Going for Gold
European contestants competed in English for a prize.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Game show
- Presenter
- Henry Kelly (1987–1996)
- John Suchet (2008–2009)
- Dean Wilson (2008–2009: stand-in)
- Starring
- Alex Kramer (2008–2009); Vicki Letch (2008–2009: stand-in)
- Voices
- Martin Buchanan
- Theme music
- Sandy McClelland; Hans Zimmer
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Series
- 10 (BBC1); 1 (Channel 5)
Facts from the source article.
Background
Irish broadcaster Henry Kelly hosted the show, which was built around contestants from various European nations competing in English-language trivia for a prize. The theme music was written by Hans Zimmer, who would go on to become a multi-award-winning composer. During its original run, seven contestants took part each week, each representing a different European country—including the four nations of the United Kingdom, plus Jersey and the Isle of Man, which fielded their own representatives. The competition used a repechage format: contestants who lost on Monday returned on Tuesday, and so on through the week. Each 25-minute episode contained four rounds. Ten series were produced in total, with two airing in 1992. The first five series were broadcast in winter, often split by the Christmas break. The second series of 1992 and the 1993 series aired in autumn, while the final three series were summer broadcasts. The programme was later revived by Talkback Thames for Channel 5, premiering on 13 October 2008 and running until 19 December 2008. This version was broadcast live, limited to contestants from the UK and Ireland, and hosted by newsreader John Suchet. The set questions provided a series of clues pointing to an item or person, and the phone-ins became known for eating up large chunks of airtime. Vicky Letch temporarily filled in for Alex Kramer as the phone-in host while Kramer was on holiday. When John Suchet was unavailable, Dean Wilson took over as presenter. Dean Wilson was himself replaced for three episodes by Alex Leam, an actor known for his role in Soldier, Soldier.
Format
The show started with a general knowledge round for all seven contestants. The first four people to correctly answer each of the four opening questions moved on to what host Kelly called the "first round proper." These questions were typically 20 to 30-second descriptions of a person, place, animal, or object, often beginning with "Who am I?" or "What am I?" Kelly would reveal more details until someone identified the answer. By the Thursday episode, only four contestants remained for this opening round, so multiple questions were asked, and the first contestant to score two points joined the winners from earlier days in the first round proper. This opening round was not used in the 2008 version. The Beat the Buzzer round was a general knowledge segment where contestants placed their hands on plungers. Questions were worth one, two, or three points. It began with a one-point question. A contestant who answered correctly was told the subject of the next question and could choose the point value to play for. If no one answered correctly, the round restarted with another one-point question. The first three contestants to reach six points—or nine in the 2008 version—advanced to the next round. If a contestant buzzed in but answered incorrectly, the question was offered to the others, signaled by a buzzer. If a contestant buzzed in and gave no answer, a doorbell sound played, and the answer was revealed. In the next round, the remaining contestants each picked a category from four options. The order they chose in was based on their order of advancement from the previous round. Each contestant then had 40 seconds to answer questions in their chosen category. Scoring was based on consecutive correct answers; an incorrect answer reset the score to zero. If a contestant got four correct answers in a row, the timer stopped and the game ended for them. If time ran out, the score taken was the highest number of consecutive correct answers achieved during the 40 seconds. After this round, the two highest-scoring players moved to the final round. In case of a tie, a "first to two" general knowledge playoff was held, using the same style of questions from the opening round.
Progression to the finals
The first player to reach nine points in this round won the daily game and went through to the end of week final (an automatic place in the 'first round proper' on Thursday), from where, the winner progressed to the later stages of the series. The losing players all came back the next day, starting with the same pool of players each weekday, minus the winner of the week's earlier shows. The weekly final had the four daily winners directly through to Beat the Buzzer with the final spot decided in the Elimination Round where the first to answer two questions correctly progressed. The winner of the weekly final went through to one of two Semi-Final weeks. The Semi-Final weeks occurred at the end of each half of the season with between 7–10 weekly winners (depending upon season length). Each week was made up of four daily heats with the winner of each heat going through to Finals week and the losing players returning each day (there was no weekly final). By this point the contestants were buzzing in noticeably earlier as the standard of competition increased. The Finals week consisted of eight winners from the Semi-Finals (four from each week) competing in a standard week format of three daily heats with the winners advancing to the Grand Final (directly to the Beat the Buzzer round). The Grand Final episode would start with a "First-to-Two" Elimination Round amongst the remaining five contestants and play as normal to the Head to Head where the winner would receive the star prize holiday (as described in every episode) and the runner-up would get a consolation prize (e.g. a colour television, or a gold-plated Going for Gold plate). The 2008 revival added a Finals week inviting back sixteen contestants from the series (all winners of the international special episodes and contestants with the most daily wins). All shows ran using the normal format for that series.
International versions
Going for Gold began its life as an American pilot, Run for the Money, hosted by Bill Rafferty and produced for ABC in 1987, at ABC Television Center. The pilot did not sell in the States; however, Grundy took it to Europe where it became what is now Going for Gold. Run for the Money would have been played with four contestants (one a returning champion) starting with the Beat the Buzzer round. The Channel 5 quiz One to Win was a half-hour show whose format was effectively based on the latter three rounds of Going for Gold, repackaged and with a different host (initially, Paul Roseby, who was soon replaced by Robin Houston, known as the 'voice of the computer' on another Channel 5 quiz show, 100%).
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