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Going for Gold
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Going for Gold is a British television game show that originally aired on BBC1 between 12 October, 1987 and 9 July, 1996.
It has since been revived for Five in 13 October, 2008. The programme is currently produced by Talkback Thames and is presented by John Suchet and Alex Kramer.
g for Gold was originally broadcast on BBC1 from 12 October 1987 to 9 July 1996, usually after the lunchtime broadcast of Australian soap opera Neighbours.
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Encyclopedia
Going for Gold is a British television game show that originally aired on BBC1 between 12 October, 1987 and 9 July, 1996.
It has since been revived for Five in 13 October, 2008. The programme is currently produced by Talkback Thames and is presented by John Suchet and Alex Kramer.
The Original Series
Going for Gold was originally broadcast on BBC1 from 12 October 1987 to 9 July 1996, usually after the lunchtime broadcast of Australian soap opera Neighbours. It was presented by Irish broadcaster Henry Kelly, and its defining concept was that it featured contestants from different European countries who competed against each other to answer questions (all in English) to win a prize. Produced by Reg Grundy Productions, The show was shown on BBC1 in the UK and on Super Channel (later NBC Super Channel) in Continental Europe.
The 1987-96 run of the quiz show each week had seven contestants that spoke English (each representing a different European country) would compete against each other for a place in the finals. The show followed a repechage format (now common, but then unusual), whereby unsuccessful contestants from Monday's show would return on Tuesday, and so on throughout the week. Each episode lasted for twenty-five minutes, including four rounds.
There were ten series in total (two in 1992). The first five series were broadcast during the winter, split in half by the Christmas break. The (second) 1992 and 1993 series went out in the autumn, the last three were broadcast during the summer. The 1996 series featured competitors from the UK only.
2008 Revival
The show has been revived and is produced by Talkback Thames (effectively Grundy's UK successor), and is aired on Five, premiering on 13 October 2008. The new version features only contestants from the UK and Ireland, is broadcast live and is hosted by newsreader John Suchet. Former ITV Play host Alex Kramer, does the newly-introduced viewers phone-in question section, repeating the questions several times and talking to the selected phone-in contestant. The set questions involve many clues to an item or person.
It continues a new run in January 2009, making it more than the 50 shows as previously announced. Vicky Letch temporarily replaced Alex Kramer as the viewer's phone-in host whilst Alex was on holiday. When John Suchet is unavailable, the programme is hosted by Dean Wilson.
Format
Opening Round (Round 1)
Each edition began with a short general knowledge round to all seven contestants. Out of the contestants who started the show, four would go through to the next round (always referred to as the 'first round proper' by Kelly). These four would be the first who managed to answer each of the four general knowledge questions correctly. These questions would usually take the form of a twenty to thirty second description of an object, person, animal or place (usually beginning "who am I?", "what am I?", etc; similar to Sale of the Century's "Fame Game"), with progressively more details being revealed by Kelly until someone was able to identify it. By the Thursday show, there would be only four contestants left to play the "first round proper."
'First Round Proper' (Round 2)
The 'first round proper' was a general knowledge round (similar to that of the U.S. game show The Big Showdown), played with hands on plungers. Questions were worth one, two or three points. A contestant who gave a correct answer would be told the subject of the next question, and got to choose the value of that question. If nobody answered a question correctly, a question worth 1 point (described as general knowledge, but in reality the same question as would have been used anyway) was used to restart the game. The first three players to reach six points went on to play the next round.
Four in a Row (Round 3)
In this round, each of the remaining contestants were asked to pick a category (out of a choice of four). The order in which they picked the categories was based on the order in which they progressed from the previous round. Each would then have to answer questions on their chosen category for 40 seconds.
Players scored based on the number of consecutive questions they got right - if an incorrect answer was given, their score returned to zero, the score taken from this round was the highest point reached over 40 seconds. After this round the two highest scoring players went through to the final round. A "first to two" general knowledge playoff was held if there was a tie, using the same style of questions from round 1.
Final Round (Round 4)
In the final, every question was worth between four and one points depending on how quickly they were answered. Again, the questions were "Fame Game" style questions, pertaining to a famous person, place, thing, fictional character or event. However only one player at a time was allowed to hit his/her plunger, as indicated by a timer graphic running down the centre of the screen. if a player gave an incorrect answer, their section of the time was passed over to their opponent and the time (and question) continued.
Progression to the Finals
The first player to reach nine points in this round won the daily game, and went through to the end of week final, from where the winner progressed to the later stages of the series. The losing players all came back the next day, starting with the same pool of players each weekday, minus the winner of the week's earlier shows.
Other versions
The programme has been adapted in France, where it became a very famous game: Questions pour un champion, which still airs today.
Turkey has a version of Bilir Bilmez on TRT 1 in 1996. Hüseyin Köroglu hosted.
The Channel 5 quiz One To Win was a half-hour show whose format was effectively based on the latter three rounds of Going for Gold, repackaged and with a different host (initially Paul Roseby, then later Robin Houston, better known as the 'voice of the computer' on another Channel 5 quiz show, 100%). Unlike Going for Gold but like 100%, One To Win featured low cash prizes for the winner - just £200 per episode but with a bonus for five consecutive wins - and offered its champions the option to return on the next edition of the show.
Talkback Thames was commissioned to make a new version of Going for Gold for Five, which aired from 13 October 2008. The show features UK contestants only. Like One to Win, the new version offers a daily prize and the opportunity for daily champions to return the next day.
NBC tried their hand at a pilot for a US version of the show with Bill Rafferty, called Run for the Money, in 1987. It was shot on the BBC set. The pilot did not sell.
ATV in Austria has just launched a version of the show this year, called Quiz Champion.
Theme tune and opening sequence
Going for Gold had a memorable theme tune, which was composed by Hans Zimmer, a German composer who has since carved a successful career in Hollywood, and Sandy McLelland. During the opening sequence, the theme tune would be sung (by McLelland), whilst the contestants would appear one by one on the screen and would wave, smile or gesture in various ways to introduce themselves to the audience.
The theme tune was a europop soft rock tune. The lyrics are as follows and were sung by Sandy McLelland
- The heat is on, the time is right,
- It's time for you, for you to play the game.
- 'Cause people are coming, everyone's trying,
- Trying to be the best that they can,
- When they're going for... going for... Gold.
Only the first verse was ever used at the end of the show, but there were further verses to the song. The only time these lyrics were used was during a clips compilation during the semi finals of series one.
Transmissions
BBC1
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes | Weeks |
|---|
| 1 | 12 October 1987 | 31 March 1988 | 92 | 23 | | 2 | 17 October 1988 | 23 March 1989 | 82 | 21 | | 3 | 6 November 1989 | 22 March 1990 | 67 | 17 | | 4 | 5 November 1990 | 22 March 1991 | 65 | 16 | | 5 | 4 November 1991 | 18 March 1992 | 58 | 15 | | 6 | 7 September 1992 | 18 December 1992 | 60 | 15 | | 7 | 26 July 1993 | 12 November 1993 | 68 | 17 | | 8 | 25 April 1994 | 25 August 1994 | 59 | 15 | | 9 | 27 February 1995 | 5 July 1995 | 73 | 18 | | 10 | 1 April 1996 | 9 July 1996 | 59 | 15 |
Five
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
|---|
| 1 | 13 October 2008 | 20 March 2009 | 105 |
Past winners
- Series 1 - : Daphne Fowler
- Series 2 - : Erik Matteson
- Series 3 - : Howard Atkinson
- Series 4 - : Luc Sucholtz
- Series 5 - : Soren Bergman
- Series 6 - : Christine Coslett
- Series 7 - : James DeLoss
- Series 8 - : Mieke Poelman
- Series 9 - : Sven Goll
- Series 10 - : Mike Ramsden (representing Kent)
The prizes were always related in some way to gold. The prize in the first season were tickets for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul (i.e. Gold Medals). A prize in a later year was a gold-mining trip to Australia.
Revival
In Autumn/Winter 2008, Talkback Thames went into production with the re-launch of Going for Gold. It began airing live on Five from Mondays to Fridays and started on 13 October 2008. Auditions are currently being held throughout the UK.
External links
- at UKGameshows.com
- at five.tv
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