Going for Gold is a British television game show that originally aired on BBC Onebetween 12 October 1987 and 9 July 1996. It has since been revived for Channel 5 from 13 October 2008 to 20 March 2009.
The original series
Going for Gold was originally broadcast on BBC One from 12 October 1987 to 9 July 1996, usually, after the lunchtime broadcast of Australian soap opera Neighbours. It was presented by Irish broadcaster Henry Kelly, and its defining concept was that it featured contestants from different European countries who competed against each other to answer questions (all in English) to win a prize. The show was shown on BBC One in the UK and on Super Channel (later NBC Super Channel) in Continental Europe and on BBC TV Europe (which relayed BBC One output up to its dissolution in early-1991).
The 1987–1996 run of the quiz show each week had seven contestants that spoke English (each representing a different European country) would compete against each other for a place in the finals. The show followed a repechage format (now common, but then, unusual), whereby, unsuccessful contestants from Monday's show would return on Tuesday, and so on throughout the week. Each episode lasted for 25 minutes, including four rounds.
There were ten series in total (two in 1992). The first five series were broadcast during the winter, and many of these were split in half by the Christmas break. The (second) 1992 and 1993 series went out in the autumn, the last three were broadcast during the summer. The 1996 series featured competitors from the United Kingdom only.
52 episodes of the BBC series are no longer in the archives, and one other only exists in an offair VHS recording. Although Challenge who are repeating the first series says there are 10 episodes missing as opposed to 9 episodes missing Lost Shows are saying.
2008 revival
The show was revived and produced by talkbackTHAMES and aired on Channel 5, premiering from 13 October to 19 December 2008. The new version featured only contestants from the UK and Ireland, was broadcast live and hosted by newsreader John Suchet. Former ITV Play host Alex Kramer, did the newly introduced viewers' phone-in question section from 17 November 2008 until 20 March 2009, repeating the questions several times and talking to the selected phone-in contestant. The set questions involve many clues to an item or person, and the phone-ins were notorious for taking up significant amounts of time during the show.
The show continued its run between 5 January and 20 March 2009. Vicky Letch temporarily replaced Alex Kramer as the viewer's phone-in host whilst Alex was on holiday. When John Suchet was unavailable, the programme was hosted by Dean Wilson. At the end of the series, the sixteen winners with the most daily wins contested four semi-finals, the winners of which competed in the series final on 20 March 2009, won by Iwan Thomas.
Format
Opening round (Round 1)
Each edition began with a short general knowledge round to all seven contestants. Out of the contestants who started the show, four would go through to the next round (always referred to as the "first round proper" by Kelly). These four would be the first who managed to answer each of the four general knowledge questions correctly. These questions would usually take the form of a 20 to 30-second description of an object, person, animal or place (usually beginning "Who am I?", "What am I?", etc.), with progressively more details being revealed by Kelly until someone was able to identify it. By the Thursday show, there would be only four contestants left to play the opening round and so several questions were asked and the first person to two points would join the previous days' winners in "the first round proper".
Beat the Buzzer (Round 2)
The Beat the Buzzer round was a general knowledge round, played with hands on plungers. Questions were worth one, two or three points. A contestant who gave a correct answer would be told the subject of the next question, and got to choose the value of that question. If nobody answered a question correctly, a general knowledge question worth a single point was used next. The first three players to reach six points went on to play the next round.
Four in a Row (Round 3)
In this round, each of the remaining contestants were asked to pick a category (out of a choice of four). The order in which they picked the categories was based on the order in which they progressed from the previous round. Each would then have to answer questions on their chosen category for 40 seconds.
Players scored based on the number of consecutive questions they got right – if an incorrect answer was given, their score returned to zero, the score taken from this round was the highest point reached over 40 seconds. After this round, the two highest scoring players went through to the final round. A "first to two" general knowledge playoff was held if there was a tie, using the same style of questions from round 1.
Final round (Round 4)
In the final, every question was worth between four and one points depending on how quickly they were answered. Again, the questions pertained to a famous person, place, thing, fictional character or event. However, only one player at a time was allowed to hit his/her buzzer, as indicated by a timer graphic running down the centre of the screen. If a player gave an incorrect answer, their section of the time was passed over to their opponent and the time (and the question) continued.
Progression to the finals
The first player to reach nine points in this round won the daily game, and went through to the end of week final (an automatic place in the 'first round proper' on Thursday), from where, the winner progressed to the later stages of the series. The losing players all came back the next day, starting with the same pool of players each weekday, minus the winner of the week's earlier shows.
Theme tune and opening sequence
Going for Gold had a memorable theme tune, which was composed by Hans Zimmer, a German composer who has since carved a successful career in Hollywood, and Sandy McLelland. During the opening sequence, the theme tune would be sung (by McLelland), whilst the contestants would appear one by one on the screen and would wave, smile or gesture in various ways to introduce themselves to the audience.
The theme tune was a europop soft rock tune. The lyrics are as follows and were sung by Sandy McLelland.
The heat is on, the time is right, It's time for you for you to play your game, 'cause, people are coming, everyone's trying, trying to be the best that they can, when they're going for going for gold!
Only the first verse was ever used at the end of the show, but there were further verses to the song.
Champions
- Series 1 –
: Daphne Fowler
- Series 2 –
: Erik Matteson
- Series 3 –
- Series 4 –
: Luc Sucholtz
- Series 5 –
: Soren Bergman
- Series 6 –
: Christine Coslett
- Series 7 –
- Series 8 –
: Mieke Poelman
- Series 9 –
- Series 10 –
The prizes were always related in some way to gold. The prize in the first season were tickets for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul(i.e. Gold Medals). A prize in a later year was a gold-mining trip to Australia.
On Five, the winner of each programme received £1,000; the series winner won £5,000.
- Series 1 –