A Question of Sport

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A Question of Sport pop
Genre	Sporting Panel game
Starring	Sue Barker, Ally McCoist, Matt Dawson
Country of origin	UK
No. of episodes	741
Production
Running time	30 min
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One
Original run	5 January 1970 – present
Links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

A Question of Sport is a long-running BBC quiz show which started on 5 January 1970 and continues to this day.

It involves two teams of sports stars answering questions on their own and other sports. Each team has a resident captain, each of whom is joined by two stars of world sport.

Having run almost uninterrupted since 1970, the show is now Britain's longest continuously-running game show. As of 14 March 2006 there have been 741 shows.

1 Presenters and team members
2 Quiz format
3 Spin-offs
4 Other information
5 External links

[edit] Presenters and team members

The show was hosted by David Vine until 1978, and then from 1979 until 1997 was anchored by veteran BBC commentator David Coleman. Since his retirement, the show has been hosted by ex-tennis star Sue Barker, who once served as a mystery guest in 1982 on when she was dressed in a skunk costume and was identified as a man by both teams by mistake.

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

Jockeys Willie Carson and Frankie Dettori
Rugby union legends Bill Beaumont, Gareth Edwards, Matt Dawson and Cliff Morgan
Footballers Emlyn Hughes, Neil Ruddock and Ally McCoist
Cricketers Ian Botham and Fred Trueman
Boxer Henry Cooper
Athlete Brendan Foster
Snooker player John Parrott

Of these, Cooper, Hughes, Beaumont, Carson, Botham, Parrott, Ruddock and Dettori were still active participants in their sport while appearing in the show. The others had retired. Ex-footballer Ally McCoist and rugby star Matt Dawson are the current team captains. McCoist no longer presents as he took the Rangers F.C. coaching job.

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.

In 1987, Princess Anne appeared as a guest on the team captained by Emlyn Hughes, just weeks after the ex-footballer had embarrassed himself by claiming a photo of her on a horse was jockey John Reid. 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.

[edit] Quiz format

The rounds played include:

Picture Board - numbered squares reveal sports person for 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 (often an answer of amusement)
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?", "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 a point ("home"), or a question on any sport for double the points ("away")
One Minute Round - teams are asked nine questions in a quickfire 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)

[edit] 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:

A Question of News, presented by Richard Baker, 1972.
A Question of Entertainment, Tom O'Connor, 1988.
A Question of Pop, Jamie Theakston, 2000-1.
A Question of TV, Gaby Roslin, 2001.

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 March 16th, 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.