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First Class (game show)

1984 British TV series or programme

First Class is a British game show that originally aired as a regional programme for BBC Scotland from 3 October to 19 December 1984 with Louise Bachelor as host. It was then networked on BBC1 with broadcasts from 8 January 1986 to 21 August 1988 with Debbie Greenwood as host.

01Format

The show was two teams of three students (each team representing a particular school) would take part in a multi-format quiz featuring questions on both general knowledge and popular culture, as well as innovative video game rounds. Rounds such as the "Spinning Gold Disc" made use of a simulated computer display similar to other game shows of the same era, such as Blockbusters and Catchphrase. Other rounds such as "Word of Mouth" used a real computer display from a BBC Micro. This computer also provided the on-screen captions and scores and was nicknamed Eugene, after the show's original programmer Eugene Crozier.

The competition was a knockout tournament; the eventual winners of the series would be presented with a computer (usually a BBC Master) for their school. Celebrity episodes of the show were also aired, featuring cast members from Grange Hill and EastEnders.

First Class was notable for its use of video games; such footage (of arcade games in particular) was a rarely seen on UK television at the time and the show aired several years before GamesMaster. The designated contestant from each team would earn points by beating the other player's score; rounds would be either turn-based and head-to-head depending on the game / event. The games were often referred to by their events as opposed to their titles, for example the "spring and vault" round or the "clay pigeon shooting".

03Transmissions

Series

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
13 October 198419 December 198412
28 January 19865 March 198615
37 January 198725 February 198715
46 February 198820 August 198824

Specials

DateEntitle
6 March 1986Celebrity Special
26 February 1987Celebrity Special
21 August 1988Celebrity Special
Watch videos about First Class (game show)Explainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article First Class (game show), written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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