Top of the Form (quiz show)


Top of the Form was a BBC radio and television quiz show for teams from secondary schools in the United Kingdom which ran for 38 years, from 1948 to 1986.
The programme began on Saturday 1 May 1948, as a radio series, at 7.30pm on the Light Programme. It progressed to become a TV series from 1962 to 1975. A decision to stop the programme was announced on 28 September 1986 and the last broadcast was on Tuesday 2 December. The producer, Graham Frost, was reported to have said it had been cancelled because the competitive nature of the show jarred with modern educational philosophy.

Hosts

Format

Each school fielded a team of four pupils ranging in age from under 13 to under 18.

Transmission

Radio

Joan Clark had produced a weekly radio quiz from 1945 called Quiz Team, with two teams of four, with question master Roy Rich. On Sunday 23 May 1948, this transformed into Ask Me, Another! on the Home Service, with teams of four, with question master Lionel Gamlin. Via What Do You Know from 2 August 1953, this became Brain of Britain in 1967.
The programme was largely invented by Joan Clark; she had mostly worked as a reporter on In Town Tonight. When aged 41, she married 47 year old John Peter Wynn, at Caxton Hall Register Office on Tuesday 22 December 1953. Wynn was half-Welsh and half-Danish, could speak seven languages. He would fly each week to Munich or Lausanne for competitions.
John Wynn had worked on Monday Night at Eight on the Puzzle Corner section. He invented the Inspector Hornleigh series, and devised the whole Brain of Britain set of programmes; Top of the Form was the junior version of these. Ask Me Another was later transferred from radio to BBC TV from Monday 9 June 1958, presented by Franklin Engelmann until September 1963. John Wynn wrote the questions for Brain of Britain until the early 1970s, when he retired to Ireland, and died on 20 April 1978. Ian Gillies took over.
The May 1948 radio series began as a knock-out competition for London schools only, where the winning team that of each transmission would appear in the next week's edition.
The radio national competition began on Sunday 3 October 1948 at 7.30pm on the Light Programme, with London against Birmingham, and with question master Lionel Gamlin, which was won by Owen's School of Islington, who were later beaten by Liverpool Collegiate School in the second round.
After a request from a Northern Ireland listener, girls teams were added, as an experiment. The first girls' schools appeared on Monday 3 October 1949, with the independent Church High School for Girls in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the girls' team won that first round, with two girls' schools later topping the England section. Girls' teams would always play boys' teams in the first rounds of the radio competition. The radio editions would be repeated on a Saturday at 12pm from this year, also this was continued in all subsequent years. In the two semi-finals for this first year of girls' teams, three of the four teams were from girls' schools, but only one girls' team reached the final - Grove Park Grammar School for Girls, and the boys' team won the final.
The series first appeared on the Home Service when the first international series was repeated on Monday 29 May 1950 at 11am; this international series had originally begun on 18 April 1950 on the Light Programme. From October 1950, the radio national competition was first broadcast on Tuesdays on the Light Programme, then repeated on Saturday at 9.30am on the Home Service, starting from Saturday 7 October 1950.
The first coeducational schools appeared on Saturday 12 May 1951 in the international Scandinavian Top of the Form, which was for coeducational schools only. This international series was repeated much later in July 1951, on the Home Service; later international and national series would not be for coeducational schools only.
A possible precursor of University Challenge began on the Light Programme on Tuesday 24 April 1956 at 7.30pm entitled Commonwealth Quiz, where teams of four, from universities in Australia and the UK competed, which was produced by Joan Clark. Creighton Burns presented in Australia, with production by ABC, and was carried by the General Overseas Service (BBC World Service.
Another similar radio quiz of Joan Clark was called Namesake Towns, on the Home Service on Saturday afternoons, from Saturday 15 November 1958, where teams from towns of the same name in Australia and Britain would compete, again made with ABC of Australia.

Television

The programme was first aired on TV in two special experiments. The first was on 25 April 1953, featuring Sheffield High School v. Marylebone Grammar School. A second TV broadcast was performed in 1954 featuring Lady Margaret High School for Girls v Solihull School for Boys. The programme fully migrated to TV later. It ran from 1962 to 1975, and was called Television Top of the Form. It began on Monday 12 November 1962, when the Controller of BBC1 was Stuart Hood.
The questions were set by polymath and author Boswell Taylor on behalf of BBC TV and he was assisted by the BBC's Mary Craig who doubled as the scorer and electronic score board operator. In order to set appropriate questions the selected contestants from each school filled in a questionnaire listing their interests, books recently read and favourite music. The teams from co-ed schools usually included two girls and two boys.
Compared to many television quiz shows in recent years, Top of the Form had a resolutely grandiose outlook; nothing would ever be dumbed down. Consequently, on Monday 18 June 1973 it had its first bilingual competition, with Paris v London. The competition on Monday 25 March 1974 was all in the Welsh language.
In 1967 UK schools took on Australian schools in Top of the Form: Transworld Edition. The following year this was renamed Transworld Top Team, under which title it ran until 1973. Each series involved teams from the UK taking on teams from another country. Countries participating over the course of the run included Canada, The Netherlands, the US and Hong Kong.
In 1975 the TV version moved to 4.10–4.35pm on Sundays, then from 3.55 to 4.20, with the last final on 9 August 1975. One of the producers of the TV version was Bill Wright, who would later devise Mastermind in the early 1970s.
The team chosen to represent the school, on television, was not the choice of the school. In the 1970s, the school put forward twelve people, and the BBC would pick the four best contestants, in terms of personality or charm. 1960s biography books have referred to the 'posh accents' of the teams.

Theme

The tune Marching Strings was the theme for many years, though for the last few series, Emerson, Lake & Palmer's recording of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man was used. Earlier, Debussy's Golliwog's Cakewalk, from his Children's Corner suite, had introduced the radio series.
Marching Strings had been featured in the popular 1956 British film It's Great to be Young! where a music teacher's job was saved by the efforts of his students.

Incidents

In the Heaton High School for Girls, Newcastle, against Leyton County High School for Girls edition, recorded on Monday 5 January 1953, Robert McDermot changed train for Newcastle at Doncaster railway station, but he boarded the wrong train, so he never made the radio recording. McDermot arrived two hours after the recording had finished. Leyton won via a tie break, after being 30-30.

Welsh nationalists

On Monday 2 April 1973, Ardwyn Grammar School, was to play Cardiff. The Ardwyn team had to go 110 miles to Cardiff, as their recording equipment and vehicle windscreens and lights had been damaged by the Welsh Language Society at the car park of Broadcasting House, Bristol on Friday 16 February 1973, by five male Cardiff University students; vehicles in the Granada Studios car park in Manchester were also damaged by three male students and two female students, causing £1,200 of damage.
The Welsh Language Society, who were often under-occupied female university students, had been issuing threats to Sir John Eden, the radio minister, for a Welsh-language-only network, and others had been targeting holiday homes in Wales. In early March 1973, one of five Welsh female university student protestors in court was the poet Menna Elfyn, whose niece Bethan Elfyn currently presents the Saturday evening show on BBC Radio Wales.

Termination in 1986

Mid Staffordshire Conservative MP John Heddle, replaced after his untimely death by Michael Fabricant, described the show's ending as 'sheer socialist clap-trap' and 'non-competitiveness'.

Subsequent Radio 1 series from 1987

On Sunday 18 January 1987 a new programme appeared on BBC Radio 1 at 3.30pm called Pop of the Form. The theme tune was the old 'Top of the Form' theme tune, but in a synthesised form, arranged by keyboardist/composer Dave Stewart, as Mike Read, the presenter, had always liked the 'Top of the Form' theme tune. The show's producer was John Leonard.
1800 candidates from 600 schools had applied to take part in the 15-week series. Tommy Vance presented the previous show, at 4pm. The first show featured Stephen Day and Joanne Warrant of Mandeville School, Aylesbury against Dr Challoner's High School, who won 54-37, with Jo Hutchinson and Fiona Johnson. With no general knowledge questions being asked, any deficiencies in knowledge, or a school's teaching, would not be broadcast live to the nation. Music questions rarely shone a searching light on any inadequacies of people's knowledge. It was a much more innocuous affair, and would not be likely to be obviously dominated by either grammar or independent schools. Andrew Grimes, in the Manchester Evening News, described the subsequent series as 'just as moronic as I expected it to be'.
When Haybridge High School competed with Sir Thomas Rich's School of Gloucester, the Gloucester audience yelled obscenities at Mike Read. They had taken alcohol on the coach to the broadcast. The Haybridge headmaster, David Hobson, confiscated a bottle of rum from a Gloucester teenage visitor. Some were briefly suspended from the Gloucester school.
A team from Devon and Wrexham reached the final on 26 April 1987, with St David's Comprehensive, in Wrexham, winning 84-76. By January 1988, Simon Mayo hosted the series, with Raigmore Grammar School against Maes Garmon School of Mold on Sunday 9 April 1988, and Mold won. Mike Read returned in March 1989, with the final on 2 July 1989, and in March 1990, in the final on Sunday 8 July 1990, Ysgol Maes Garmon beat Hampton School 86-59

Producers

Producers have included:

Contestants

The series tended to feature grammar schools; in later years, as these schools became less numerous, comprehensive schools sometimes featured, but less often, and there was an increasing dominance by independent schools.
However, as comprehensive schools were becoming more commonplace under the Harold Wilson government, the autumn 1967 TV series of Top of the Form featured only comprehensive schools.

International group radio competitions

1950

The first international series
  • Tuesday 18 April
  • Tuesday 25 April
  • Tuesday 2 May: Edinburgh beat France
  • Tuesday 9 May: Cardiff beat Copenhagen
  • Tuesday 16 May: Methodist College Belfast against Brussels; Belfast lost 23 to 22; with Coulter McDowell aged 16, Catriona O'Neill aged 16, Roberta Hewitt aged 15, and Peter Ritchie aged 15
  • Tuesday 23 May: Cardiff against Amsterdam

1951

Known as 'Scandinavian Top of the Form', with Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Repeated on the Home Service from Monday 9 July 1951 to August 1951.
  • Saturday 12 May: London, King Alfred School, London in Hampstead, against Stockholm, Bromma Laroverk; London were Simon Ryder-Smith, Naomi Elkan, Sylvester Bone, and Julie Heyting; Sylvester was the brother of marine biologist Quentin Bone FRS, and the son of artist Mary Adshead; he gained a place at Queens' College, Cambridge
  • Saturday 19 May: Cardiff, Whitchurch Grammar School against Oslo, Vallerskole and Fagerborgskole
  • Saturday 26 May: Scotland, Boroughmuir Secondary School against Denmark
  • Saturday 2 June: Finland against Belfast Royal Academy, with Patricia Lutton, Patricia Potter, George Deans and John Darbyshire, with two schools from Helsinki, recorded on Monday 23 April 1951; John was head boy, and the son of the headmaster from 1943-68
  • Saturday 9 June: England against Denmark, Ostersogades Gymnasium, Copenhagen
  • Saturday 16 June: Wales against Finland, Normaalllyseo and the Tyttonormaalilyseo, Helsinki
Denmark won the competition

1966 Top Team

'Top Team' started on Sunday 10 April 1966 at 9pm, as a radio version of 'Trans World', on the Light Programme. 'Top Team' was a team of the captains of teams in the radio finals, but with only three in a team, over seven weeks, with the final on Sunday 22 May 1966, being repeated from Tuesday 2 August 1966 at 8pm, until September 1966, with three teams from Australia, Canada and the UK. Broadcast in all three countries.
  • Sunday 17 April: Toronto against Sydney

1967 Top Team

Series 2 started on Tuesday 20 June 1967 at 7.30pm, on the Light Programme, with the final on Tuesday 12 September 1967 being Canada against Australia. There were four teams not three.
  • 20 June: Sydney against London
  • 27 June: London against Wellington
  • 4 July: Toronto against Sydney
  • 11 July: Sydney against Wellington
  • 18 July: London against Toronto
  • 25 July: Toronto against Wellington
  • Tuesday 12 September Final: Toronto against Sydney

1968 Top Team

Three UK teams against three teams from Canada
  • Thursday 31 October
  • Thursday 7 November
  • Thursday 21 November: Glasgow v Montreal
  • Thursday 12 December: London v Ottawa
  • Thursday 19 December
  • Thursday 2 January 1969 Final

1969 Top Team

Began on the new Radio 2, from Monday 23 June 1969, with four teams, with the final on Monday 15 September 1969, with three teams in the final not two teams. Featured Keith Leadbetter, 15, of the Royal High School, Edinburgh, who later stood in Lothians (European Parliament constituency) in June 1989 for the Lib Dems, gaining 9,222 votes. Peter Salt was from Cambridge High School for Boys, from Fulbourn
  • Monday June 30: Toronto against Wellington
  • Monday July 14: London against Toronto
  • Monday July 21: Sydney against Toronto

1971 Top Team

On Radio 4 from early May 1971, with the final on Monday 26 July 1971, with two teams

1972 Top Team

On Radio 4 from Monday 17 April 1972, with the final on Monday 10 July 1972, with two teams. This was the last international radio series, but the international television series continued until September 1973

International individual radio competitions

  • 21 January 1952, Dundee competed with a German team; Kay Roggenkamp, 14, Matthias Drexelius, 15, Jans Scheer, 16, and Peter Hars, 17; Dundee won; the 1952 Top of Form series had not been requested by the BBC in January 1952, it was quite ad-hoc

International group television competitions

In April 1967 Top Team became the TV 'Transworld Top Team' on BBC1

1967 Transworld Top Team

Television broadcasting was not by satellite. Live sound was broadcast from the Commonwealth Pacific Cable System across the Pacific to Canada. Television was put onto videotape, and the Australian videotape was later flown to London. Three UK teams against three teams from Australia.
  • Monday April 17 1967: London against Sydney, 38-32
  • Monday April 24 1967: Perth Academy against University High School, Melbourne
  • Monday May 1 1967: Liverpool Institute lost 35-37 to Canberra Grammar School, featured Denise Blundell, aged 12, of Victoria Street; Eric Griffiths, 13, of 21 Mauretania Road, Walton; Adelaide Nolan, aged 15, of 39 Rockbourne Avenue, Woolton; and Andrew Bent, Captain, aged 17, of 5 Evered Avenue, Walton
  • Monday June 12 1967: Liverpool against Melbourne

1968 Transworld Top Team

  • Thursday 18 April: London against Sydney; London included Marian Frost, of 35 Wellington Road, Hatch End, at Harrow Weald sixth form
  • Thursday 25 April: Boys and girls of Minchenden School, Southgate, London against Melbourne
  • Thursday 2 May: Hillhead High School Glasgow against Melbourne; Hillhead were Hugh Gillespie aged 14, David McKnight aged 17, and Alison Hood aged 15
  • Thursday 9 May: Friends' School, Lisburn against Brisbane, recorded April 5 1968; Lisburn were Hilary Rankin aged 12, Harry Shier aged 13, Susan Rodgers and Martin McClenahan, captain, both aged 18; Harry later studied Maths at Worcester College from 1973; Belfast won 42-39
  • Thursday 16 May: Lisburn against boys of St Aloysius' College (Sydney) and girls of Loreto Convent, Sydney
  • Thursday 23 May: Glasgow against Sydney
  • Thursday 30 May: London against Brisbane State High School
  • Thursday 6 June: Lisburn against boys of Dandenong Technical School and girls of Dandenong High School, Melbourne with Susan Robinson, Phillip King, Dinah Edwards and Tony McDonald
  • Thursday 13 June: Glasgow against Brisbane
  • Thursday 20 June Final: Lisburn against Sydney, a tie
Lisburn received a prize from Waldo Maguire, head of BBC Northern Ireland.

1970 Transworld Top Team

Made with NCRV of Hilversum, with presenter Kick Stokhuyzen, shown on Nederland 2. It featured Loren lyceum Eindhoven, Geert Groote College in Deventer, and Christelijk Gymnasium Sorghvliet, which educated the Dutch royal family. Five rounds were the in UK, and five rounds in the Netherlands.
  • Tuesday 15 September
  • Tuesday 22 September: The Hague against Aberdeen
  • Tuesday 20 October: Aberdeen against Eindhoven
  • Tuesday 3 November: Aberdeen against Deventer
  • Tuesday 10 November: Inverness against The Hague

1971 Transworld Top Team

From Tuesday 2 November 1971, until Tuesday 2 January 1972. With Baltimore, Minneapolis and New Orleans against Oban, Kenilworth and Luton.
  • Tuesday 2 November: Luton against Baltimore
  • Tuesday 16 November: Luton Sixth Form College against Minneapolis
  • Tuesday 23 November: Kenilworth against Minneapolis
  • Tuesday 30 November: Oban High School against New Orleans
  • Tuesday 7 December: Kenilworth Grammar School against Baltimore, lost by 13 points
  • Tuesday 14 December: Oban against Minneapolis
  • Tuesday 28 December: Oban against Baltimore
The final was at the American Embassy.
  • The United States of America: Melanie Mattson, Minneapolis; Mark Wilkinson Baltimore; Debbie Rhea, New Orleans; and John Morris, Baltimore.
  • United Kingdom: Mary Nicol, Oban; Jane Broughton, Kenilworth; Martin Clarke, Kenilworth; and John Bird, Luton.

1972 Transworld Top Team

  • Monday 16 October: S England v Halifax Grammar School, Canada
  • Monday 6 November: Manchester v Halifax, Canada
  • Monday 13 November: Final UK v Canada

1973 Transworld Top Team

UK v Australia, filmed in Hong Kong
  • Wednesday 5 September Final: Elgin won

International individual television competitions

Other television competitions

  • Tuesday 15 June 1971 Students of the Sixties v Students of the Seventies; the Sixties team: Elizabeth Porter, John Williams, Judith Walker, and Richard Warren

Notable contestants

Popular culture

Top of The Form was satirised in the 1960s pre-Python television series At Last the 1948 Show.
"Natural Born Quizzers", an episode of Steve Coogan's comedy series Coogan's Run, involved a thinly-disguised version of the show.
In 2008, Dave Gorman traced the history of the show on BBC Four.
A similar quiz for British schools in Germany called Top Marks was broadcast by BFBS Germany.
Top of The Form is name-checked in the song England's Glory, recorded by Max Wall and written by Ian Dury and Rod Melvin.

Video clips