Daphne Fowler
Daphne Fowler, a retired bank secretary from Weston-super-Mare, (who has 15 Grandchildren) is widely regarded as the best female quizzer in the UK, and is certainly one of the best known.
Among Daphne's most famous achievements are the Brain of Britain title, and her long run of massive scores on Fifteen to One. The trophy for her score of 432 is pictured (right).
Daphne made her first TV quiz appearance in 1979 when her children entered her as a contestant in Jimmy Tarbuck's Winner Takes All. She has also appeared on Bullseye in 1982, Sale of the Century when in 1983 she won a mini, Masterteam in 1986 and Jeopardy! where £2000 was her prize in 1990. Daphne has also appeared on Runway (1990), 100 percent Gold (1998) and One to Win (2000). During her run in this show, the following news came in:
"...she has now taken away £600 for her three wins in a row. I bumped into this screening by accident but I saw that she whitewashed the guy in the final, 24-0...!"
(Gary Woodward).
Daphne's first appearance on Brain of Britain was in 1983 when she gave a correct answer which was judged to be wrong at the time. Invited back in 1984, she was narrowly beaten in her semi-final by the eventual winner. However, in July 1997, Daphne was victorious over two university lecturers and a former Mastermind champion to take the Brain of Britain title and accompanying silver plate.
"I was amazed to win. I really did not expect it. I think it's just luck as to which questions come up."
"The answers just pop into your brain and you wonder where they came from. I read a lot and often think 'That would make a good quiz question'. I must admit that sometimes I write things down."
Completing the year in spectacular style, Daphne won the Masterbrain competition which features the winners and runners-up of both Mastermind and Brain of Britain. With characteristic modesty, Daphne made her prediction for the competition:
"I heard the others in their semi-finals and thought I would come a good fourth."
In the event, and with 16 out of 19 on her specialist subject of "the Miss Marple stories of Agatha Christie", Daphne beat Mastermind champion, romantic novelist and fellow south-western quizzer Anne Ashurst to take the title. Among the questions correctly answered by Daphne were:
What happened to the poet Shelley's body after he died?
The shortest poem ever written runs "Adam had 'em". What did he have?
Where was Sir Thomas Overbury murdered?
(answers at the foot of this page)
In addition to the numerous quiz achievements listed earlier, Daphne won the inaugural series of Going for Gold in 1988 (pictured, right), her prize - a trip to the Seoul Olympics, and was the first winner of the Whitaker's Almanack Champions' Challenge at the British Library, London in November 1998. Daphne went into the lead after the timed round, eventually beating Fifteen to One champion of champions Mal Collier by four points. The field also included the winners of Blockbusters, the Brain of Mensa and the Countdown supreme champion. Two quotes form Daphne shortly after this performance:
"I just thought of this one as a bit of fun"
"I feel absolutely elated on three counts, I've won this superb trophy, the British Library has kept my written answers in their archives, and my newest grandchild is just about to be born."
Daphne was presented with a magnificent silver Whitaker's Champions' Challenge trophy, and a leather-bound copy of Whitakers. She celebrated with a glass of wine and a Danish pastry in the bar on Paddington Station before travelling back to Weston.
Daphne and her husband Pete (a retired engineer) compete in the "Good Ideals" quiz team which plays at the Bristol Hotel in Weston-super-Mare. Their team has won the Weston quiz league many times.
Daphne's first Fifteen to One appearance in 1989 saw her only manage to get to the last three before being knocked out. Having returned as the result of the rule allowing previous (and non-winning) contestants to have another go, Daphne has dominated several series of the show.
In the Fifteen to One episode shown on 1st of May 2000 (series 28), Daphne made the awesome achievement of scoring 432. Getting one question wrong in the first half of the show, she proceeded to match the second half achievement of Bill McKaig. Answering correctly 40 consecutive questions (the first 3 on the buzzer) to go top of the finals board with a Score considerably higher than that attained by any other woman. (The next best is 311 by Rosemary Broome).
In the very next series (29 on 30 October 2000), Daphne had another massive score of 383 which won her a second Top of the Finals Board trophy.
After the first question in the final was correctly answered by another contestant, Daphne fought back with three correct answers to bring the game to "Question or Nominate". There was no point in asking, it was questions all the way. After an uncharacteristic mistake on a "say what you see" question showing a pie chart, a correct buzz on the subsequent question resulted in a tricky situation.
Continuing with questions when down to two lives has been the downfall of many a Fifteen to One champion. Daphne began with nominating. After two more questions went elsewhere, Daphne took hold of the game and blitzed through the remaining answers without a single mistake. The high point was a question about the town that (Lord) Jeffrey Archer has in his title, to which the answer was Daphne's home town of Weston-super-Mare. After this answer, William G. Stewart commented: "Where 3 million people know you live!"
The end result, a true finals board trophy winning performance and score of 383. Pictured (right) is Daphne's trophy.
Amazingly, in the Grand Finals of both the 28th and 29th series, where Daphne had attained the 2nd and 3rd highest scores ever in Fifteen to One, Daphne failed to answer correctly either of her two questions in round 1 and was knocked out.
When I watch people like Bill McKaig or Daphne Fowler I find myself thinking, like everyone else "How did they know that?".
(Ian Pickering)
In series 30 Daphne won her third consecutive Finals Board trophy with a score of 333.
Everyone asks her why she never does well in the Fifteen to One Grand Final. She says that when she came back from Seoul in 1988, she picked up a virus which turned into ME. Since taking early retirement from work she has been much better at being able to pace herself but still has bad periods which are always triggered by lack of sleep. For her first three Grand Finals, she travelled up the night before and stayed overnight in a hotel, each time not sleeping properly. This time, however, she travelled up on the actual day of filming to see whether this would make a difference. Judge for yourself on Good Friday 13 April.
| Series | Year | Score | GF ? | FB Pos | GF Res |
| ? | 1989 | Out | |||
| 27 | 2000 | 233 | Yes | 9 | ? |
| 28 | 432 | Yes | 1 | ||
| 29 | 383 | Yes | 1 | ||
| 30 | 2001 | 333 | Yes | 1 |
Biography
Daphne left school with seven O-levels and two A-levels and had no regrets about dropping out of Exeter University in 1959 where she originally went to become a religious studies teacher.
"I had such a good time in Exeter that my studies went by the board, I came from a very restricted background but discovered the high life. I didn't do enough work for my second-year exams so just decided not to go back. I got married to my husband shortly after and realised that was what I wanted to do."
Daphne has five children by her first husband who died in 1989. She had known her second husband for several years beforehand as he was the question-master at the Coach House, Locking, who were the deadly rivals of the Bristol Hotel team for which she played. They married in 1990, interrupting honeymoon plans to tour Cornwall so that she could appear on Jeopardy! the day after the wedding. The cash prize of £2000 enabled them to go to California instead.
Peter, a retired engineer, says: "It's very reassuring to have someone that clever in the house. We don't need any reference books because we just ask Daphne. It's not good for my memory though, because I know she will remember everything." Daphne said one benefit of winning the competitions was that her husband never questioned any facts she gave.
After winning Brain of Britain Daphne confessed to not knowing her left from her right, and having to write L and R on her hands for her driving test.
As Brain of Britain, Daphne attended the Woman of the Year awards in London and featured in a Clive James programme for Channel 4 called "Game for a Quiz", a documentary about quizzes quizzes and question shows alongside question-masters Bob Holness, Magnus Magnusson, Stuart Hall and Richard Whitely.
Daphne talked with Clive and clips were shown of her various quiz show successes since her first television appearance in 1979. Clive James told Daphne: "I feel like I know you already, I have been looking at your shows for a week."
Daphne appeared on the Radio version of Mastermind in 1999 with her specialist subject being P D James (hence the delight at a Fifteen to One question in series 30 when she was asked for the author of three of her lesser known novels). She came only 3rd in a high scoring heat much to her disappointment but hadn't been feeling well for some time. Shortly after the recording she was rushed into hospital with multiple blood clots on both lungs. However, she now says, as a result she has an unfair advantage over her fellow competitors as the Warfarin she has to take makes the blood circulate to her brain twice as fast as normal!
She has also played skittles for a local league since the 1960's.
Answers:
Cremated (after he died of drowning in 1822 and on the Italian beach where his body had washed up)
Fleas (the title of the poem: "the Antiquity of Fleas")
The Tower of London (slowly poisoned to death in 1613)