Courtesy of Christina Sharples

The era of the prize-winning quiz show arrived on British TV with the launch of the commercial channel ITV in 1955, when it appeared in the form of Double Your Money. The show was a variation on a Radio Luxembourg series which had begun in 1954, also called Double Your Money and hosted by Hughie Green. It offered contestants the opportunity to win cash prizes by answering increasingly complex questions in the sphere of general knowledge.

A contestant first went through preliminary rounds, beginning at £1, leading up to the £32 level, with each question worth twice as much as the preceding one. At that point the contestant would exit and return the following week to decide on entering the 'Treasure Trail', leading to the £1,000 jackpot prize. Contestants could quit at any time and leave with their winnings. In order to enable the contestants to concentrate completely, and to avoid any possible answers shouted from the studio audience, all questions from £32 on up were asked while contestants were sealed inside an isolation booth.

After years of quietly respectable BBC panel programmes such as What's My Line? (1951-62) and Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? (1952-59), the appeal of seeing ordinary people sweating through difficult questions to win what were then considered huge sums of money was enormous, and Double Your Money - along with its stablemate show, Take Your Pick (ITV, 1955-68) - became an overnight sensation. It remained in the Top Twenty charts for 13 years, and spawned many imitators in the cash prize sweepstakes; among them Beat the Clock (the game show interlude in ITV's Sunday Night at the London Palladium, 1955-67), The 64,000 Question (ITV, 1956-58), Spot the Tune (ITV, 1956-62), and Criss Cross Quiz (ITV, 1957-67).

Hughie Green made for a lively host, expressing puzzled wonder or well-rehearsed bafflement in exchanges with contestants. Over the years his co-hosts included East End teenager Monica Rose, the statuesque Nancy Roberts and Sabrina (Norma Sykes), and 77-year-old former tea lady Alice Earrey.

Green signed his final contract to present the show in late 1967, keeping Double Your Money running until Rediffusion came to the end of its franchise as London weekday provider in July 1968. But he remained on the national screen as host of the popular talent show Opportunity Knocks (ITV, 1964-70), a pet project he had championed for many years.

Tise Vahimagi

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