The Krypton Factor
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The Krypton Factor was a British game show, hosted by Gordon Burns, which ran from 1977 to 1995 on ITV. Four contestants would compete in several different games, some studio-bound, some not. Until 1991, each round was introduced by the distinctive K logo, which would morph into a symbol for the round. Some of the games were changed during the run of the series, but the qualities they purported to test remained the same:
- Mental Agility - often a memory test. The contestants frequently had to memorize a sequence and then answer a series of progressively more complicated questions. For instance, if the sequence to be memorized was a series of coloured blocks, the questions might start as "What is the colour of the third block from the left?" and progress to "What is the colour of the block two to the left of the block to the right of the green block?"
- Response - latterly (and most famously) this consisted of each player taking turns on a flight simulator and being marked by an actual flight instructor. Group finals often involved a helicopter simulator, or a simulated landing on an aircraft carrier. The grand final of the 1989 series used a Space Shuttle simulator, while the 1992 grand final required the contestants to land a real plane.
- Observation - this involved watching a specially made video clip. Contestants were shown a clip twice and asked to spot the differences in earlier series. In 1989 and 1990, they had to spot five deliberate continuity errors. Steve Coogan starred in most of these sequences. From 1991, they simply had to answer questions relating to the clip (e.g. "what did he say when he entered the room?" or "what was on the table?). Sometimes serials were used; such as 1990's Sam Smith private detective starring Gwyneth Strong, which saw the female detective investigating often silly cases (which often featured her young chubby nephew, Wallace) Some guests in Sam Smith stories included Derek Griffiths, Matthew Kelly and Keith Chegwin, who all appeared in the final installment of the series. There was also 1991's Where is Don Day? starring Tony Robinson and Michelle Collins, about a bank manager whose dull life is suddenly changed when he accidentally becomes involved in a robbery from his own bank. 1992 saw Dead Ringer starring Tony Slattery; a thriller about a man suffering from amnesia trying to discover who he really is, whilst being hunted down by a hitman named Preston, played by Roger Lloyd Pack.
- Physical Ability - probably the most memorable of the rounds, this involved the contestants racing to complete an army assault course, including cargo nets, rope swings and a rope slide. Unlike the village fête version, however, this finished with a plunge into muddy water.
- Intelligence - a 2- or 3-dimensional puzzle where shapes had to be put together to fill a rectangular grid or make a bigger shape. Most of these were devised by Dr. Gerry Wickham of the University of Manchester's School of Mathematics.
- General Knowledge - a quickfire round. Two points were awarded for each question answered correctly, and two were deducted for a wrong answer. A feature of this round was that, as each question was answered, the next question contained either the answer to the last question, a word from the last answer, or a word that sounded like it.
Example:
Q: Which word can mean a gash, tally or 20?
A: Score.
Q: As a result of which score in a game of tennis does the tie-break come into operation?
A: 40-all.
... and so on.
In the first five games, 10 points were awarded to the winner, then 6, 4 and 2 to the remaining contestants.
The most common structure was a 13 episode series. The series was divided into three groups of three heats each, called Groups A, B and C. Each heat had four contestants, and the winner of each heat went through to the Group Final, along with the highest scoring runner up. The winner of each Group Final went through to the Grand Final, along with the highest scoring runner-up from the Group Finals.
In the final series the show was seriously revamped. The intelligence round was eliminated, and the second half of the show was a super round which included a 3d maze, code cracking and a race up Mount Krypton. While some liked this change, others felt that getting rid of the intelligence round was a sign of dumbing down and that changing the format so dramatically was a mistake.
The show was produced by Granada Television. Since its cancellation, it has been the subject of persistent rumours of a revival on the BBC. In April 2005, it was widely reported that the BBC would be going ahead with a revival. However the source of this story turned out to be a misinterpretation of comments by Wayne Garvie, head of BBC's Entertainment Group (and previously the last producer on The Krypton Factor) naming it as the next "TV gem" that should be revived. The BBC does not at present have any plans to revive the show. [1]
The show's almost equally well-known theme tune was performed by The Art of Noise. Note: The Base Hook of the song is also known as 'Beat Box'.
Two short-lived United States versions aired. In 1981, Dick Clark hosted a 6-week summer series on ABC. In 1990, Willie Aames hosted a syndicated version for children. A version in production by Fox TV was never shown to the public. A New Zealand edition was screened from 1987 to 1991, and the series also ran in Australia, Canada and Germany.