General knowledge quiz show where 15 contestants start and only 1 can continue to the final you must be in the top 15 of the leader board of the series to go onto the grand final of the series. The show as been revived and there is also a celebrity version. There have been 38 series with 2326 episodes.
At the preliminary auditions (for London , held in the cinema that was next to Wandsworth Town Hall, a mock up of the format was used, involving bits of cardboard and standing behind chairs.
William G Stewart explained the rules, for those that managed to miss the show !, and also gave due credit to the chap that actually devised about 80% of the show format, it was either a friend or business acquaintance of his from my memory. We all got £10 for turning up a the audition.
This writer has been on the show three times. (Cannot recall exactly when , early to mid 90s I guess ) No, I am not posting the winning trio photograph (contestents got Black and white 8x10s of WG and All, WG and Last Three and WG and Winner mailed to them, how many depending on how far they got I think ).
Recorded at Capital Studios, Wandsworth. A Free lunch and tea when I was reserve in case any booked person didn't turn up ( they didn't ) , so strictly I was not.
Through to last three and last person standing as the others kept eliminating themselves, W G " Let's see how far we can go" and I got a question on some kind of lighting wrong then I was out. Probably the shortest episode ever (In part because at the start when every-one asked if they could hear OK, one old chap had clearly forgotten his hearing aid, and didn't hear that, or any other question ). I think when shown it either went into one of the 25 min slots when there is a party political broadcasts, or William G Stewart's thing about the Elgin Marbles must be returned to Greece.
As an episode winner I was back for another show, again through to last three, but eliminated by a woman faster on the buzzer than I , she was a member of Mensa from Cornwall !