Never Mind the Full Stops

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Never Mind the Full Stops
Format	Game show
Presented by	Julian Fellowes
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	5
Production
Executive producer(s)	Martin Scott Katie Taylor
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes approx.
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC Four
Original run	11 May 2006 – 29 June 2006
External links
Official website
IMDb profile

Never Mind the Full Stops is a British television panel game based on the English language, its idiosyncrasies, and its misuse. It is hosted by the British actor, author and Oscar-winning screenwriter, Julian Fellowes. Each episode lasts 30 minutes. The series was filmed in March 2006 at Channel 4's studios in Horseferry Road, Westminster. It was originally broadcast on BBC Four, and aired on BBC Two from 9 October 2006.

Two teams of two people are faced with various questions and challenges concerning English grammar, spelling and usage. The show is divided into rounds, with themes such as identifying the famous author of a badly-spoken sentence (John Prescott was one of those picked on in the first episode) and correcting the punctuation in a written sentence. There is also a quick-fire round with questions such as "What is a malapropism?" Points are awarded throughout the show to determine the winning team.

Each show starts with the host giving a 'difficult-to-spell' word and an example mnemonic to help remember that spelling, and by the end of the show the panellists have to have devised their own. In episode one Julian Fellowes gave the example arithmetic: A Rat In The House Might Eat The Ice Cream; and Ned Sherrin's version (which earned his team the win as the final points were tied) was: As Richard Interred The Head Master Every Tiny Infant Cheered. By the end of series 1, even Julian Fellowes had realized that these so-called mnemonics were invariably harder to remember than the spellings – particularly as they were rarely related to the words in question.

The programme's name is derived from that of the long-running pop music panel game Never Mind the Buzzcocks, which is itself taken from the title of the Sex Pistols album, Never Mind the Bollocks.

[edit] Series 1

Air date	Team 1	Team 2
11 May 2006	Carol Thatcher, Ned Sherrin	Janet Street-Porter, David Aaronovitch
18 May 2006	Nina Wadia, John Sergeant	Tim Brooke-Taylor, Rod Liddle
25 May 2006	Bonnie Greer, Dave Gorman	Eve Pollard, Rod Liddle
1 June 2006	Gyles Brandreth, Jessica Fellowes	Roger McGough, Sue Carroll
29 June 2006	Jilly Cooper, Paddy O'Connell	Marina Hyde, Simon Fanshawe