| Running time | 30 mins |
|---|---|
| Country | UK |
| Languages | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| TV adaptations | BBC 1 (1962-75) |
| Air dates | 1 May 1948 to 2 December 1986 |
| Opening theme | Marching Strings |
| Other themes | Fanfare for the Common Man (ELP prog rock version) |
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.
Contents |
It 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, also the heyday of University Challenge. 1975 also coincided with the phasing out of many grammar schools.
A decision was announced on 28 September 1986 to stop the programme. It finished on Tuesday 2 December 1986. The producer, Graham Frost, was reported to have said it was cancelled because the competitive nature of the show jarred with modern educational philosophy. The BBC was reported to have been preparing a non-competitive inter-schools show where pupils no longer had questions with a right and wrong answer. However the BBC said 'there are no programmes planned involving schools on the radio'.
Each school fielded a team of four ranging in age from under 13 to under 18.
The programme migrated to TV, where it ran from 1962 to 1975, and was called Television Top of the Form.
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.
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.[1]
Top of The Form was satirised in the pre-Python series At Last The 1948 Show.
The "Natural Born Quizzers" 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.