Fifteen-to-One 2014

Alright all? Sorry I haven't been very active as of late; not much to talk about now that UC is on its sabbatical. I will talk about Only Connect next week once the first round is over, and will post stage-by-stage reviews every two weeks thereafter. I hope.

In the mean time, lets turn to something new. Well, newish. Some of you may have noticed the hit quiz Fifteen-to-One has recently been revived. The revival stemmed from a one-off celeb special done for Channel 4's '80s night last September, hosted by Adam (C.) Hills, and won by Jo Brand. It was well enough received that a twenty show run was commissioned, with Sandi Toksvig as host, and had been airing the past few weeks.

Overall, the basic format hasn't changed very much from the original run with Will GS. Two questions each in the first round, and at least one correct answer to stay in the game. The second round of nominating whittles the remaining players down to three, and then a straight question or nominate play-off in the final. That's the same.

However, because the show has to fill an hour long slot, twice as long as the original series, it needs to be padded out. Therefore, we get two extra breaks, one midway through the first round, and one after it. The latter was done before during the original run for the two celeb editions in the early nineties, and the Champion of Champions special a few years later. These ad breaks made the first round take a great deal longer than before, but after that, the pace picks up, and it's a fairly straight forward run through the rest.

Also, we need to have some banter, don't we? Sandi T. chats to a couple of players before each round starts, and, more often than not, will give a small factoid on each answer. The latter is something Will GS did occasionally from what I've been able to find of the original run, but, of course, banter was a no-no in those days. Just question-answer-question-answer and so on. That's why the original run went on as long as it did, allegedly.

One banter related change I do like is Sandi's sending off of eliminated players with 'lights out', a phrase introduced by Adam H. in the celeb special. It's a bit nicer, in my opinion, to give players a proper send-off rather than just moving swiftly on, even if it slows down the pace somewhat. I suppose the pace of the original was such that there wasn't really time to do that.

The series itself: overall, it was good fun to watch. I usually only watched the first two rounds before switching over to Pointless, so as to make who made the final a better surprise. Others prefer to watch the show on catch-up.

Over the nineteen heats, we saw some notable names from other shows, a good few of whom made the final. Among those who didn't were UC alumni James Wilson (Bath 2008-09, who has also been on Only Connect) and Ewan MacAulay from last year's Christ Church team, OC alumni including Roger Johnson, Beth Webster and Howard Pizzey, and others prolific quizzers like Diane Hallagan and Chris Quinn.

Among the prolifics who made the final were: Mark Grant and David Stainer of 'Crossworders' fame, Iwan Thomas (2011 Brain of Britain and second place in Only Connect), Gary Grant (2012 Mastermind and Dave Clark's Only Connect teammate), David Good (1999 UC champion with the OU, and also a previous Fifteen-to-One champion), and LAM's own Rachael 'Cherryade' Neiman and Nic Mortimer.

Also competing were Ian Gretton, Martin Pampel, Steve Cooke, Dave McBryan, Nick Summerfield, Brian Durand, Phil Ryder and Margaret Collins.

Five were eliminated in the first round: Messrs Gretton, Pampel, Mortimer and Durand, and unfortunate, Rach as well. Hard luck Rach, but you did very well in your heat, and getting to the final is a very good achievement.

A titanic struggle then ensued between the remaining ten in the second round, eventually leaving a final three of Dave McBryan, Iwan Thomas and David Stainer. And, like in the original series, the final round was forty questions straight on the buzzer, rather than question or nominate.

Iwan was the first to go, losing his final life with fifteen questions left. The two Davids fought it out for a further thirteen before David Stainer too ran out of lives, and bowed out in second place. And so, it was the least prolific of the three, Dave McBryan, who won the series! Not only that, he did so without losing a single life in the final!

Very well done to Mr McBryan indeed! He goes away with £40,000, rather than the original trophy prize. Mind you, all nineteen heat winners won a trophy for doing so. In the original series, all you got for winning a heat was an invite to come back in the next series!

Overall, the new series of Fifteen-to-One worked pretty well, despite the padding and the unfortunate time slot. It was well worth watching; we saw some great quizzing throughout. If they decide to do another series, let's hope they can improve on it.