''Hard Spell'' is a United Kingdom televised

spelling bee A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty. To compete, contestants must memorize the spellings of words as written in dictionaries, and recite ...

programme for children between the ages of eleven and fourteen, presented by

Eamonn Holmes Eamonn Holmes (; born 3 December 1959)Holmes receives honorary degree
BBC ...

, with

Nina Hossain Nina Hossain is a British journalist and presenter employed by ITN as the lead presenter of the ''ITV Lunchtime News''. Background Hossain was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England to a Bangladeshi father and an English mother. Her fa ...

reading the words. It was first broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

in late 2004. Heats were held in different parts of the country leading to the grand final, at the end of which Gayathri Kumar was crowned Britain's best young speller. Notable spellers apart from Gayathri included Jade Bullock, Nisha Abraham-Thomas from

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

, Mark Jackson from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, Dominic Harvey from

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, Sarah Williams from

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

, Jack Jarvis from

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and Anthony Collins from

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. All of the televised runners-up in 2004 received a signed photograph of Eamonn Holmes and other Hard Spell

memorabilia A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

. Soon after, the BBC produced a one-off episode of Star Spell, which followed the same format but had celebrities taking part rather than children. This was again presented by Eamonn Holmes, with Nina Hossain reading the words. The one-off episode was won by

Richard Whiteley John Richard Whiteley (28 December 1943 – 26 June 2005) was an English presenter, and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show ''Countdown''. ''Countdown'' was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:4 ...

. In late 2005, the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

broadcast a full series of ''

Star Spell ''Star Spell'' is a BBC game show which put celebrities against each other in spelling related games, each one was subsequently eliminated until there was one Star Spell Champion. It was presented by Eamonn Holmes and was a spin-off from the BBC ...

'', again presented by Eamonn Holmes but Mishal Husain took over from Nina as word pronouncer. As the show was such a success, ''Hard Spell'' returned to television screens at

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

2005 with a different age group (11-13) but the same presenters, Eamonn Holmes and Mishal Husain. In the final, the winner was Niall O'Neill from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

who won £10,000 worth of holiday vouchers and media equipment for his school. In 2005 the

contained a ''Hard Spell''

T-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...

mug A mug is a type of cup typically used for drinking hot drinks, such as coffee, hot chocolate, or tea. Mugs usually have handles and hold a larger amount of fluid than other types of cup. Typically, a mug holds approximately of liquid. A mug is a ...

pencil case A pencil case or pencil box is a container used to store pencils. A pencil case can also contain a variety of other stationery such as sharpeners, pens, glue sticks, erasers, scissors, rulers and calculators. Pencil cases can be made from a v ...

pen A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity whic ...

and a

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...

signed by the presenter.

References

External links

* BBC television game shows 2004 British television series debuts 2004 British television series endings {{BBC-tv-prog-stub