Sale of the Century: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Sale of the Century was a UK game show based on a US game show of the same name. It was first shown on ITV from 9 October 1971 to 6 November 1983, hosted by Nicholas Parsons.

It was one of the most popular shows on the network - spawning the often-mocked catchphrase "and now, from Norwich, it's the quiz of the week".

It has been revived twice: first on Sky Channel from 1989 to 1992 hosted by Peter Marshall and then on Challenge TV from 1997 to 1998 hosted by Keith Chegwin.

The ITV version followed the rules of the original American version. Three contestants start off with £15. Questions are worth different values starting with £1, later increasing to £3, and finally £5; by the final season, the £1 questions were eliminated. The question is asked and players can buzz in at any time. Correct answers add the money to their score and incorrect answers subtract the money from their score with only one player allowed to buzz in on each question.

Series details

• Title: Sale of the Century
• Format: Game Show
• Language: English
• Premiere date: 1971-10-09
• Final broadcast date listed: 1983-11-06
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: ITV1
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 30 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 9509
• TVDB ID: 77136

Cast and credited roles

• Nicholas Parsons — Host

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1971-10-09; final listed air date 1973-03-30.
• Season 2: premiered 1973-09-15; final listed air date 1975-07-26.
• Season 3: premiered 1975-09-06; final listed air date 1976-06-25.
• Season 4: premiered 1976-10-01; final listed air date 1977-07-08.
• Season 5: premiered 1977-11-05; final listed air date 1978-07-15.
• Season 6: premiered 1978-11-17; final listed air date 1979-03-09.
• Season 7: premiered 1979-07-14; final listed air date 1979-08-18.
• Season 8: premiered 1979-12-22; final listed air date 1980-08-30.
• Season 9: premiered 1981-04-24; final listed air date 1981-09-18.
• Season 10: premiered 1982-04-04; final listed air date 1982-09-05.
• Season 11: premiered 1983-08-07; final listed air date 1983-11-06.

Source and licence

Adapted from Sale of the Century on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.