Ultra Quiz

Over the past few months (crikey) we’ve been greatly enjoying the ADC Collection on Youtube‘s uploads of Ultra Quiz 84, and the first half of Ultra Quiz 85.

For reference, here is the semi-final of the first series of Ultra Quiz from 1983.

Each series follows the same broad format based loosely on the Japanese original – 1000 people start in episode one at a location, they are very quickly whittled down to about fifty using multiple choice questions then week by week they face regular elimination quizzes and tasks until one person left standing eight-weeks later wins £10,000 at a live final. The credits are a veritable who’s who of the genre. Jeremy Fox! Gyles Brandreth! Beadle! Nigel Lythgoe!

The first series in 1983 is probably closest in style to the Japanese original – Michael Aspel linking film packages from a studio whilst Russell Grant and David Manuel try and predict who will be going out with astrology and computers. The games are administered on location by Sally James from Tiswas and ex-record company exec and, er, person non grata Jonathan King. As contestants, the longer you lasted the further around the world you got to go, but the show enjoyed a devious, almost practical jokish-streak in some of its reveals, and in particular kept the loser punishment element of the Japanese original, albeit extremely toned down, more of a comedy forfeit really (although having to get the next flight back from Hong Kong having just landed must have rankled). Of note: several rounds where they just did a questionnaire whilst they were travelling or at lunch with not much playalong value at all.

Ultra Quiz 1984 is fascinating, not least because we’ve got the entire series available to watch. No longer is there a studio element, everything is on location and we have David Frost in light entertainment mode with comedy sidekick (and forfeit administrator) Willie Rushton. The questions throughout are surprisingly quite highbrow and dry (or at least feel that way almost 40 years later) as is the sense of humour shown throughout. They go to these interesting places around the world, but what they do in those places is by and large not greatly interesting, usually a straight five or ten question quiz, occasionally with an added physical-skill element for a few bonus points, eliminations of low scorers at the ad break and end of the show. They play up the experiences the contestants get for surviving an elimination and that the losers aren’t going to have quite so great a time. It’s got a great theme tune, but it’s not as action-packed as it would lead you to believe.

And then we come to Ultra Quiz 1985 which very openly has gone from the ends of the Earth to the end of the pier. The show is no longer going around the world but around the UK. Heavyweight Frost and Rushton have become Crackerjack‘s Stu Francis and Sara Hollamby, who are a bit crap but fun. It’s become more of an entertainment show with several routines from The Nigel Lythgoe Dancers and various 80s special guests. The first episode is not a winner, not just for of-its-time content (ring-master Jim Davidson! A monkey on a leash!), but for having about five questions total across the hour. It’s pretty easy to see why there probably wasn’t an Ultra Quiz 1986.

BUT! But but but. The next week they move to Jersey and it’s very clear there have been moves to make the whole event a bit more viewer friendly – more physical games with an element of slapstick, quizzes where you might be able to get some of the answers (although that’s not to say there is more difficult material here as well). Games with a heavy basis on the locations they find themselves in. There’s even a funny Stan Boardman joke. At the end of this episode they’re down to ten people, where usually it’d take them five or six episodes to get to this point. What gives?

Well it turns out at this point Ultra Quiz 85 basically invents the modern day competition show genre, except twenty-years early. Contestants compete in games all episode to accrue points. At the end of the episode, the bottom two scorers have to face off in a Sudden Death quiz to stay in the competition, one person eliminated a week until the Final. You might find a few contestants you want to get behind! Lipsync For Your Life? Stu Francis was administering it first. The show might not have had a massive budget, but it’s been quite imaginative on theming for the locations.

Basically I think the last series of Ultra Quiz gets a has a bit of a bad rep and I think it deserves at least a little bit of a reappraisal. The singing and dancing and sketches are open to taste but as a format it was light years ahead of its time – the final apparently got 17m viewers. Could it work today? Not sure. The closest we’ve had in recent years would have been Red or Black which was distinctly Not A Hit. Still you’ve got to think there’s something in an Ant and Dec £1m around the world massively multiplayer eliminatory contest hasn’t there? With modern editing you’d think you’d be able to tell the story in an entertaining way.