A Question of Sport

It looks like it's had quite a bit of money thrown at it actually and looks much bigger than the last set. Looks better on screen too as the last set was starting to look worse for wear - especially as it was a half-bodged version of the very first attempt. They had LED backdrops behind the desks, rather than the audience but I think it might have only lasted two or three shows due to moire effect and looking shocking on screen.

All images from http://www.alexcraig.com/

http://www.alexcraig.com/images/previews/1/1.jpg

I wonder whether the new set will get "tweaked" for other shows. Pop Quiz was an example of this earlier in the year.

http://www.alexcraig.com/images/previews/pop-quiz-tv-set-design.jpg

Who else uses ITC Avant Garde Gothic these days, anyway?



And if I'm right in thinking, the 1998 revamp introduced the On The Buzzer round, while later revamps have tinkered with the traditional rounds (What Happened Next? becoming multiple choice, for instance) and introduced the likes of the Captains' Challenge (which, TBH, I've never liked and have always thought would have been better suited to They Think It's All Over).

Hard to believe that Sue will complete 20 years as host in October - I remember the buzz when she was announced as David Coleman's successor, despite being only nine years old at the time. Also, Matt has been a captain for 13 years now - he must be close to breaking Ally McCoist's record of 363 appearances as captain...

To be fair, that's still considered pretty young to be the host of a quiz show.

I meant *I* was nine years old, of course.

Mind you, Lisa Riley wasn't much older when she took over from Jeremy Beadle on You've Been Framed! the following year...

Anyway, getting back on topic, here's the first mash-up of QOS and TTIAO, from the inaugural Sport Relief in 2002. At this time, John Parrott was just about to depart from QOS, to be replaced by Frankie Dettori.



And here's the second mash-up two years later - by which time Frankie was himself on his way out, to be replaced by Dawson. I doubt many expected at the time that Tuffers would himself become a QOS captain...

The Parrot vs McCoist years were my favourite.
The show is a bit ad hoc with its scheduling at the minute, Sue always signs off with a see you again soon instead of next week.

I think she does that because a) when not in a new series it gets repeated often as a one-off, b) both the Wednesday showing an Friday repeat are easily droppable.

Wouldn't 'see you nextime' be better?

as it was tonight due to sir bruce's death

The repeat is often pre-empted for regional opt outs, it's kind of there in the schedule to be dropped.

360° view of the set:

This feels a bit like when they removed the audience seating behind the guests last time, and people hated it, so they put the seats back. Now they've been moved behind Sue... Also hate that logo. I miss the stadium look set.

http://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/1480350/800full-a-question-of-sport-photo.jpg

Thought I'd point out that yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Sue's first QOS as host.

Here are the opening titles from that episode, preceded by the three-day-old BBC1 balloon.



A glance at Genome reveals that John and Ally were joined by Frankie Dettori, Phil Tufnell, Alison Nicholas and Denise Lewis. Now, if you had said then that Dettori and Tuffers would go on to become captains themselves...