Codex is a quiz show

Quiz Show

Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...

 set inside the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 and presented by Tony Robinson

Tony Robinson

Tony Robinson is an English actor, comedian, author, broadcaster and political campaigner. He is best known for playing Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder, and for hosting Channel 4 programmes such as Time Team and The Worst Jobs in History. Robinson is a member of the Labour Party...

. It has been shortlisted for the gameshow Rose d'Or

Rose d'Or

The Rose d’Or is one of the most important international festivals in entertainment television. It was founded in Montreux in 1961 and has taken place in Lucerne since 2004. Producers, executives from independent and public service broadcasters and heads of production companies from over 40...

 at the 2008 Lucerne Television Festival.

It is made by Diverse Production for Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

.

Season 1

In the first season a single team of five explorers solve a series of games in order to win letters that may help them solve a 'codex', an encoded cryptic clue, at the end of the programme.

Before each round, Tony shows the team one or more historical artefacts and gives some background to the objects. The team is then asked to answer seven questions relating to the artefacts in three minutes. If they succeed then two of the symbols of the codex are replaced with the two letters they represent; this is shown to the viewers but not to the team until later in the programme.

Between each round (except after round two) there is a head-to-head challenge where the team is posed a question with a numerical answer. They are each given a numeric keypad, and the person who is furthest from the correct answer is eliminated.

At the end of the show the four people eliminated in the head-to-heads work together to try and decode the codex using the revealed letters. They have three minutes in which to do this, and when they have finished they should have revealed a cryptic clue.

The surviving team member then enters the museum's Reading Room where they are presented with five more artefacts. They must solve the cryptic clue (or whatever the others managed to decipher) to identify what they think is the correct item. They have one minute in which to make their choice. They then take the small box located next to the item back outside. Inside this box is a glass cube revealing whether or not they have won.

The Codex clue describes which of the five artefacts is correct as well as which ones to avoid. Sometimes the clue can be cryptic - for example, in one programme the term "I'm buttercup" referred to a vessel (cup) in the form of a male sheep (ram being an animal that's a 'butter' - i.e. butts things). Similar cryptic crossword

Cryptic crossword

Cryptic crosswords are crossword puzzles in which each clue is a word puzzle in and of itself. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, including Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malta,...

-style tricks are meant to lead the solvers astray - e.g. is the word "lead" meant to be pronounced as in the metal or a dog lead?

Season 2

The second season, which began airing on November 10, 2007, employs a new format. Two teams of three answer questions for ten points (with some bonus questions and challenges being worth more), the teams remain in one location with only two rounds where one member each goes off to an artefact, there is no codex to solve at the end, and the questions no longer relate to a common period in history. Victory is decided on points alone. The prize is £3,000 and a trophy. The format for each round is as follows:

1. Round 1: There are 10 questions worth 10 points each. Play alternates between the teams and they are allowed to confer.
2. Round 2: A buzzer round. One player from each team is nominated to go to an artefact while the rest of the team answers questions for 10 points each. Incorrectly answered questions are passed to the other team, and for every two correct answers the third member is given a bonus question on the artefact for 20 points. There are 5 bonus questions and the round is over when they have all been answered.
3. Round 3: "Instant expert" round. Earlier in the day the teams are given identical information packs on a particular artefact and had 1 hour in the museum's library to memorise as many facts as possible. Questions are answered individually, and after each question the contestant is read the next question but then nominates an opponent to answer it, the exception being the first question which is given to the captain of the losing team. There are 5 questions per team and they are worth 10 points each.
4. Round 4: One player from each team is nominated to go to an artefact. They each have 60 seconds to try to guess the eight predetermined key words that describe the artefact. Each word is worth 10 points.
5. Final Round: A timed round for each team in turn with play cycling between the team members. When the questions begin the team's score begins to count down and the goal is to give five correct answers before their score reaches zero. The team with the most points left is the ultimate victor.

Season 1: 2006

Episode Number	Historical Subject	Original Airdate
1	Mesopotamia Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...	12 November 2006
2	Imperial Rome Roman Empire The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....	19 November 2006
3	Ancient Greece Ancient Greece Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...	26 November 2006
4	Imperial China	3 December 2006
5	Anglo-Saxon History of Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...	10 December 2006
6	Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...	17 December 2006

Season 2: 2007

Season 2 introduced teams and dropped the common theme.

Episode Number	Original Airdate	Winning Team	Losing Team
1	10 November 2007	Archaeologists	Students
2	17 November 2007	Politicians	Stewards
3	24 November 2007	Investors	Accountants (Lost all points)
4	1 December 2007	Archaeologists	Authors
5	8 December 2007	Guides	Surveyors (Lost all points)
6	15 December 2007	Archivists	Students

International versions

Country	Title	Host	Network	First Airdate
Israel	הצופן			5 June 2007
Russia	Ночь в Музее Noch' v Muzee	Andrew Maximov	Russia K	5 February 2011