40 Fun Facts About Fifteen to One

Why did Fifteen to One's producers abolish the live studio audience after the first three series?

They whispered the answers audibly once too often, so the audience was scrapped. Later applause was pre-recorded, and the only real spectators were knocked-out players and a few guests.

Which television producer hosted Fifteen to One for its entire original run from 1988 to 2003?

William G. Stewart meant to front only the pilot until a permanent host could be found. He ended up asking the questions for all 35 series.

Which comedian, a former chair of Radio 4's The News Quiz, hosted Fifteen to One's daytime revival?

Sandi Toksvig fronted all ten revival series, each episode running an hour instead of the original half-hour.

Which Australian comedian presented the 2013 celebrity special that brought Fifteen to One back to British television?

Adam Hills fronted the one-off as part of a weekend of programmes devoted to the 1980s. British viewers know him best from The Last Leg, which he began hosting in 2012.

Which later BBC quiz stood its contestants in a semicircle of podiums, a layout Fifteen to One had used first?

The Weakest Link arrived in 2000 with a similar curved line-up. By then the older quiz had been numbering its lecterns 1 to 15 for twelve years.

Which treasures did Fifteen to One's original host campaign to send home, joking he would lecture on them mid-show?

The Elgin Marbles were his great cause: he wanted them returned to Greece. He joked that if too few players survived round one, he would fill the time with a talk on them.

Which game show alternated with Fifteen to One in the Channel 4 schedule until 1996?

Countdown and the quiz took turns in the schedule for eight years before running side by side. Countdown was also the very first programme the channel ever broadcast.

What kind of prize did the series champion of the original Fifteen to One usually take home?

A classical artefact, such as an ancient Greek vase, went to each series winner. Nothing at all was awarded for winning an ordinary episode.

In round two of Fifteen to One, what did a correct answer allow a contestant to do next?

Nominate a rival and they had to take the next question: a miss cost them a life, while a right answer handed them the power to choose.

What mishap during a 1995 Fifteen to One recording meant a whole set of questions had to be scrapped?

The host dropped his cards while explaining the rules of round one, so the questions could not be used. One contestant that day, Ingram Wilcox, later won a million-pound quiz jackpot.

Which comedian and former psychiatric nurse won the 2013 celebrity special of Fifteen to One for charity?

Jo Brand outlasted the other famous faces in a one-off special watched by 1.64 million viewers. Its success led to a full daytime revival the following year.

Daphne Fowler, twice a Fifteen to One series champion, later became a regular on which BBC quiz?

Eggheads signed her as one of its original quiz champions in 2003. On Fifteen to One she once answered all 40 final questions correctly yet missed the maximum score by one point.

What is the maximum possible score in a Fifteen to One final, achieved only once, by Bill McKaig?

433 is 400 for all forty answers, 30 for three unspent lives in the final and 3 for lives kept through the earlier rounds. McKaig managed it in 1999.

Bill McKaig, the only Fifteen to One contestant to record a perfect final score, worked in which profession?

A church minister from Scotland, McKaig got all 40 final questions right without losing a life. His two beaten opponents were invited back, a rare exception to the rule barring losers.

Laura Calland, who married Fifteen to One's original host in 1997, performed which role on the programme?

Voice-over artist Calland introduced the show from its fourth series and stepped in front of the camera at Grand Finals to hand the champion the prize.

Trevor Montague was sued by Fifteen to One's makers in 1998 after sneaking back onto the show by what means?

Using a false name, Steve Romana, and a disguise, he returned in 1992 despite the ban on beaten players. A viewer spotted the likeness during a repeat and tipped off the channel.

Roughly how many questions had been asked on Fifteen to One when its original run ended after 2,265 shows?

About 350,000 questions had been put to 33,975 contestants across 35 series, figures the host read out himself on the final show.

In which Scottish city was the revived Fifteen to One recorded from its second series, at the BBC's Pacific Quay?

Glasgow hosted nine of the ten daytime revival series at BBC Pacific Quay. Only the first was taped in England, at Elstree.

Which country's version of Fifteen to One, hosted by Tadeusz Sznuk, began in 1994 with only ten contestants?

Poland's version, whose title means One Out of Ten, is the second longest-running quiz show in the country's television history.

Which quizzer, later a record-breaking Mastermind champion, won the third series of Fifteen to One in 1989?

Kevin Ashman's series win was his first major television quiz success. A decade later he came back and beat 24 former players in the show's Millennium Quiz.

The 1999 Millennium Quiz of Fifteen to One, which brought back 25 past players, aired on which holiday?

Christmas Day viewers saw a contest where lives only mattered in the final round. Before that, players began on 100 points, gaining 10 for a right answer and losing 5 for a miss.

Why was the contestant at position four edited out of Fifteen to One's Grand Final shown in December 2000?

For legal reasons the player could not be identified, so the camera jumped from position 3 straight to position 5. The contestant went out in round one, so the rest ran as normal.

At which British holiday camp chain did Fifteen to One's original host work before his television career began?

Butlins took him on as a redcoat at its Pwllheli camp in 1958, after industrial action stopped him from joining the Merchant Navy.

Which Liverpool comedian won a holiday-camp talent contest organised by Fifteen to One's future host?

Jimmy Tarbuck was a teenager when he won, and the victory set him on the road to stand-up comedy and a long career fronting game shows of his own.

Fifteen to One's original host produced which 1970s Sid James sitcom, later marrying its actress Sally Geeson?

Bless This House cast Geeson as Sid James's daughter. She and the producer married in 1976, the year the sitcom ended, and had two children.

Before Fifteen to One, its original host produced which ITV game show fronted by Leslie Crowther from 1984?

The Price Is Right went to Crowther after he and Joe Brown each recorded a pilot episode. Its producer made the occasional cameo appearance on screen.

John M. Lewis, who devised the format of Fifteen to One, had been a sales manager at which company?

British Telecom was his employer when a documentary on American game shows convinced him he could do better. He posted his idea to a handful of producers, and all but one turned it down or never replied.

How were Fifteen to One contestants assigned their numbered positions, 1 to 15, before each recording?

By drawing lots from a bag before videotaping. The number mattered, because questions in the first two rounds went round the semicircle in numerical order.

What did a Fifteen to One contestant have to do upon losing a final life, as the spotlight went out?

Players had to sit down the moment they were eliminated. With the studio audience long gone, those beaten contestants were among the few people left watching in the room.

What colour were the three neon lights on each Fifteen to One lectern that showed a contestant's remaining lives?

Green neon lights were one of three fixtures on every lectern, along with the player's number and a name badge that contestants in the earlier series wore themselves.

Fifteen to One sometimes lost its slot when Channel 4 covered England Test matches or which horse-racing meeting?

Cheltenham coverage took the quiz's place, which is why some series had fewer episodes. When foot-and-mouth cancelled the 2001 meeting, no repeats were shown to fill the gap.

Fifteen to One contestant Ingram Wilcox later won £1 million on a quiz show hosted by which presenter?

Chris Tarrant saw Wilcox win the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? jackpot in 2006, the last top-prize winner of his time as host.

The comedian who hosted the daytime revival of Fifteen to One from 2014 was born in which country?

Denmark is her birthplace: she was born in Copenhagen to a foreign correspondent father and spent most of her youth abroad, mainly in New York.

What cash prize did the Grand Final winner receive in the revived Fifteen to One from 2014 onward?

£40,000 went to each revival champion, and every episode winner now took home a trophy as well.

The original Fifteen to One was filmed at Capital Studios in which district of south-west London?

Wandsworth's Capital Studios housed the quiz throughout its original run. In the last few series even contestants' guests were barred from the studio after the equipment was rearranged.

Which former BBC royal correspondent was the announcer on Fifteen to One's 2013 celebrity special?

Jennie Bond spent fourteen years covering the royal family for the BBC before introducing the famous faces on the one-off special.

Viewers who predicted the top and bottom scores on Fifteen to One's finals board could win £50 of what?

Book tokens went to five correct entries drawn from a hat. The contest was called off the year a player hit the maximum score, because the press reported it before entries closed.

Which Fifteen to One contestant won four Grand Finals, more than anyone else, yet never topped the finals board?

Nick Terry took his four titles between 1997 and 1999. He also holds the record for the lowest winning Grand Final score, just 52, after both opponents lost all their lives.

Which company, founded in 1982 by the show's original host, made Fifteen to One for Channel 4?

Regent Productions developed the quiz from an idea sent in by a salesman. Its founder sold the company to Pearson Television in 1999.

In 1999, Fifteen to One ran its only series of a spin-off for which group of contestants?

School pupils played in teams of five, with three secondary schools in each show. Lives barely featured, coming into play only in the buzzer final.