Going Dutch: Twee voor Twaalf

Today something that you could probably turn into something for BBC4, 2 Voor 12 (2 To 12) had a ten year run beginning in 1971 then returned in 1991 and has been going strong ever since, currently it can be seen on Thursday nights through VARA on NED2.

Hosted for the last 22 years by Astrid Joosten, 2 Voor 12 challenges two teams of two to find a twelve letter word against the clock consisting of the initial letters from the answers to twelve long-winded questions, often involving a piece of short film. Each team has fifteen minutes to answer the questions and work out the word (the final two minutes of the game are always given over to this bit, hence “two to twelve”). Each team plays by themselves – the second team wait backstage whilst the first team play, but the first team gets to watch the second team play from a sofa.

To help each team has access to encyclopedias and other reference material but using them costs the team money – they begin with €600 and are docked €1 for every two seconds they’re thumbing through a book (this penalty doesn’t seem to apply when using the computer – Dutch chums?) once they have finished they ring a bell to stop the countdown. It is usual for one player to take questions whilst the other researches an answer to an earlier question. The players may go back and change answers, but are not told which ones are right or wrong. The viewers are told, and the graphic for wrong answers comes up with a black background.

The final two minutes are used to find the word. The contestants ask for a letter to be placed (for example, “the ‘A’ from question eight”). If they got the answer right, the computer will reveal whereabouts in the mystery word that letter is. If they got it wrong then the position is revealed but filled in with a question mark. Each request to place a letter costs €10. If they find the word within the time they score a bonus of up to €100 depending on how many wrong answers they gave. Not finding the word means a score of zero.

The winning team gets to come back the following week to face a different team with a minute less on their clock. To win all the accumulated money they need to win a third match with a further minute knocked off. There seems to be some multiplication aspect to the prize money, although I haven’t worked it out.

Here’s an episode from 1993. Like yesterday it’s in guilders so the money and timings are slightly different but the game is basically the same. As you can see it looks mid-80s BBC2-tastic:

Of course you can also watch more modern episodes on the gemist service. Similar old-skool style low-key production, much more colourful set.

I think it may appeal to the sorts of people who quite like Only Connect, the biggest issue is the dead air that only watching people thumb through encyclopedias can provide, the contestants don’t seem to be encouraged to think out loud particularly. It gets around a million viewers which in the Netherlands is fairly good going, especially for what is a fairly intellectual quiz that’s been running on and off for forty years.