset
  • 25 December 1978
  • 7 February 1980 Peterhead Academy
  • 23 December 1980 Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys, Canterbury v Wycombe High School, High Wycombe
  • 22 December 1981 Girvan Academy
  • 21 December 1982 Seaford Head School, Seaford
  • 14 December 1983 Colchester County High School for Girls
  • 19 December 1984 Moorhead High School, Accrington
  • 16 December 1985
  • 1 December 1986 Christ College, Brecon

Television Top of the Form finalists

  • 24 December 1962 Grove Park School for Boys, Wrexham v Kingston Grammar School for Boys
  • 1 May 1963 The Grammar School for Girls, Weston-super-Mare v Royal Belfast Academical Institution (boys)
  • 23 December 1963 Brownhills High School for Girls, Stoke-on-Trent v Hull Grammar School (boys)
  • 26 March 1964 High School, Stirling (boys)
  • 1 April 1965 Sutton Coldfield Grammar School (girls) v Paston School, North Walsham
  • 28 December 1966 Hastings High School (girls) v Leamington College (girls), Leamington Spa
  • 28 December 1967 Burnt Mill School, Harlow
  • 20 June 1970 Salisbury v Inverness
  • 8 June 1971 Luton Sixth Form College v Kenilworth Grammar School
  • 1 August 1972 Llanelli Boys' Grammar School
  • 11 June 1973 Elgin Academy
  • 17 June 1974 Loughborough v Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, Darlington
  • 9 August 1975 Gower v Leeds

Notable contestants

  • Film star Hugh Grant, who represented Latymer Upper School;[4]
  • Darien Angadi, whose story was told during a BBC Four documentary about the quiz programme
  • Vivien Stuart (1969), later a weather presenter and television announcer.[5][6]
  • Hilary Benn, represented Holland Park School in 1969 who were contentiously eliminated in a second round match.
  • Robbie Fields, identical twin of Randolph and now owner of Posh Boy Records, was also a member of the 1969 Holland Park School team. Fields was asked the three-point question: "I was born in Valencia in 1867, who am I?" and answered "Blasco Ibáñez", prompting presenter Geoffrey Wheeler to take a deep breath and pronounce the answer correct and leaving viewers baffled.

Popular culture

Top of The Form was satirised in the 1960s pre-Python television series At Last the 1948 Show.

"Natural Born Quizzers", an episode of Steve Coogan’s comedy series Coogan's Run, involved a thinly-disguised version of the show.

In 2008, Dave Gorman traced the history of the show on BBC Four.

A similar quiz for British schools in Germany called Top Marks was broadcast by BFBS Germany.[7]

See also

  • Round Britain Quiz, BBC Radio 4's general knowledge quiz from the same era, but mainly for adults, and still broadcast regularly
  • University Challenge, a similar Granada Television series for British universities, which was taken off the air in 1987 but was brought back (now broadcast on BBC 2) in 1994
  • Schools' Challenge – continuing UK inter-schools quiz, non-televised, based on the rules of University Challenge.
  • Blockbusters – television school-age game show first broadcast in 1983

References

1. ^{{UKGameshow|Television_Top_of_the_Form|Television Top of the Form}}
2. ^{{Cite web |url=http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Transworld_Top_Team |title=Transworld Top Team |website=ukgameshows.com |access-date=10 December 2018}}
3. ^Daily Record, 21 September 1967
4. ^{{cite episode |title=Inside the Actors Studio: Hugh Grant |series=Inside the Actors Studio |url=http://www.bravotv.com/Inside_the_Actors_Studio |serieslink=Inside the Actors Studio |credits=Presenter: James Lipton |network=Bravo |airdate=2002-05-12 |season=8 |number=813 |transcripturl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p4KP212qo0 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513202831/http://www.bravotv.com/Inside_the_Actors_Studio/ |archivedate=13 May 2008 |df=dmy-all }}
5. ^Donovan, Paul (1992) The Radio Companion. London: Grafton; p. 267
6. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Vivien-Stuart/631322311|title=Vivien Stuart - ZoomInfo.com|website=ZoomInfo}}
7. ^{{cite web|url=http://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2018/01/ed-doolan.html|title=Random radio jottings: Ed Doolan|first=Andy|last=Walmsley|date=16 January 2018|publisher=}}

External links

  • {{BBC programme | title=The Top of the Form Story}}
  • {{UKGameshow|Top_of_the_Form}}
  • {{UKGameshow|Television_Top_of_the_Form|Television Top of the Form}}
  • {{IMDb title|0817465}}
  • {{IMDb title|0822867|The Top of the Form Story}}
  • TV Cream

Video clips

  • [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Ta4XbRRj4 Monty Python]

Audio clips

  • [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-JzUwdeUN0 Top of the Form theme]

18 : 1948 radio programme debuts|1940s British game shows|1950s British game shows|1960s British game shows|1970s British game shows|1980s British game shows|1962 British television programme debuts|1975 British television programme endings|1986 radio programme endings|BBC Radio 4 programmes|BBC Radio 2 programmes|BBC television game shows|British panel games|British radio game shows|Secondary schools in the United Kingdom|Student quiz competitions|Television articles with incorrect naming style|Television game shows with incorrect disambiguation

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