STV’s exciting quiz show Postcode Challenge is back and is bigger than ever! Running since April 16, the STV favourite has a fresh look, a dynamic new format and lots of nail biting moments as teams from across the country go head-to-head to win a £25,000 cash prize. Charity lottery People’s Postcode Lottery has continued its successful sponsorship of the series.
Angus Purden, best known from STV’s Make Me Happier and BBC’s Cash in the Attic, has been hosting the Friday night quiz show set to run on STV for 40 weeks.
So how does it work? Every week, two teams from across Scotland are pitted against each other to battle it out for a big cash prize of £25,000. Each team is made up of four friends who are linked by the same postcode.
The competing teams will be tested on their general knowledge in two nerve-wracking rounds, and will answer postcode related survey questions which reveal amusing facts about the psyche or behaviour of people within a certain area. The game culminates in a tense final where the leading team pull together to try and scoop the £25,000 jackpot. The team also wins £500 for a local charity.
To date the players of People’s Postcode Lottery have raised over £7m for local causes.
Been watching the show? Think your friends or neighbours are up for the challenge? Here’s how the show will work.
Every programme features two competing teams from communities across Scotland. Each team has four team members who are linked by the same postcode, for example G42 or AB1.
Round 1
The first round starts with a poll style question to determine who wins control of the play as well as two points for their team. For example:
We asked people in the DD1 area of Dundee what their favourite treat is:
A) Dundee cake
B) Belgium Waffles
C) Swiss chocolates
All four members of each team answer the question individually, and the team with the most correct answers takes control of play.
The teams then face three questions which are interlinked with the original question, such as:
Belgium is the founding member of which European institution?
A) Eurovision Song Contest
B) European Court of Human Rights
C) European Union
The teams receive one point for every correct answer.
Round 2
The second round aims to test the teams’ general knowledge against the clock.
Angus asks each team a series of open-ended questions on a range of different topics, with the teams answering as many questions as possible in 90 seconds.
The team members answer the questions individually, one after the other, and not until a correct answer has been given does Angus move onto the next person.
Each correct answer gives two points, with a point deducted for a pass or incorrect answer. The winner of this round will progress to the final.
The Final
The team still standing will now attempt to light up their postcode by ‘decoding it’, with a chance to scoop the jackpot of £25,000.
The team’s postcode, which is displayed on the set, is split into five segments, each representing a question and an increasing sum of money. As the money goes up, so does the difficulty of the questions. Each team member answers each question individually, without conferring.
To succeed with question 1, at least one person in the team must get the answer right. To succeed with question 2, two team members must answer correctly, and so on for the first four questions.
For each correctly answered question, the team must decide whether to carry on and answer the next question in the sequence, which is worth more money, or leave with the sum they’ve just won.
If they choose to continue but fail to answer the next question correctly, they forfeit all their winnings. However, if they answer correctly, they win the corresponding amount and choose whether to attempt the next question in the sequence.
If the team has answered the first four questions successfully, they can decide to play for the £25,000 jackpot by answering a final, open ended question. They have only ten seconds to confer. If they get the question right, they win £25,000. If they get it wrong, they lose everything.
Want to see it in action for yourself? Check out previous episodes on the STV Player.
