Top of the Form (quiz show)
| Running time | 30 mins |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | UK |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| TV adaptations | BBC 1 (1962–75) |
| Original release | 1 May 1948 – 2 December 1986 |
| Opening theme | Marching Strings |
| Other themes | Fanfare for the Common Man (ELP prog rock version) |
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, also the heyday of University Challenge. 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.
Each school fielded a team of four pupils ranging in age from under 13 to under 18.
The programme was first aired on TV in two special experiments the first on 25 April 1953, featuring Sheffield High School (girls) v. Marylebone Grammar School (boys) . A second TV broadcast was performed in 1954 featuring Lady Margaret High School for Girls (Cardiff) 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 (Scottish).
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. In the same year there was UK v Australia, in the Transworld Top Team. The competition on Monday 25 March 1974 was all in the Welsh language.
In 1975 the TV version moved to 4.10–4.35pm on Sundays, then from 3.55–4.20, 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 tune Marching Strings (composition credited to "Marshall Ross", a pseudonym of Ray Martin) 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.
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