Un Cwestiwn
Synopsis
Un Cwestiwn is all about the selection, choosing one contestant out of eight to answer the one prize question.
Four tasks help to narrow down the potential winner. Task One is a single multiple choice question. Buzzers come out for Task Two, alternating memory puzzles and unscrambling Welsh words. We lose a couple of players after this task.
Task Three can be long - to succeed, contestants need to buzz in on a general knowledge question, then pick a category from those on offer and get that question right. With the questions pitched at a good level for contestants around 13 years old, there are plenty of errors to reset the game. Later shows turned some of these category questions to multiple-choice ones, reducing the chance for prolonged errors.
The studio set has podiums and changes colour.
Task Four is played by the last three contestants. Here, the challenge is to add up numbers on the left of the display, and count an item appearing on the right. Add the numbers, and count bananas (but not pencils), for instance.
First to give three correct answers faces the final question. Host Iwan Griffiths introduced the prize question at the start of the show, and has reduced eight possible answers to four. If the contender got their question right in Task One, another incorrect answer is removed. Pick the one right answer to the one question to win one prize, one trophy raising one finger.
One copy of the Un Cwestiwn trophy.
The visuals on screen aren't great - we never quite know who is in play, who has qualified for the next task, who has made a mistake. The brief show - 18 minutes from start to finish - allows little time to know the anonymous contestants, and the greatest value is as a test of general knowledge in Welsh.
Cwestiwn nesa!
A second series aired in early 2020, with a few changes. Each contestant starts with three lives, and if they get three questions wrong before the end of Round Three, they're out of the game entirely. (The rounds are now called Rounds, not Tasks.)
One question each in Round One, and lose a life if you get a question wrong. Round Two continues to mix scrambled Welsh words with a memory game, but now adds an Odd Symbol Out question. First six to give a correct answer qualify.
Round Three now shows 12 categories to the contestants, with a highlight moving at random between them. After a sound signal, someone can buzz in and claim that question - either for themselves, or to give to another competitor and hope to run down their lives. Only one question per category, once it's been claimed it's gone. First three to give a single correct answer qualify.
No change to Round Four, still a counting game, and the first to give three correct answers qualifies for the One Question, and potentially the prize.
A third series of Un Cwestiwn was made and shown from September 2021, the first since the COVID pandemic began. There were a few changes. Six competitors took part, rather than eight, allowing for greater distances in the small studio. Round 2 lost just one player, and included some "what's missing from this picture" questions and "complete this well-known phone number / email address".
No change to play in Round 3, and we still reduce to three players for Round 4, and one player to answer the One Question. The players fill time and talk to host Iwan about the question, sharing ideas on what they think is correct, perhaps influencing each other.
Trivia
Shown in S4C's "Stwnsh" block of shows for young people.
The title translates as "One Question". "Cwestiwn nesa" translates as "Next question". See, you know more Welsh than you thought.
