Q & A with Alistair Bell!

Q: Did you practice with a Coryat grid before your appearance? 
A: Oh yes, too many times. I made my own pretty simple one on Google Docs.

Q: I noticed on the message boards you came to the U.S. from Britain in 2000. An England-loving friend asks, what part of it you are from? I heard Mr. Trebek say you born outside of London. Why did you come to the U.S.?

A: I was born in Carshalton, on the southern edge of London, and grew up in London and Glasgow. I moved back to London after college, and then about a year after our wedding, we decided to have an ‘adventure’. It was the tech boom, people with my skills were highly in demand, and visas were available. We said ‘we’ll give it a year and see what happens’ — nearly thirteen years later we’re still here, we’ve been joined by two children, and we’re actually all Americans now! (I like to say I’m an ‘American with a funny accent’.)

Q: I thought “capo” was a good get. And in the same game, I was a little surprised you went to Early U.S. Capitals.

Q: I’m pretty musical and I’ve played odd bits of guitar here and there. And yes, I can’t quite remember why I went to capitals, but I’m pretty good on geography.
Q: I was a little surprised you didn’t get “Big Ben.” Did you try to ring in on “Southampton”? Or “Laurence Olivier”?

A: Ah, Big Ben. There’s a story there. In that question and a couple of others, too much knowledge is dangerous! The BBC do indeed use Big Ben as a time signal at the top of the hour, twice a day. The other 22 hours, they use something called the Greenwich Time Signal (five short beeps, followed by one long beep). So there I was standing dumbly, trying to make ‘Greenwich Time Signal’ alliterate! Southampton I tried, but I hated that “Star Board” category. We actually saw seven pictures in that category because there was a technical error — I was impressed that they had spare clues! 
Q: What did the person on the other end of the line say when you tripped getting on The Tube, while talking to him on the phone?

Q: Which station was it?
A: Peckham Rye, platform 4. (Not technically a tube station but might as well be.) At the eastern end of the platform there’s this HUGE step up and out, as the train is actually tilting away from you to go around a bend that starts partway along the platform.
Q: I thought these responses of yours were particularly good from your second episode: Tahiti, TV show, the deep blue sea, no man’s land, Smetana, James Watt, sextant, James Baker.

A: The biggest story there is Smetana. I have the Bartered Bride on a CD somewhere from my college years, and never forgot it. The fact that I didn’t have enough courage to ring in on Chopin or Handel (thinking those were the right answers but not certain), and then got Smetana, was much remarked upon by the other contestants! As for James Baker, I blame the HBO show ‘Recount’. He took charge of the Republican side of the Florida recount in 2000 (against Warren Christopher for the Dems) and his bombast as portrayed there was hard to forget.

Q: Did you stay in the audience for the rest of the episodes the day you lost?

A: I stayed for Susan’s second and third episodes, then left at lunchtime with some friends who had come to cheer me on. (They couldn’t make my first day, and I told them I’d been held over. So they were a little surprised when I walked out to the champion’s podium!) Susan told me that evening in the hotel bar how her final episode went, so we were able to congratulate/commiserate with each other.
Q: Is there anything else you want to say?

A: We had the best group of contestants. Many of us have stayed in touch since taping, and we were cheering each other on via Facebook through all our runs, basking in each other’s glory. (Some of us even went to others’ viewing parties, but I’m sure that’s in Josh’s Q & A 😉 )

I grew up nine miles from Paisley and have friends who live there. I’ve taken tours of the old factories where they made Paisley patterns. And I still didn’t get it. D’oh!
     There’s one story I wish I could share properly, but it involves the questions at the audition, which we can’t disclose. So I’ll tread carefully. At my audition there was a question in the written test that I didn’t know. Immediately after the test, Meredith Lowmaster (vanquisher of Stephanie Jass), who was sitting in front of me, compared notes with me, and in the process she told me the answer to that question. Later, in the mock game, the same answer came up and I was able to answer correctly. Imagine my surprise when the same answer turned up during one of my real games!
     Oh, and one more story. On the plane to LA on the day before taping, I was playing iPad Jeopardy. A tennis category turned up and I didn’t do very well in it. The next day we were in rehearsals and the very category that I’d played on the plane, with the same questions, went up on the board! Not a problem, given that it was rehearsals, but quite the surprise nonetheless.

     Well done, Alistair, and thank you!