The Great British Treasure Hunt

The Great British Treasure Hunt is a two part giveaway from the UK newspaper 'The Mail on Sunday' as part of their 25th anniversary celebrations. The first prize was £150.000 and there were ten runner up prizes of £10.000. This is not the only Great British Treasure Hunt the paper has run, there's one being run in September 2017 which uses clues printed in the paper.

For two weeks in November 2007 readers were given a free DVD. Each DVD contained ten themed puzzles, entrants had to write the clues on an entry form that appeared in the paper with the second DVD.

When either DVD is loaded it plays a short video sequence with stirring music together with aerial shots of this green and pleasant land overlaid with famous figures from British history. The introduction ends in a title screen which in turn leads to an optional video in which a presenter explains how the quiz works.

In the video the presenter explains that the prize money has been locked away in a safe somewhere in the British Isles, all the player needs to locate the treasure are the DVD's and a treasure map printed in the newspaper. The object is to solve the puzzles which ultimately will yield the location of the treasure and a phone number where the player leaves their answer and details. Winners were chosen at random from entries submitted by 16th November 2007.

On each DVD there are ten 'Great British Icons', each one of which plays a short introduction followed by a puzzle. The answer to each puzzle is a word, when two or more words are put together they reveal a place name, the example given in the DVD's introduction is "Puzzle one's answer could be 'maid' and puzzle two's answer may be 'stone' which gives the place name 'Maidstone'". The player then marks the locations on their treasure map and by doing so they reveal the final location.

Each puzzle MUST be played in the correct order and the puzzle answers MUST be written down in the order they are played. If a player get stuck on any puzzle the helpful presenter is on hand with a hint. A puzzle typically has four or five answers which the player puts into a grid on the back of the treasure map. Some cells in the grid are coloured and the letters from these cells are used to form the single word that is the solution for that puzzle. As a further aid players are advised that, having found an answer they should listen to the short introduction as it will contain the answer, if the player does not hear the word they have found then they have probably made a mistake.

Once the introduction is over the player is presented with the main menu, here they can repeat the introductory video, start solving puzzles or visit the 'Training Camp' where the puzzle format, use of the DVD remote and even how to complete the solution grid printed in the newspaper are explained.

DVD One: The Great British Icons on this DVD are all famous people Puzzle one is based on Shakespeare and starts with a short video biography. Four simple riddles then follow the answer to each being a character from one of Shakespeare's plays. The player is then shown a short sentence containing the character's name and they must use the DVD's remote to identify character's name to show they have identified the character correctly. The example given in the puzzle's instructions has the player being asked "Who was Juliet's Love?" the answer to which is 'Romeo'. The player is then shown the sentence "Simon really enjoyed going to Rome o*n the aeroplane." within which they must find the name 'Romeo' and click on the first and last letters. Players will be told whether they are right or wrong immediately as they cannot progress to the next question until they have answered correctly.

• Puzzle two is based on Isambard Kingdom Brunel, after another two minute potted biography the player is presented with four picture puzzles. Here the player must look at two or more pictures and use them to derive a mainline UK train station - a reference to his work as a railway engineer, the example given shows a picture of a chef and a picture of a field from which the player derives the location of Sheffield. To make the puzzle that bit harder not all the pictures are in place - the player must fill in the blanks in order to derive the place names, doing this will leave some pictures unused and it is these that the player must use to derive the location that is entered into the grid on the back of the treasure map.
• Puzzle three is based on Alexander Graham Bell and references his major invention, the telephone. Players are given three telephone numbers which, when decoded, give the name of a famous inventor. The code uses the standard UK telephone dial where 2 = A,B,C; 3 = 3 D,E,F etc. The answers from puzzles one, two and three will yield letters that provide the first location on the treasure map.
• Puzzle four is based on Richard Burton and features a photo montage of people he worked with or married.
• Puzzle five is a word puzzle based on Charles Darwin, the letters from this puzzle and the previous puzzle combine to form the second location on the treasure map. The player completes a pyramid of words working from the bottom up. For each word there is a clue and the letters used in the word come from the word beneath.
• Puzzle six is based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and takes the form of one of Sherlock Holmes' experiments. The player is shown eight jars each of which is labelled by a single letter, clues to what is in each jar are contained in a riddle. The player must solve the riddle, identify the contents of each jar and, to prove that they have done so, must then use the jars to prepare a formula. When correctly done the letters of the jars used in the formula can be arranged to spell a four letter word.
• Puzzle seven features Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. This game consists of a running track around which are a series of footprints each containing a letter. The player answers a series of six questions the answer to each is a number. To answer the question the player moves around the track that number of footprints and notes the letter contained in the footprint they land on. When completed correctly the letters will provide a keyword to be entered on the back of the treasure map. Puzzles six and seven provide the third location on the treasure map.
• Puzzle eight is themed around Sir Isaac Newton with a nod towards his formulae. The example given is a cryptic clue "7 Ds in a W" and the question is "What is the third letter of the D word?". The clue refers to 'Seven days in a week' so the letter the player takes from this puzzle is the 'Y'. There are three such puzzles and the letters are again placed in a grid on the back of the treasure map.
• Puzzle nine uses Sir Winston Churchill as its theme. The puzzle features a decoding machine and a strip of paper tape. The player enters the letters on the paper into the machine noting the decoded response. However three key letters are missing, the player must turn work out what these are as they form the keyword that allows them to continue.
• Puzzle ten has five questions based on the life of Queen Victoria each of which yields a letter, All five letters when put together form a word spelled backwards.

The answers to puzzles eight, nine and ten form the final location for DVD 1. The player is then instructed to join the four locations on the treasure map together with straight lines in the order that they were revealed. The result will be a four sided shape and as an aid the game shows the player four possible shapes, one of which is correct, so that they will know they are on the right track.

DVD Two: This contains the entire contents of DVD 1 as well as a new set of puzzles, it was published the week after DVD 1 and the newspaper that it came with also had a new copy of the treasure map. The Great British Icons featured on this DVD are all landmarks.* Puzzle one is based on Stonehenge. The player is presented with four separate sequences of letters from which the central letter is missing. As usual the player must complete all four sequences in order to progress. The four letters form a keyword which is entered onto the form on the back of the treasure map

• Puzzle two features the Blackpool Tower. Here there are four questions to be answered each providing a letter of the keyword. The answers from puzzles one and two provide the first location on this DVD
• The third puzzle follows a short introduction to The Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland's only World heritage site. The puzzle consists of five numeric sequences shown on the rock pillars of the causeway, the player selects a number to complete the sequence and is rewarded with a letter which forms a keyword.
• Cardiff's Millennium Stadium is the setting for the fourth puzzle in DVD Two. It uses the same format as Puzzle two, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, on DVD One but here the pictures form the names of four football teams with the remaining pictures forming the fifth team whose name must be entered onto the grid on the back of the treasure map.
• Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain is the setting for the fifth puzzle, it uses the sane format as the Charles Darwin puzzle of DVD One. Her, instead of climbing the mast of H.M.S. Beagle the player assembles a pyramid of words to ascend the mountain. All five words must be entered onto the grid on the back of the treasure map where some cells are coloured. The letters that fall into the coloured cells form a word which, when combined with the solution of the preceding two puzzles gives the next location.
• London's 'Big Ben' is the setting for four puzzles. The example question shown is "Add 5 hours and 15 minutes to the time Cinderella reputedly turned into a pumpkin."
  Note: Cinderella didn't turn into a pumpkin - her coach did - but that's the question they used

The player has to set the correct time on the dial of Big Ben which in turn rotates a master cog wheel. After each question has been solved the player must note the letter on the top of the master cog.

• The seventh puzzle is a simple four clue crossword, as it follows a description of Cornwall's Eden project all the questions and answers are about plants. All four words are entered into a crossword grid on the back of the treasure map where, again some of the cells are coloured. The word from the Big Ben puzzle when combined with this puzzle gives the next location.
• The eighth puzzle on this DVD uses Jodrell Bank as its setting. All the answers to the questions are dates, a month and a day. When entered the date causes a model of the solar system to revolve and a beam from the Earth will highlight a single letter. The three letters form the keyword that is used to form the next destination.
• The penultimate puzzle is linked to 'The White Cliffs Of Dover'. On a drawing of the cliff face are many irregular shapes. Hidden among these shapes is a hexagon. The player must identify the hexagon, make a note of the letters contained in the shapes within its boundary, arrange these letters to form a word and finally enter the keyword into the lighthouse combination lock in order to progress. The words from puzzle eight and this puzzle give the final location to be marked on the treasure map.
• The final landmark is Glastonbury and the four questions are all music related and the answers are all numbers. The player answers by selecting a number from a selection shown on a guitar. When all questions are answered correctly they reveal a shape which should match the shape the player gets when they draw lines connecting the four locations they have derived from the preceding nine puzzles.

With all puzzles solved and all locations plotted on the treasure map the player now has two overlapping shapes. The penultimate task is to use the points of intersection to draw a cross whose centre reveals the final location. All that remained was to call The Mail On Sunday and provide them with the final location and the eight locations derived from the puzzles on the DVD and wait for the good news.