Fifteen To One

Fifteen to One was a popular general knowledge quiz show on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, that ran from 1988 to 19 December 2003. Throughout it was presented and produced by William G. Stewart. Some 30,000 contestants appeared on the show.

The basis of the show was devised by John M. Lewis, a former sales manager for British Telecom. He submitted the idea to Regent Productions who developed the programme into a 30 minute format. Originally, there were 20 starting contestants but the figure was cut down to 15 in order to fit the available running time.

Round 1

Over the course of the first two rounds, 12 contestants had to be eliminated.

Each of the 15 numbered contestants began the quiz with three lives. Each contestant was asked a general knowledge question in numerical order and given a period of three seconds to give a correct response. If they failed to answer the question correctly, they lost one of their three lives. After all of the 15 contestants were asked a question, another round of questioning began in the same manner.

There was one slight rule change: if any player failed to give a correct answer to either of their two questions, they lost all three lives and were eliminated from the competition.

Round 2

At this point, each contestant has either 2 or 3 lives remaining. As per Round 1, questions are asked to contestants 1, 2, 3 etc. in turn with a life lost for an incorrect response. As soon as one player answers correctly, the player can begin nominating. This means they can call out the number of the next player to face a question. If the nominated player did not give a correct answer he/she lost a life and the player who made the nomination had to nominate again. If the nominee answered correctly, they become the new nominating player. When a contestant lost their final life they were eliminated from the competition and had to sit down. When only three contestants remained, the first phase of the quiz was over and the programme paused for a commercial break.

Round 3

The end game is played for points. However, before it begins in earnest, the three contestants are restored to the full set of three lives and the number of lives that each player had remaining at the end of Round 2 become part of the player's score. Thus those contestants who had 3 lives left started the second phase with a score of 3 points etc.

In the end game, 40 questions were asked. A wrong answer cost one life (three lost lives leading to elimination - regardless of score), while correct answers scored 10 points. The first question was open to all players to answer on the buzzer. Once one of the players answered 3 questions correctly they were given the opportunity to answer the next question themselves or nominate one of the other two players to answer.

From this point on, after each successfully answered question the host asked - "Question or nominate?" If a nominated player failed to answer a question correctly, the player who made the nomination again had a choice of question or nominate?. If a player chose to answer a question themselves and failed to answer it correctly, the next question was asked on the buzzer. Once all 40 questions were asked, or the last remaining player lost all of his/her lives, the game was over. Any lives that remained were added to the surviving player's score with a value of 10 points each. The player who survived longest was declared the winner. In the instance where two or three players survived until the end of 40 questions, the player with the higher or highest score (regardless of lives left) was the winner.

Grand Final

At the end of the series those people whose names remained on the finals board competed in the grand final. This was played as per a regular episode with two changes. Due to the high standard of the competitors, the running time was 45 minutes. Also, in Round 3, all the questions were played on the buzzer. Presumably this is to prevent any individual player from hogging the limited number of questions available.

Prizes

There was no actual prize for winning an individual episode. This meant that a lot of players would win one of the daily shows but would not post a winning score to trouble the high score board for a place in the grand final. In later series, a policy was implemented that such players would be invited back for an automatic place on the next series.

The series prize tended to be a classical artefact (for example a Greek vase), and was presented to the winning contestant by the regular voice-over artist, Laura Calland (in reality, Stewart's wife). Calland's voice-overs were occasionally provided by other presenters, usually Philip Lowrie, but only Calland was seen on screen, when she presented the prize.

The grand final of the first series of 2003 saw the first and only tie in the show's history. No provision had been made for a tie breaker so the presenter offered to buy a prize of equal value for the two winners!

Records

A maximum end game score of 433 could be achieved if a player started the second phase with all three lives intact and correctly answered all 40 questions. The player scored 3 points for retaining 3 lives from Rounds 1 and 2, 400 points for answering 40 questions correctly and 30 points for retaining 3 lives from the end game. The maximum score was achieved only once by Bill McKaig, a minister from Glasgow.

The feat of answering all 40 third round questions correctly was also achieved by Daphne Fowler and Michael Penrice who both finished with a score of 432.

Winners of Fifteen to One

Series	Grand Final Winner	Top of the Finals Board	Score	Shown
1	Jon Goodwin	Peter Knott	270	1988
2	Mal Collier	Fred Gavin	290
3	Kevin Ashman	Mal Collier	261	1989
4	Andrew Francis	Thomas Dyer	202
5	Anthony Martin	Anthony Martin	251	1990
6	Mike Kirby	Mike Kirby	281
7	Thomas Dyer	Mike Kirby	263	1991
8	Anthony Martin	Katharine Heaney	242
9	Julian Allen	Barbara Thompson	252	1992
10	Barbara Thompson	Sheri Evans	231
11	Anthony Martin	Tim Goadby	242	1993
12	Glen Binnie	Andrew McGlennon	302
13	Stanley Miller	Peter Fillingham	251	1994
14	Leslie Booth	Lesley Webster	262
15	Leslie Booth	Christopher Cooke	292	1995
16	Ian Potts	Susan 'O Donoghue	231
17	Arnold O? Hara	John Clarke	291	1996
18	Martin Riley	Martin Riley	333
19	Trevor Montague*	Christopher Bostock	292	1997
20	Bill Francis	Rosemary Broome	311
21	Nick Terry	Christopher Bostock	272
22	Nick Terry	Bill McKaig	272	1998
23	Bill McKaig	Roy Smith	293
24	Paul Hillman	Michael Irwin	311
25	Nick Terry	Bill McKaig	433	1999
26	Nick Terry	Michael Penrice	321
27	Les Arnott	John Jenkins	303	2000
28	Dag Griffiths	Daphne Fowler	432
29	Matti Watton	Daphne Fowler	383
30	Daphne Fowler	Daphne Fowler	333	2001
31	Daphne Fowler	Martin Saunders	292
32	Matti Watton	Michael Penrice	423	2002
33	David Good	Jim MacIntosh	271
34	Jack Welsby David Stedman	Azeez Feshitan	?	2003
35	John Harrison	John Harrison	?

• Montague lost his prize in a court case. William G. Stewart was tipped off by an eagle-eyed viewer that Montague had previously appeared on the programme in disguise and under a different name to avoid the programme's strict rules that losing players could not re-enter unless invited.