The Grand Knockout Tournament

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(Redirected from
It's a Royal Knockout
)

The Grand Knockout Tournament (also known as It's a Royal Knockout) was a one-off charity event which took place on 15 June 1987, and was shown on British television on 19 June 1987 (

TV gameshow
which was broadcast in the UK until 1982.

The event was staged on the lakeside lawn of the Alton Towers stately home and theme park in Staffordshire.

Although regarded as a failure, a similar show without royal involvement was made the following year at Walt Disney World in Florida, featuring teams of celebrities representing the United Kingdom, USA, and Australia.

Synopsis

The show featured members of the British royal family alongside various sporting and showbiz celebrities. The celebrity participants were drawn from the realms of music, sport, television, comedy and film:

Team One

Team Two

Team Three

Team Four

The show was conceived and organised by

Stuart Hall, Les Dawson and Su Pollard, with Hal Linden providing commentary for the U.S. telecast. Paul Daniels and Geoff Capes were timekeepers. Aled Jones, Rowan Atkinson and Barbara Windsor were heralds of the tournament. The Duke of Abercorn, the Duke of Westminster, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Roxburghe
acted as impartial judges for each of the four teams.

The contestants competed in numerous games; for example, in one round, the players dressed up as giant vegetables, while in another they threw fake hams at each other. Live coverage was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on 15 June 1987, and was presented by Steve Wright (The Radio 1 Roadshow).

The tournament was won by the Princess Royal's team, with the Duke of York's team second, Prince Edward's team third, and the Duchess of York's team finishing last.

Aftermath

Immediately after the event, Prince Edward asked the assembled journalists, "Well, what did you think?" The journalists, unbeknownst to Prince Edward, hadn't seen the event properly as they had been kept confined in the press tent, separate from the celebrities and members of the royal family who had taken part, and were underwhelmed and unhappy at such an arrangement. They responded with nervous laughter and Prince Edward stormed out of the press conference, sarcastically thanking the journalists for their enthusiasm.[2]

Reportedly

the Prince and Princess of Wales agreed to take part, but Edward persevered and the project went to completion. Nonetheless, the event drew an audience of 18 million domestically, making it the fourth most-watched programme of the year.[2] It was later watched by 400 million viewers worldwide and raised over £1.5 million for the respective charities.[2]

References

  1. ^ "It's A Knockout - The Royal Tournamont". www.its-a-knockout.tv.
  2. ^ a b c d e Roseman, Daniel (21 April 1996). "Was this the day when royalty lost the plot?". The Independent. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  3. ^ Ben Pimlott "Polishing Their Image", extract from The Queen, HarperCollins (1996) reprinted on the PBS Frontline webpage

External links