A Question of Sport is a long-running BBC quiz show which started on 2 December 1968 and continues to this day. It is currently recorded at The Studios, MediaCityUK. It has been recorded in Manchester since the programme's inception at various studios including Dickenson Road Studios and then the Granada Studios and New Broadcasting House.

It involves two teams of sports stars answering questions on their own and other sports. Each team has a resident captain, each of whom is joined by two stars of the sports world. Having run almost uninterrupted since 1970, the show is now Britain's longest continuously-running game show with 942 episodes (as of 26 September 2011).^[1] On 8 January 2010 episode No. 885 was a celebration episode of AQoS's 40th birthday (Series 39, episode 13).

Presenters and team members[link]

The show was hosted by Stuart Hall in its regional format from 1968 to 1969, then nationally by David Vine from 1970 to 1978, and then from 1979 until 1997 was anchored by veteran BBC sports commentator David Coleman, although Vine returned for part of one series in 1989 when illness forced Coleman to temporarily stand down from hosting duties. Coleman was also unavailable for two shows in 1996, so one of the team captains, Bill Beaumont, sat in as host (the only team captain ever to host the programme), while the rugby star Will Carling took Beaumont's place as captain and in Coleman's final series as host, Ex-tennis star Sue Barker stood-in for a couple of shows including one at Christmas, A role that she would permanently do after Coleman's retirement.

Many team captains have enjoyed stints on the show down the years, including:

Over the years there have been several guest captains standing in for one of the regulars when they have other commitments. Following Ally McCoist's departure, several guests, including Phil Tufnell, sat in the captain's chair before Tuffers was eventually selected as McCoist's permanent replacement:

• Bobby Moore, Football (1974)
• Bobby Charlton, Football (1974–75)
• John Barnes, Footballer (1992)
• Roger Black, Athlete (1992)
• John Parrott, Snooker (1992)
• Ally McCoist, Footballer (1996)
• Will Carling, Rugby Union (1996)
• Rob Wainwright, Rugby Union (1997)
• David Ginola, Football (2000)
• Matthew Pinsent, Rower (2003)
• Neil Ruddock, Footballer (2004)
• Michael Owen, Footballer (2004)
• David Seaman, Footballer (2004)
• Jamie Redknapp, Footballer (2007)
• Shane Warne, Cricketer (2007)
• Darren Gough, Cricketer (2007)
• Phil Tufnell, Cricketer (2007)
• Ricky Hatton, Boxer (2007)
• Dennis Taylor, Snooker Player (2008)
• Gary Speed, Footballer (2008)

Of these, Cooper, Charlton, Moore, Hughes, Beaumont, Carson, Botham, Parrott, McCoist, Dettori, Owen, Speed and Dawson were still active participants in their sport while appearing in the show. The others had retired.

Sports stars often say they know they have 'made it' when they are invited to appear on A Question Of Sport. The sports personality with most guest appearances is Steve Davis, who has appeared 18 times.

There was also embarrassment for the show's hostess, Sue Barker, many years before she took on the role of the show's presenter. When she appeared as the Mystery Guest, captain Willie Carson incorrectly guessed that she was boxing champion Alan Minter, while the opposing captain, Bill Beaumont, thought she was footballer Ray Clemence. In 1987, Princess Anne appeared as a guest on Emlyn Hughes' team, just weeks after the ex-footballer had embarrassed himself by claiming a photo of her on a horse was jockey John Reid. The show achieved A Question of Sport's highest ever ratings of approximately 19 million viewers. It was the first time a member of the royal family had appeared on a television quiz show. Anne's daughter Zara Phillips also appeared on the show twice in 2006, the latter for a Sport Relief edition.

However Hughes' embarrassment would not be as bad as Ally McCoist or Shane Warne in 2007. During the part of the show called Mystery Guest (see Quiz Format), it was McCoist's turn and he failed to realise it was his own boss at Rangers, Walter Smith, who was disguised. Also, in the 700th edition of the show, a compilation of Mystery Guests was shown as a special round. Here McCoist also failed to recognise himself as a showjumper from a clip some years previous. As for Warne, when the opposing team incorrectly guessed Venus Williams as the sports star shown, the answer was obviously Serena Williams but Warne thought differently and thought it was Roger Federer, despite the two having different skin tone and being of a different gender. Another embarrassing moment for a team captain happened in 2003, when during the Home or Away round where the captains had to guess an anagram, and Frankie Dettori could not recognize his name.

Quiz format[link]

The rounds played include:

• Picture Board - numbered squares reveal sports person for contestant to identify
• Action Round - contestants are asked questions about a montage of sporting action
• What Happened Next? - sports footage is halted at optimum moment and teams are asked what occurred thereafter (often an answer of amusement)
• Observation Round - sports action is shown and contestants are asked questions about details of what they have just seen, e.g. "What colour hat was a certain person wearing?", "How many balls can you see in the following clip?". The footage for the latter question will be of many different events and all show balls, or whatever item has been asked
• Mystery Guest - teams have to identify a sports star in unfamiliar circumstances and with unconventional camera angles
• Home Or Away - contestants can answer a question on their own sport for one point ('home'), or a question on any sport for two points ('away'). Team captains always receive 'away' questions.
• Captain's Challenge - The captains have a contest in different feats
• One Minute Round - teams are asked nine questions in 60 seconds
• On The Buzzer - teams answer questions at quickfire pace (this was only introduced in later years - in the Vine and Coleman eras, the show would end with the remaining six Picture Board questions)

Series run[link]

• Episode 2. Episode 1 not broadcast

Spin-offs[link]

The A Question of Sport format has been applied to various other areas of knowledge. The following spin-off series were all made by the BBC:

• A Question of News, presented by Richard Baker, 1972
• A Question of Entertainment, Tom O'Connor, 1988
• A Question of Pop, Jamie Theakston, 2000–01 which used the same graphics and set as the Sport version but different colours. Noddy Holder and Suggs were the team captains
• A Question of TV, Gaby Roslin, 2001

Roslin also hosted a one-off special, A Question of EastEnders, in 2000. Another one-off special, "A Question of Comedy" was to have been aired on 16 March 2007 as a part of Comic Relief 2007, but after a scandal involving contestant Jade Goody it was replaced with a special edition of Top Gear.

A Question of Spit was a short segment aired in 1988 as part of the inaugural Red Nose Day telethon, featuring Daley Thompson, Barry McGuigan and Mike Gatting forming a team, with their opponents being their own Spitting Image puppets, captained by an Emlyn Hughes puppet. The quiz was hosted by the Spitting Image puppet of David Coleman, with the real Coleman and the puppet Steve Davis also making an appearance.

A Question of Sport Relief is a special version of the show usually presented by a guest presenter on Sport Relief night since 2002. The 2002, 2004 & 2006 versions were hosted by Stephen Fry. 2008's version was hosted by Jimmy Carr after Fry had to pull out having broken his arm.

BBC One Scotland aired a one-off A Question of Scotland as part of Children in Need 2008, with Jackie Bird as quizmaster.

The CBBC programme Dick and Dom In Da Bungalow made a parody called A Question of Muck as part of the creamy muck muck grand finale game.

The CBBC programme The Saturday Show did a segment called A Question of Busted featuring the pop band Busted answering questions about themselves it was presented by Fearne Cotton who in each segment was dressed as Sue Barker.

In popular culture[link]

The What Happened Next? round was spoofed in an episode of A Bit of Fry & Laurie as David Coleman (Fry) asks Emlyn Hughes (Laurie) to guess what happened after the action stopped in the previous sketch. The host's refusal to confirm whether the given answer is correct then leads into another round of the game, with the question of what happened following the original What Happened Next? sketch.

The show was one of many British TV shows reinterpreted by Chanel 9, a recurring sketch on The Fast Show, where it was titled Questo Sporta and featured the mystery guest round.Link to the video on YouTube

References[link]

External links[link]

• A Question of Sport at BBC Online
• A Question of Sport at BBC Programmes
• A Question of Sport at the Internet Movie Database
• A Question of Sport at TV.com
• A Question of Sport at UKGameshows.com

Irakli Charkviani (Georgian: ირაკლი ჩარკვიანი) (November 19, 1961 – February 24, 2006) was a Georgian poet, prose writer, and musician, lately known under his pseudonym Mefe (მეფე, "The King"). Charkviani was known for his eccentric image and poetry, and for eclectic music, which spanned alternative rock, electronic music and hip hop.

Charkviani was born into an élite family in Tbilisi, the capital of then-Soviet Georgia. His father, the journalist and diplomat Gela Charkviani is Georgia’s current ambassador to the United Kingdom, and grandfather Candide Charkviani was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Georgian SSR Communist Party from 1938 to 1952. His greatgrandfather was a prominent Georgian artist Mose Toidze.

Charkviani graduated from the Department of Western European and American Literature, Tbilisi State University. His debut in 1976, with the indie rock project Arishi, passed unnoticed, but the later band Taxi had a greater success and recorded the homonymous album in 1988. In the 1980s, several of Charkviani’s lyrics and short stories, noted for their rebellious character, were published in Georgian literary press. Early in the 1990s, Charkviani emerged as one of the leading artists on Georgia’s alternative and electronic scene. Leading the projects Children’s Medicine (1991-2), and Georgian Dance Empire (1993), he performed throughout Georgia as well as abroad, particularly in Moscow and Eastern Europe. Charkviani’s debut solo-album Svan Song was recorded in Germany in 1993 and proved to be a significant influence on the Georgian alternative music of the 1990s. He composed music for the feature film "Orpheus’s Death" in 1995 and went on to record his second album Ap’ren in 1997, followed by the single Sakartvelo in 1999 and the albums Amo and Savse in 2001 and 2004, respectively. Around the same period, he chose the pseudonym of Mefe, meaning in Georgian "the king". Charkviani also authored several poems, stories and a novel, but his music remained the principal source of his popularity.

He died, reportedly of "heart problems",^[1] at his home on February 24, 2006, leaving several unpublished songs which were subsequently released as the album Dzirs Mefe ("Down with the King") in 2007.

References[link]

External links[link]

• (Georgian) The website dedicated to Irakli Charkviani
• (Russian) Чарквиани Ираклий. Kino-Teatr.Ru