A Question Of Sport: What happens next after 50 years on our screens?

It’s hard to believe, but A Question Of Sport has been filling our living-rooms with sporting laughter for half a century.

The much-loved show was broadcast for the very first time on January 5 1970, and is now the world’s longest continuously-running TV sports quiz.

David Vine was the original host, Henry Cooper and Cliff Morgan the team captains.

And, if that trio sounds impressive, just think – George Best, Tom Finney, Ray Illingworth and Lillian Board were the guests on that first show.

Lillian, of course, had just won gold medals the year before at the Athens European Championships, and would be dead aged 22 just months later, struck down by cancer.

It would be another David, Coleman, who took over the hosting duties from 1979 to 1997.

Since their time, just one more person has been in charge, so you can safely say Sue Barker has proved pretty adept at keeping order.

Sue has hosted more than 800 shows, an incredible record, but some captains have done not too badly either.

Like Matt Dawson, for instance, who has skippered his side through over 540 shows, with his opposite number Phil Tufnell getting over 430.

Matt and Phil followed in some seriously illustrious footsteps, with previous captains including the likes of Brendan Foster, Ally McCoist, Emlyn Hughes and Gareth Edwards.

Nobody will forget the wonderful enthusiasm of the late, great Emlyn, while Ally brought a similar lighthearted, boisterous approach.

Both, of course, also took A Question Of Sport very seriously indeed – sportsmen and women are not known for being relaxed about losing, whether in their chosen sport or in TV quizzes.

More than 3,000 different sporting stars have featured on the show over the decades, everyone from Alastair Cook to Martina Navratilova, none of whom gave less than 100%.

The same goes for Princess Anne, who appeared on the 200th episode in 1987, drawing an amazing audience of 19 million.

Emlyn Hughes, shortly before her appearance, had been unable to recognise her in the Pictureboard round, and actually mistook Her Highness for jockey John Reid.

You can safely assume the Liverpool and England legend would have heard some choice words from the Princess Royal ringing in his ears.

It’s reckoned that the many guests have had more than 300 Olympic gold medals between them, and every BBC Sports Personality Of The Year winner has appeared on A Question Of Sport.

December 2 1968 had given us a taste of what was to come, when they broadcast a pilot edition, but it took quite a while before that very first show hit our screens – they do say the best things in life are worth waiting for.

January 8 2010 saw the BBC broadcast a special to celebrate the show’s 40th birthday, and it featured Matt, Phil, Sue of course, along with Pat Cash, David Coulthard, Laura Davies and Michael Johnson.

March 4 2013 marked the show’s 1,000th episide in style, with each captain being joined by two former captains.

Dawson therefore had Willie Carson and John Parrott either side of him, while McCoist and Bill Beaumont flanked Tufnell.

Nothing, however, really matches the incredible landmark of this week.

“It is a really proud moment for both the programme and for BBC Studios to reach the milestone of 50 years of A Question Of Sport,” says Gareth JM Edwards, executive producer, BBC Studios.

There are some moments, of course, that some prefer not to remember.

Such as Mr McCoist, who tries to forget that he once failed to identify himself as a show jumper in one clip.

Or, for that matter, Frankie Dettori struggling to make sense of an anagram of his own name.

Or the day a team identified Sue Barker as Liverpool goalie Ray Clemence…