Barry Lawrence Simmons (born 24 November 1948) is a Scottish-born quiz show contestant, the winner of the first

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

TV show ''

Are You an Egghead? ''Are You an Egghead?'' is a BBC quiz show that was presented by Dermot Murnaghan. It is a spin-off from the quiz show '' Eggheads'', with its goal to find a further Egghead to complement the existing team. The first series was aired weekdays f ...

'', and of

Brain of Britain ''Brain of Britain'' is a BBC radio general knowledge quiz, broadcast on BBC Radio 4. History It began as a slot in ''What Do You Know?'' in 1953. The main part of the show was the "Brain of Britain" quiz itself, originally called "Ask Me Ano ...

2013. Simmons was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and now lives in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

Career

Before becoming an 'Egghead', Simmons won £64,000 on ''

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and ...

'', broadcast on 5 February 2005 (Series 17, Episode 6). He reached the hot seat on his 3rd attempt, having appeared as a fastest finger first contestant on two occasions during Series 15 in early 2004. One of these failed appearances (on 24 April 2004) featured

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becoming the 4th UK winner of the £1,000,000 jackpot. Gibson would later join Simmons on ''Eggheads'' in 2009. Alongside teammates and fellow former ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' contestants Diane Hallagan and Lee Warburton, Simmons won the final series of Radio 4 quiz ''Masterteam'' in 2005/06. He was a semi-finalist on ''

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'' and also reached the final of the 2008/09 series of the radio programme ''

'', but was defeated by Geoff Thomas. Simmons has been a researcher at text question and answer service AQA 63336 since 2006. He was part of an AQA team that appeared on ''Eggheads''; he won his own round but the team was defeated in the final round. He returned to compete individually on spin-off show

in 2008, where he won Series 1, defeating fellow future Egghead David Rainford in the semi final and Shaun Wallace in the final. As a result he earned the right to appear as the 6th Egghead on the regular programme, joining

Kevin Ashman Kevin Clifford Ashman (born 2 November 1959) is an English quiz player. He is often considered one of the greatest quizzers in the world, and since 2002 has been a professional quizzer; he has been an '' Egghead'' since 2003. He has won most o ...

, CJ de Mooi,

Daphne Fowler Daphne Fowler (''née'' Bradshaw, previously Hudson; born 5 January 1939) is a British game show champion who has taken part in many televised game shows. She has won many titles, including winning ''Fifteen to One'' (twice), '' Going for Gold' ...

, Christopher Hughes and

Judith Keppel Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel (born 18 August 1942) is a British quiz show contestant who was the first person to win one million pounds on the British television game show ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?''. She has appeared on the former BBC Two ...

on the regular show in December 2008. He was the first person to appear on Eggheads as part of both the Eggheads, and a 'challengers' team. About being an Egghead, he told ''

The Jewish Chronicle ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

'', "It’s the best job in British quizzing and to get paid for doing something you love is just the icing on the cake. But I have to admit I hate losing." In the 2012/3 season, Simmons reached the final of ''Brain of Britain'' and won the competition in 2013. Before the final, some controversy was caused as he was thought of as "a professional quizzer". As reported by the BBC website, "There is no rule banning Eggheads from appearing on ''Brain of Britain'' – the only rule is that former champions are not allowed to return." In 2013 he was ranked number three quizzer in the world. He also appeared on

Only Connect ''Only Connect'' is a British television quiz show presented by Victoria Coren Mitchell. In the series, teams compete in a tournament of finding connections between seemingly unrelated clues. The title is taken from a passage in E. M. Fo ...

in 2013.

Personal life

Simmons is Jewish and is a member of the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue. On 4 July 1976 he married Janet Simmons. They have two children.

References

External links

Brand new Egghead joins champion quiz team on BBC Two
BBC Press Release, 2 December 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Simmons, Barry Contestants on British game shows Living people 1948 births English Jews