The first couple of series of Give Us A Clue had teams comprising of captains Una Stubbs and Lionel Blair, then two more celebrities from the various echelons of showbiz - usually from off the telly - the fourth panellist on both the boys’ and girls’ team was usually a member of the public - they were usually chartered surveyors or quantity surveyors and invariably came from somewhere in Surrey - that worked fine - until one member of the public on Lionel’s team read the wrong side of the card - it had the panellist’s name on one side and what they had to mime on the other - based on charades - and he somehow managed to try to mime his own name - from then on, it was celebrities only! Oddly enough, even the members of the public were featured in the credits - bet they aren’t featured on IMDB - must see if old episodes from that era are airing somewhere and look up their names!
Although this might sound like an urban myth, it's entirely true and was even broadcast, in Series 2 Episode 2, shown on 19791105. The relevant sequence starts at 22m33s and I think members of Una Stubbs' team realize instantly what's happening, before host Michael Aspel does, while Lionel Blair's team are still trying desperately to work it out... Continue watching to see the poor bloke make amends for his mistake, by winning the final point for his team. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qZTS_siPyHs.html
Probably because no one except a Quantity Surveyor knows what a Quantity Surveyor does, the profession acquired somewhat of a comedic ring to it. The Bookshop sketch from the "At Last the 1948 Show" and "Monty Python" had Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying as the only book requested that was in stock; the Monty Python "Bicycle Repairman" sketch also mentions a Quantity Surveyor as the one of the things that a hurrying Bicycle Repairman might be and Fry and Laurie had the "Dancerise/Quantity Surveyor" sketch.
@@DavidJCane Given your knowledge of quantity surveying sketch use through British comedy in the second-half of the 20th century, I think we can say that's a given.
@aberdeenstu1 And if all goes well fine. Trouble is the Architect, and other consultants such as Consulting Engineers, then keep changing the drawings/design right through the construction phase and it all goes pear shaped with additional costs for additional works, changes, delays, etc. Projects that grossly exceed their original budget - invariably QS's are involved in ascertaining and agreeing what that is. Not so much "Design & Build", far too often its a case of "Design AS you Build" which brings all the problems and additional costs. Nobody pre-designs anything these days.
@aberdeenstu1 Lol. Too many extremes though. Projects that become more than DOUBLE the price of the original contract. Sometimes a number of times the original price. And all so unnecessary. It's as much the culture that design fees and consultants fee scales are heavily discounted and cut to the bone and well below and under-resourced so small wonder there are farcical errors and oversights. Major and I do mean major changes should not be happening when more than half the job is already built and half what's built needs to be dismantled and re-built. A complete shambles and invariably all of it is avoidable with proper funding of the design and ironing things out before the green light is given to build. More spent (by the client/employer) at the outset on the design would be a fraction of the millions and billions spent totally unnecessarily on variations that would be avoided/obviated/saved. Only ever involved in one that went all the way to arbitration and his findings were damning of the shockingly inadequate design at tender and which continued through the construction phase with late changes, drawings that went to revision Z then AA, AB, AC, etc, late information, blunder after blunder and crisis management, all down to inadequate funding of the design at the outset and throughout. Sadly those scenarios are becoming less infrequent.
