Team Of Bald Women Take On The Bbc Eggheads And Win 29000 For Charity

On Thursday 17th March 2016 at 6pm, the BBC aired a unique episode of its hit TV series ‘Eggheads’ on BBC2. Aside from the usual nail-biting challenge of an amateur team taking on ‘possibly the greatest quiz team in Britain’, this very special episode saw a team of five completely bald women taking on the challengers in a bid to win the current cash prize. The team, which included apt's very own Account Director, Victoria Petkovic-Short, all suffer from Alopecia, an auto-immune condition which causes partial or total hair loss. They took to our screens to raise awareness of the condition, making a huge visual impact along the way. Even better, they pledged to donate the winning to National Charity Alopecia UK. 

Eggheads image

Back Row L-R Eggheads Team: CJ De Mooi, Kevin Ashman, Lisa Thiel, Judith Keppel, Presenter Jeremy Vine, Pat Gibson. Front Row L-R Challengers ‘A Clearer Head’ Team: Reserve Suzie Barker-Mewis, Team Captain Sue Hampton, Victoria Petkovic-Short, Marie Jenks, Jeanette Oliver, Emma Skipper. 

Victoria and the unusual team of challengers on the BBC2 show ‘Eggheads’, secured a cash prize of £29,000. Challengers are told the cash prize during filming, and the team A Clearer Head, who had expected to be playing for a couple of thousand pounds, gasped in shock as Jeremy Vine announced a £29,000 cash prize.  

Four rounds of questions followed, as the challengers took on the Eggheads in the head-to-head rounds, with three out of four challengers beating their Egghead. Only one lost, amidst tough questions on historic politics, leaving four challengers to take on two Eggheads in the final round. 

The final saw a showdown between four of the five challengers and the two remaining Eggheads Pat Gibson and Lisa Thiel, and included a randomly selected, but incredibly apt question for the bald challengers, which was met with peals of laughter: 

“What colour is the head of the eagle known as the bald eagle” 

A shock incorrect answer from the Eggheads in the last of the initial three questions, saw the challengers ‘A Clearer Head’ pip them to the post and win £29,000. The team, who had applied to the show in a hope of raising public awareness of their condition, had never expected to win and were overwhelmed by the result. The money has been donated to national charity Alopecia UK, who work to improve the lives of those with alopecia through their aims of support, awareness and research. For a charity as small as Alopecia UK, these funds represent a significant proportion of their annual income and will make a number of previously unattainable projects and campaigns, possible. 

Sue Hampton, Team Captain, and Ambassador for Alopecia UK says “Watching Eggheads, I had an idea that awareness of alopecia could be raised, if I could just recruit five more women prepared to go on TV without a wig, hat or scarf. It took eight or nine months to pull a team together but we did it, embarking on our bald challenge on national television. To win was a huge shock and I cannot tell you the pressure that the team felt, knowing that the prize was £29,000. Somehow, that seemed like a bigger deal, yet we didn’t choke and we managed to win! Even more amazing given that the team only met each other the night before the show! We’ve had a really long wait since the filming and haven’t been able to tell anyone, so it is great that the episode has now aired! The money has gone to a great cause and will be put to good use. We couldn’t have hoped for anything better! 

More Posts ...

APT Academy- Amelia Bywater

27 Jan 2022
Walking into the APT Marketing office, I was greeted with a warm welcome and smiles, my immediate nerves disappeared. They made me feel at ease straightaway. 
Read More ...

New tools for your toolkit? Cool things we love…

29 Sep 2020
There is no denying that the coronavirus pandemic has made us all look at things a little differently whether that’s in home, work or our social life.  As a result, some businesses have ide...
Read More ...

Marketing Matters: How innovation, diversification and going local will help the hospitality industry thrive again…

29 Sep 2020
Following the recent announcements that 1 in 4 hospitality businesses are unlikely to make it through, and 40% of hoteliers are considering giving up, it’s no surprise that the mood in the indus...
Read More ...