The news yesterday that Henry Kelly has died made me sad, as much for that long-lost time in my late teens as for anything else. For me, Henry was Going For Gold, simple as that - the show aimed to identify the quiz champion of Europe, and had contestants from 15 countries ... though all the questions were in English, so the home nations always did well.
Beyond the excellent theme music, Henry's quirky and idiomatic phrasing was another feature of the show, and led to a number of new terms entering my teenage lexicon, notably: "Good man yourself", "You're playing catch-up" and adding "proper" onto the end of everything (as in "You're through to the first round proper" after getting through the actual first round). Different times.
Here's the grand final of the first series, from all the way back in Spring 1988. Beyond the theme tune, the cake (!) ten minutes in, and Henry being Henry, note the winner, Daphne. If she looks familiar, well, she went on to be a member of the in-house pro team on another quiz, Eggheads.
I love everything about this video - it's time-capsule TV and perfectly encapsulates a simpler time, when people clapped each other rather than themselves. How we used to live, eh?
Rest in peace, Henry - you were a good man yourself.
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