TV classics - The National Lottery

By Jason Wright (Entertainment Expert)

IN 1993, the growingly-unpopular John Major Conservative government made one of their few successful moves in office by passing an act to commission Britain a lottery draw.  Camelot Group was awarded the license and The National Lottery was launched.

     Playing the lottery was dead easy, providing the player was 16 years or over.  They needed to select six numbers from a block of 49 for just £1 to be entered into the upcoming draw.  It could be played at virtually any retailer in the country like Tesco, ASDA, WHSmith, Woolworths as well as in post offices and selected petrol stations.  Matching all six numbers would make the player a chance to become a millionaire.

PLAY: 'It could be you!'

     On November 19, 1994, over 20 million people tuned in to BBC1 to see the first ever National Lottery draw with Noel Edmonds overseeing the proceedings.  A jackpot of £6 million was shared between seven people leaving Camelot red-faced that none of them got an exact million pound winning.  Following this spectacular launch, the coming weeks saw The National Lottery Live broadcast from a different location every week with Anthea Turner and Gordon Kennedy hosting.

     In April 1995, it made the permanent switch to broadcasting from the Television Centre with Turner still presenting, though often sharing the now solo role with Bob Monkhouse and Dale Winton amongst others.  It was also at this time when Alan Dedicoat would begin to describe the draw as it happens and the fortune teller Mystic Meg would give physiological predictions on the draw.  Perhaps the most infamous moment in the Lottery’s history came on November 30, 1996 when the draw machine Guinevere, failed to start.  The draw was delayed for around an hour to fix the fault and avoid leaving millions of people demanding refunds.

     1998 saw the start of the transition of the Lottery draw being morphed into a format with a typical Saturday gameshow.  First came Big Ticket with Patrick Kielty and Anthea Turner which although proved to be entertaining, it never really warmed to the public.  Next was Winning Lines with Simon Mayo and then Phillip Schofield in later years.  Other shows given the lottery treatment included Jet Set, In It to Win It, 1 vs. 100 and Who Dares Wins.  As more and more games were churned out, the main lottery became a twice weekly draw with a Wednesday draw and was also joined by sister draws to give viewers more chances to win.  Thunderball debuted in 1999 and the appalling Lottery Extra which got ditched in 2006 (about 6 years too late to be precise!) with the more pleasing Dream Number.

     In May 2006, a protest by the activist group Fathers 4 Justice resulted in the lottery draw being taken off air for several minutes and somehow, managing to finish in time before the Eurovision Song Contest, as that was being held on the same night at its traditional 8pm start time.  This resulted in the BBC taking the inept decision from September 2006 to move the lottery draws to a specially constructed studio inside Lottery HQ.  This was increase security whilst the quizzes were now all pre-recorded and intercut with the draws, still being broadcast live.

     Throughout the years, popularity within the game has declined significantly, resulting in the jackpot prize being much lower than its peak in the nineties.  It is expected because not much progress or improvement can be made in this game unlike many others.  However, the impact that The National Lottery has made on the nation has been quite spectacular and will continue to be played week after week for many more years to come.

Consistency is the key

By Simon Wright (Personal piece)

FIVE weeks into my extended summer holiday and I can’t say that it has been a bundle of fun.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to have time off as much as anyone, but it becomes very difficult to motivate yourself, especially when you don’t have an ambition/target to set yourself.  Nevertheless, I can fully now appreciate that after a tricky spring period of the year, summer has brought some lovely (and unpredictable weather!) and some summery results. 

     Yes, two weeks ago, I got the conformation of my grades for the second year of my journalism course at the University of Northampton.  On reflection, I really can’t complain, and although the overall module results could have been slightly better, I was thrilled with my consistency in the separate units that make up a module.  Nearly 80 per cent of all the units I did ended up coming back with B grades, which for the hard graft and effort I put in during the last academic year, is a thoroughly merited result. 

     Some grades really surprised me actually.  I got a B- on the Broadcast Portfolio segment of one of my workshop modules.  Honestly, I was expecting a D!  If anyone listened to my radio pieces (see University Northampton portfolio 2010/11), you could hear how rubbish they were.  Frankly, it was the standard I would expect from an average primary school child!  That’s how bad my radio was.  I do wonder how well I could have done, if I’d done the Sky Sports sexism row back in January for one of my radio pieces.  Ah well, hindsight is a wonderful thing in life, if we have access to it.  

Law is an essential part of journalism; but it is still so BORING!

     Of course, the highpoint was earning an A on my law and government exam.  I was gutted to only earn a C on my 1998 Human Rights Act essay.  Although it wasn’t the greatest essay I’d ever produced, I thought I might have received a bit of discretion for choosing something different to almost everybody else on my degree.  The standard choice of the others was the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  I went a different route and obviously, it didn’t go down well.  Sometimes, gambles don’t pay off, but this does prove I am a risk taker.  Do I regret going a different route?  No, I don’t.  I don’t understand the Freedom of Information Act 2000; it would leave my head spinning like the world globe!  It’s just too complex for a brain as small as mine and as people who know me can vouch to, if I had brains, I’d be lethally dangerous!  Was I hoping for a better result on the essay?  Absolutely I was, and it’s the last time I will believe that going down a different route to the norm will earn some form of creditability. 

     It meant come the exam, I needed a decent result to balance out the essay grade.  As I think I said before, I came out of the exam feeling confident that I had done really well.  However, I could never have imagined earning an A!  It’s the first ever time I’ve achieved the top grade in any kind of exam before (SAT’s, GCSE’s, A Levels) you name it.  I think I can safely say I finally managed to beat the brain freeze I used to suffer in exams, or the choking levels of not remembering your stuff.  Whilst I’m on choking levels, maybe we’ll get a British winner at Wimbledon (No, there’s more chance of me driving a car again, which isn’t likely!)  I didn’t revise as hard as last year, but came out with a better result by a million miles.  Obviously, my preparation was meticulous.  Trust me though; I have no secrets to giveaway!

     The disappointing side of the results was the dismal D+ on my TV Gold magazine, which significantly bought down my DTP overall grade to a C+.  I must admit to being a bit confused by this.  I did a good presentation, thought I stuck to a consistent balance between design and content, yet the result is baffling.  Okay, I did see some top-quality magazines (like Farida’s Milan travel magazine, which was a class above anything else, sorry everyone, that was the standard to beat!) and I knew mine was nowhere near her calibre as an example.  However, it wasn’t that bad and I enjoyed doing it too, despite the stress of printer’s pairs!  There’s only one option I can try now; weasel my way out of doing a magazine next year.  Unlikely, as I think the 32-page mag is one of the compulsory modules for my final year.  However, if there is a way around it, I have to take a different option.  I was heavily criticised for my 8-page magazine last year and now, the 12-page has clearly gone the same way!  So, little hope of a 32-page being successful then!  Probably more chance of me gambling £1 on the National Lottery!

I was happy that my consistency has improved

     Nevertheless, consistency was the key to my overall results and I generally can’t complain with them.  I can’t wait to see my journalism buddies again.  I miss them so much and a fancy dress birthday party for August has already been arranged, so it will be the perfect catch-up point. 

      One final thing to announce; I will NOT be updating this website with anymore blogs from Christmas onwards.  It was a tough decision to make, but 2012 promises so much and I know that I’m just not going to have the time to keep this website functioning any longer.  Nevertheless, I want to thank everyone for reading/liking/commenting on the hundreds of blogs I’ve produced and those of my entertainment expert, Jason Wright too.  I hope you continue to visit the website and enjoy it as much as possible between now and the middle of December, when this journey comes to its conclusion.  Thank you and look forward to seeing/hearing from you soon.