A Question of Sport

A Question of Sport is a British sports quiz show created by Nick Hunter for the BBC. The show centres on a light-hearted contest involving two teams of three sports stars, each with a regular resident team captain, competing for points by answering questions on their own and other sports over several sports-themed quiz rounds. Captains have also been playing sports-themed games alongside the quizzes in later series. The show premiered on BBC One in January 1970, 13 months after Stuart Hall hosted a pilot episode, and was originally hosted by David Vine with Cliff Morgan and Henry Cooper serving as team captains. It took an 18-month hiatus from June 1977 before relaunching in 1979 with David Coleman replacing Vine. It has been hosted since 1997 by former tennis star Sue Barker, with former England rugby player Matt Dawson and former England cricketer Phil Tufnell serving as captains since 2004 and 2008 respectively. On 8 January 2010, the BBC broadcast a 40th anniversary special, where Barker, Dawson, and Tufnell were joined by Pat Cash, David Coulthard, Laura Davies, and Michael Johnson. Series 42, episode 17 marked the 1,000th episode where each captain was joined by two former captains. Tufnell was joined by Bill Beaumont and Ally McCoist, while Dawson was joined by Willie Carson and John Parrott—with Tufnell’s side winning. With more than 45 series broadcast since its launch, A Question of Sport is one of the BBC’s longest-running shows. In a Christmas special broadcast in 2014, the show was awarded a Guinness World Record for the world’s longest-running sports quiz show.