Ultra Quiz
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Revision as of 20:46, 7 June 2006
Contents |
Host
Series 1: Michael Aspel
Series 2: Sir David Frost and Willie Rushton
Series 3: Stu Francis and Sarah Hollamby
Co-hosts
Outdoor reporters, series 1: Sally James and Jonathan King
Prediction experts, series 1: Russell Grant and David Manuel
Broadcast
Action Time/TVS for ITV, 1983-5
Synopsis
We believe that only one Japanese game show has the distinction of being featured on Nationwide; Ultra Quiz was it. Clips showing the full variety of the show's antics predated Clive James' presentation of the same by many years. Watch as losing contestants are thrown off a ship, thrown into jail or are given forfeits such as eating a whole chicken!
Sadly, nothing quite as serious translated into the British version of the same name, though it did have a particularly cruel streak all the same. A large number of people gathered on a beach or in a car park and answered questions by standing in giant circles according to their preference between multiple-choice answers, being eliminated for wrong answers.
Ever-decreasing numbers of successful contestants would be led upon a tour of the world, which would end abruptly upon poor performance within one of the inherent trivia tests within. A single prize for the single winner - a then unheard-of £10,000.
In series 1, 2000 contestants lined up on Brighton Beach as they were whittled down to just 200 by means of a number of either/or questions. The lucky few then were hurded onto a cross-channel Ferry to France, and given a quiz to do. Everyone on board were given numbers to wear - little did they know that they represented their scores. So you could see other people's score but not your own. The top 50 then went on to a long elimination process over the weeks, whilst the others were sent straight back on the ferry home. In the studio, TV's bubbliest Aquarius Russell Grant and computer boffin David Manuel (sporting a very spangly Epson QX10) kept predicting who they thought would win the game. When it got down to the final two, they both predicted the wrong person. The final took place in the TVS Studios, Southampton.
In series 2, all the costs of the studio were dumped and instead David Frost, a cheaper version of Alan Whicker if you will, travelled the world with the contestants. The final took place in Hawaii.
Series 3 was dubbed Ultra Quiz '85, lest anyone forget the year. This series went a bit more down the pier in its humour, and the final was held in - where else? - Bournemouth.
Key moments
In the series 1 final, the contestants' scores were displayed in terms of the number of questions answered wrongly - so the audience were tricked into thinking that the wrong contestant won! Ho ho!
As a final last surprise, the prize in series 1 of the UK show was paid entirely in £1 coins (which were a new concept to the British public at the time).
Inventor
Based on an original Japanese format, which is in the Guinness Book of Records for the quiz with the most contestants (5,000). At the end of the series, the two remaining contestants played for prizes which included a racehorse, a helicopter, and a plot of land in Nevada.
Host of the original Japanese programme