As a Question of Sport hits 1,000 episodes, Sportsmail celebrates a national institution

By Alan Fraser UPDATED: 17:45 EST, 4 March 2013

A Question of Sport belongs to that elite group of BBC television programmes which have become national institutions and, like Sports Personality of the Year, for example, have assumed the status of protected species.

The show broadcast its 1,000th edition last night and, despite a widespread feeling that its sell-by date passed years ago, could well go on to clock up another 1,000.

Did someone say: 'Perish the thought'? Other sport quizzes have come and gone but AQoS has survived by sticking to a largely unchanged format.

TV gold: A suitably shamed Emlyn Hughes pretends to fend off Princess Anne in 1987

Remarkably, there have been just three regular presenters in the 43 years since it began to be broadcast nationally.

The late David Vine pretty much took care of the 1970s before handing over his dubious knitwear collection to David Coleman. The chuckling, chunky-sweatered Coleman then presided for 18 years until silk-bloused Sue Barker inherited the seat. She is in her 16th year at the helm.

There have been 14 captains. Former England rugby union skipper Bill Beaumont, lasted longest, from 1982 to 1996, while Matt Dawson, who began in 2004, has recently overtaken Sir Ian Botham and is closing on Ally McCoist, second on the list at 11 years. These remain mind-boggling statistics. Lifers don't spend that long inside.

Top teams: England legends (back row, left-right) Tom Finney, Johnny Haynes, Stan Mortensen (front), Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore and Alan Mullery in a 1970 World Cup special

Sportsmail joins A Question of Sport on tour in Glasgow…

Laura Williamson joined the panel on tour in Glasgow in October 2011. Can you guess what happened next?

Click here to find out...

There is no doubt that a dumbing-down process, including the introduction of childish gimmickry, has moved the programme more into the area of celebrity entertainment and infuriated traditional viewers. But these developments are just as likely to have delighted a different audience.

Traditionalists will tell of a golden era in the mid-1980s when on one famous occasion Beaumont sat opposite the late Emlyn Hughes, who was trying to identify the goggled and mud-splattered face of someone on horseback.

'Is it John Reid?' Hughes asked, identifying wrongly one of the leading jockeys of the period. 'John Reid! John Reid!' David Coleman chokingly exclaimed. Twice. Beaumont, with all the unsmiling gravity of an undertaker, appeared. 'Is it Princess Anne? It's Princess Anne,' he pronounced. Coleman provided gleeful confirmation, the cue for Hughes to hide behind a youthful Jimmy White. 'God, it's not, is it?' Hughes despaired. 'Don't put that out, please. You can't put that out. They'll hang me.' They did and they didn't.  

A couple of weeks later, with A Question of Sport cemented in the hearts of the British public young and old, 19 million switched on to see the Princess Royal take her seat next to Hughes as the first member of the Royal family to participate in a TV quiz show.

There have been other not-quite- so-memorable moments, often associated with misidentification: Beaumont and Willie Carson named a disguised Sue Barker as respectively goalkeeper Ray Clemence and boxer Alan Minter; McCoist not only failed to spot Walter Smith, his then Rangers manager, but could not recognise himself in showjumping guise from a previous series.

Today's team: Matt Dawson (left), and Phil Tufnell are the current captains, and Sue Barker presents

'Who's that?' McCoist asked, staring with puzzlement. 'It's you,' team-mate Thomas Castaignede pointed out to everyone's delight. Shane Warne mistook Serena Williams for Roger Federer, bizarre as that sounds, while Botham was clean-bowled by his son, Liam.

McCoist once appeared in the tightest of cycling lycra gear to declare himself ‘no Linford  Christie’. Last night he was one of many captains to return, joining Beaumont and current skipper Phil Tufnell while Carson and John Parrott sided with Dawson.

Questions from yesteryear were asked using old footage as contestants tried to recall their original answers, and Barker’s favourite David Ginola appeared in the Mystery Guest round. Tufnell’s team ran out winners.

Questions from yesteryear were asked using old footage as contestants tried to recall their original answers, and Barker’s favourite David Ginola appeared in the Mystery Guest round. Tufnell’s team ran out winners.

The programme's popularity spawned board games and live roadshows. One Red Nose Day telethon saw the Spitting Image team produce A Question of Spit with puppets of Daley Thompson, Barry McGuigan, Mike Gatting, Hughes and Coleman all making an appearance.

The way they were: Legendary former guests (back row left-right) John Rutherford, Emlyn Hughes, Nigel Mansell, Bill Beaumont and Linford Christie, (front left-right) David Coleman and Princess Anne

You had really made it big when Spitting Image parodied you. And to this day you have 'made it' as a sportsman or sportswoman when invited to be a guest on AQoS.

It is rare these days, however, to wheel out a guest list as distinguished as the first week in 1970, when George Best, Raymond Illingworth, Lillian Board and Tom Finney joined captains Cliff Morgan and Henry Cooper.

The TV audience, of course, sees the polished version. They would not, for example, know that golfer Sam Torrance once took 10 minutes (edited to less than one) and still could not answer a question about the only golfer to have won two majors and never played in the Ryder Cup. The name of John Daly proved stubbornly elusive.

The popular 'What Happened Next?' may have become an irregular feature but AQoS goes on. What happens next? Easy. Editions 1,001, 1,002 and so on and so on...

A QUESTION OF SPORT: WHERE IT ALL BEGAN...

Question of Sport was first broadcast nationally on January 5, 1970 and featured, from left to right...

CLIFF MORGAN
Wales fly-half and Lions player of the tour to South Africa in 1955. Now aged 82.

LILLIAN BOARD
Won 400m silver at the 1968 Olympics and two golds at the 1969 European Championships before dying of cancer in the same year as this first show, at just 22.

TOM FINNEY
Played more than 400 games for Preston and scored 30 England goals. Finney is 91 next month. DAVID VINE BBC mainstay presented Grandstand, Ski Sunday and Superstars. Died in 2009 aged 74.

GEORGE BEST
Won two league titles and a European Cup with Manchester United. He was 59 when he died in 2005.

HENRY COOPER
Heavyweight champion at British, Commonwealth and European levels. Died two years ago at 76.

RAY ILLINGWORTH
Captained England to a 2-0 Ashes win away in 1971. Now 80.