"Balls To The Lot Of You!" When The National Lottery Gambled On British Film, And We All Lost

"What has 49 balls and screws British cinema...?"

A version of this piece appeared in The New European.

The evening of Saturday November 19th 1994 saw a seminal moment in the cultural history of Britain as the first ever National Lottery draw was held.

Given the day and the fact this was a BBC One production, it was only natural that Noel Edmonds should be overseeing events. And since it was the mid-1900s, Anthea Turner was on hand to explain how to play the lottery and to point out the good causes set to benefit from it.

Meanwhile, a game show element saw 49 romper suit-sporting members of the Great British public compete for the honour of starting the first draw by taking part in a series of contests the complexity of which left you yearning for the days of It's A Knockout.

In the end, 18-year-old Debbie Walsh won out over her rivals. That her bright yellow onesie left her looking like a Tellytubby on a fag break was neither here nor there. One press of the big red button and seven lucky Britons were on their way to sharing £5,874,778. Cue the champagne, the unwise investments and the endless media chatter about whether or not this sort of thing was a good idea.

Since the odds of lottery success are so long, debate over the efficacy of the project has never completely gone away. What is undeniable, however, is that a wide variety of institutions and organisations have benefited from the revenue.

As well as art galleries and museums, Team GB's increasingly impressive showings at the Olympics are in large part thanks to lottery funding enabling athletes to train full time.

And there's the British film industry. When the government announced that lottery money would be made available to the country's moviemakers, a tsunami of excitement swept through Wardour Street.