BEER and history may not seem the likeliest of combinations – but it gave birth to a board game that could prove to be this year’s Christmas hit.

About Time, the brainchild of late nights in a Holloway house, has been picked up by retail chain John Lewis – despite being rejected by the BBC’s Dragons’ Den.

Now its inventors are hoping they will be destined for the big time.

The game was thought up by journalist Joe Gill and vet Iain McGill when they were housemates in Beacon Hill in 2002.

Mr Gill, 40, said: “We had this old chronology book. You could open it up and it would tell you what was happening during any period of time. We would get home, crack open a beer and use a dice or pencil to pick an event. Then we would guess the date. It turned into this impromptu game.

“I think we probably did start thinking about it – how it was going to be great, the next Trivial Pursuit, and that I would be lounging on a beach on the Caribbean. But I never thought we would get this far.”

The game was launched as a business in 2006, with the help of education consultant and entrepreneur Matt Gould and designer Michele Rosaus, and the company went on Dragons’ Den to ask for a £50,000 investment the following year.

But despite being knocked back, the company has now seen About Time stocked by independent toy shops, Hamleys – and, as of last month, John Lewis.

About Time sees players take on the roles of historical greats such as Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I and Gandhi and try to guess which year famous events from 1000BC to 2008 took place. The aim is to get as close to the real year as possible – and avoid pitfalls such as coming down with the plague or getting raided by highwaymen.

Mr Gill, who now lives in Brighton, said: “So far we have sold about 1,500 games and we are hoping to sell thousands this year – and closer to 10,000 rather than 1,000.

“I think it will take off. An American reviewer called it a classic in the making. We hope that by the summer of 2009, we will return a profit.

Board game About Time, a game of luck and skill based around guessing years, featured on Dragon Den’s Christmas special in 2007.

Since then, Brighton inventors Iain McGill, 44, a vet, Joe Gill, 40, a journalist, education consultant Matt Gould, 37 and Michele Rosaus, designer, 41, have all been busy striking deals for shops to sell the game.

Although the Dragons turned down the chance to plough £50,000 into the company, the game looks to have a bright future.

In it, players have to guess the year of particular events, with the winner getting the closest.

Joe said: “It’s been an interesting year because we are in a seasonal market.

“We’ve attended a couple of trade shows and made contact with retailers direct.

“Last year, we were sold in Hamley’s and this year we’ve got them again, along with John Lewis, selling through their stores throughout Britain.

“We’ve also got a distribution deal with a company called Hobby Games.” Circa Circa, the company formed by the trio, has attracted interest from the US and German markets for the game.

But not resting on their laurels, the four have produced a travel version of the game as well as an updated version.

Other games are in also development.

So far they have sold about 1,500 copies of the original game and interest before the vital Christmas market looks promising.

Joe added: “As we speak, the orders are running into hundreds every month.”

Despite their moderate success the three directors have yet to give up their day jobs.

Board game About Time, a game of luck and skill based around guessing years, featured on the Dragon’s Den Christmas special in 2007.From the Brighton Argus 30 September 2008

Theo Paphitis, Dragon’s Den, 2007

Having been given the knock-back from BBC2′s Dragon’s Den, the inventors of the family board game, About Time™, have fired back with John Lewis and other toy retailers now stocking the game, ensuring a heady Christmas for Circa Circa Ltd.

About Time™ is a thrilling board game that invites players to test their general knowledge, lateral thinking and poker-style cunning as it takes them on a journey through time. With nearly 300 question cards and over 1,500 questions about important events from 2008 to 1,000 BC, the game will ensure a lively family Christmas and provide a welcome antidote to the digital domain.

For ages 14+, players compete to win the most tokens before the end of the game by guessing CLOSEST to the year of an iconic event. There are no wrong answers as you only have to get closer than the other players!

Like history itself, the About Time™ board game is littered with pitfalls and surprises. You can catch the Plague, be held up by a Highwayman or be challenged to a Duel and see your fortunes rise and fall.

The historical theme is completed with a choice of player pieces from historical characters including Cleopatra, Elizabeth I, Napoleon, Mozart, Gandhi, Genghis Khan and Joan of Arc.

About Time™ is available now from John Lewis, Hamleys and other selected retailers at £29.99.

These are the winners of the “Bill and Cleo” photo competition held at the Birmingham Education Show (28 February to 1 March).

Each of the six winners of the competition, which involved posing as our William Shakespeare or Cleopatra playing pieces, have won a copy of the game, About Time.

Jools Viner from Brighton, S.Smith from Birmingham, Wanda Labuda from Derby, Jon Binsted from Thorp Arch, Sara Mitchell from Leeds and Mrs W Edwards from Northampton.

Congratulations to all of our winners, happy gaming!

About Time™ was developed with the help of teachers and students from its early days, and, as these quotes show, it has plenty of potential as a tool for educators in the humanities.

Tom Deveson, education writer, The Times, TES:

“I’ve enjoyed playing the game and I believe it will encourage students to think more about the vital topic of chronology – all those questions that confuse many of them, like ‘what happened when?‘, ‘what happened around the same time?‘ and ‘did x happen before or after y?’ or even ‘what century was that in?’“

Dave Futter, Head of History, Steyning Grammar School, West Sussex

“The game has an immediate relevance to the KS5 History classroom as it encourages students to think synoptically. History modules often require students to focus on a particular theme or time period. Accordingly, a student may become very knowledgeable about Communist rule in Russia during the 20th century, but still be relatively weak at making synoptic links to other features of 20th century history. The About Time™ game is a fun way of introducing students to other key events / inventions / cultural developments that happened during the time period that they are studying. With a little preparation a teacher could tailor a game to only focus on the time period being studied.

Alternatively, a History teacher could use the game to help students gain a clearer understanding of chronology. This can only benefit a History student as all exam boards recognise the skill of making historical comparisons across time. The About Time™ game could be used to make fun starter or plenary activities. Equally, the About Time™ game would be a good addition to a school’s Humanities club, Politics club or debating society.”

Students at Steyning Grammar School who played About Time, as quoted in the Sussex County Times:

“I am very impressed – it could have gained some inspiration from Trivial Pursuit, but it is a very different model.

It is fun – you are learning lots of interesting facts and it’s unlike any other board game.

It is actually good fun – you just have a good time with your friends trying to think of all the different answers and dates.”

John Oram, head of history, Fortismere School, Haringey, London

“[You'd think] in the electronic age that board games are going to be difficult to get across to the kids, particularly at that age, but I don’t think it seemed to be that way. They did seem to like it.”

Jane Garfield, Secondary School Teacher, North London

“It really makes you think… It makes you look at the big picture. It’s fun, it’s exciting.”

The game is already stocked in Borders bookshops, Hamley’s and toy stores and gift shops across the UK, as well being available online at Amazon and here at www.timegame.co.uk.

The makers Circa Circa Ltd have signed distribution deals with Esdevium Games of the UK and Fred/Funagain.com of the US. The US deal was agreed after a successful launch at Essen Spiel in October 2007.

The About Time team – Jack, Joe, Matt, Marc and Iain – joined others in the Green area, where independents and inventors display their wares and wait and hope for buyers and distributors to wander by.

We were of course a little more proactive than that, and had many useful conversations with veterans and players of the toy and games industry.

Several journalists came to the stand on press day, helping to keep up the momentum of the AT story in 2008.

It’s a long show – but definitely worth it. We learned a lot, and now we move on to the next stage, and look forward to Education Show at the end of February.

Still, About Time was on display, with Deborah Meadon and Peter Jones trying it out guessing what was the year of Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon. Meadon won the round – although there after she gave us hell.

Right at the beginning of the show you saw Theo Paphitis saying ‘your rubbish, your pitch was rubbish..’, then cutting to Joe and Iain. What they didn’t show was Theo saying that the game might be brilliant, and we might go on to have great success, and then he would be annoyed and “come after us”. He then wished us good luck with a smile. It was the last thing the Dragons said before sending us on our way. We were pretty happy – despite them giving us a hard time over our business projections and pitch.

We live to fight another day – as our progress with sales and distribution since filming in September has shown. Borders, Hamleys, Amazon, dozens of gift shops, museums, UK and US distribution deals and some very healthy sales and excellent consumer reviews for the product.

Later that night on Radio Five Live, Joe and Iain talked to Richard Bacon about board games and Dragon’s Den. Our host pointed out that it was quite normal for businesses to make a loss in year one and two, and turn a profit in year three. He concluded saying the Dragons may have missed a trick. The way we were edited on the show – down to a soundbite – hardly represented what happened, but it’s fair to say that we fought valiantly and, despite a wall of scepticism over profit forecasts, they had nothing bad to say about the game – which was better treatment than that meted out to some of the other games on the show that night.

Our press coverage has been particularly good in Scotland (Daily Record, Edinburgh Evening News, The Courier and BBC Radio Scotland Good Morning Scotland) with Iain getting interviews across the board. Many thanks to Frances Anderson for all her work on publicity in Scotland.

Here is the Daily Record article in full:

Dragons’ Den Scot Invents Must-Have Board Game

Dec 13 2007 By Lisa Adams

IT survived the Dragons’ Den and looks set to become the must-have family board game this Christmas.

About Time, which tests your knowledge of historical dates, is the brainchild of Glasgow vet Iain McGill, who gave up his profession to chase his business dream.

He gets an 80-minute roasting on the hit BBC entrepreneur show on Monday as he battles to convince the multimillionaire panel to invest in his baby.

But the 43-year-old’s efforts are already paying off. His game is flying off the shelves at Borders book stores all over the country and has been snapped up by toy store Hamleys and Amazon have just doubled their order.

The game is even giving Dragon Peter Jones’ new board game Big Business a run for its money.

“The Dragons’ Den is terrifying and I was sweating by the end of it,” admitted Iain. “There’s a lot of mythology built up around the Dragons and going into the Den. The Dragons are hard but inspiring. It was a really excellent experience which galvanised us to get our sales and marketing strategy going.”

As Iain and his business partner Joe Gill recalled the longest day of their lives, it gave a fascinating insight into one of the most popular shows on telly.

After six years developing About Time, they had a screen test and then were given just 48hours to prepare for the show, which is filmed at Pinewood studios, Buckinghamshire.

Iain said: “They were filming the new Batman movie next door. At one point, a guy in a body-builder outfit burst in looking confused. We explained this was the Dragons’ Den and he was probably looking for next door.”

Tensions are turned up long before Dragons James Caan, Deborah Meaden, Duncan Bannatyne, Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones are even on set.

The producers use clever tactics to keep the budding entrepreneurs on edge. They are banned from making phonecalls or using a computer and Iain explained: “We got there at about 7.30am, then you’re put in the green room with all the contestants.

“You can practise your pitch with the producers but you never know when you’re going to be called. That’s quite an interesting way of doing it because you’re cocooned from reality.

“There is loads of nice food, coffee, fruit and chocolate. Then suddenly they say: ‘Right, you’re up.’ “You’re relaxed then suddenly you’re thrown into the Dragons’ Den literally.”

But Iain’s bid for £50,000 investment risked failure before he even reached the Den. At 4.30pm, producers explained to the three remaining teams there was only time to take one more. “The producer asked who could come back tomorrow,” said Iain. “We were right in the middle of our production run for the game. We were working 24/7 getting it manufactured in China, checking proofs, doing corrections. Luckily we got selected to go through.”

They had just three minutes to make their pitch to the Dragons.

“It’s difficult when you’ve only got three minutes to convince someone your game is going to be as big or bigger than Trivial Pursuit,” said Iain.

“We described the game and why it’s really good – it teaches you history.

“There’s a unique selling point because everyone plays in every round.

“There’s no waiting around for half an hour for someone to finish their go. You can always take control of the game by winning a particular round.”

About Time, which costs £29.99, is designed for two to eight players and combines discovery, cunning and chance. Each player selects a historical character from a list which includes Cleopatra, Napoleon, Genghis Khan and Joan of Arc.

They then have to guess dates which range from 1000BC up to the present.

The object is to collect tokens but players also risk losing them to a highwayman, the plague or in a duel.

When Iain was quizzed by the Dragons on finance, he started to feel the heat, especially as statistics show 90 per cent of new board games fail.

“Although we had a deal with Borders, we didn’t have any income from sales,” he said.

“Our figures were projections. We hadn’t actually sold a single game. That’s the kind of thing the Dragons pick up on very quickly.”

But after an hour of filming, Iain’s confidence grew.

“We thought they must be seriously thinking about investing otherwise they wouldn’t still be listening,” he said.

“Most people are in there from between 20 minutes and an hour, although they have had people in there for two hours.”

Iain and two flatmates came up with the idea for the game with the help of a trivia book on history. Since then, they’d ordered an initial run of 3000 from a factory in China.

“The Dragons didn’t have a single criticism of the game,” said Iain.

“They were hard and interested, a mixture of the two. They were a little bit sharp about our figures. Where did we get these from? Why didn’t we have the finance director with us? It’s all about the figures for them.”

It will be revealed on Monday’s show whether Iain eventually leaves the Den with an investment.

“Seeing the game in shops feels great,” said Iain. “I’m passionate about it and confident it’s a winner.”