Bob's Full House
Synopsis
Hey everybody, let's go down Bob's Bingo Hall and play some bingo for some fabulous prizes!
OK, so it's old but it has quite a legacy. Thanks to Mr Monkhouse, we've had four versions of this with different hosts and different sets. (Version 2.0 was One to Win with Andrew O'Connor, version 2.1 was Lucky Numbers with Shane Richie, and version 2.2 was The Biggest Game in Town with Steve Le Fevre). However, Bob's Full House was the original and by far the best!
So four people attempted to get a full house by answering questions. But there was a catch, if they answered a question and got it wrong then they'd be 'Wallied' and wouldn't be able to answer the next one.
Round one was Four Corners, a fairly straightforward opener where it was basically the first person to answer four questions correctly won the round and - yes! - got a choice of prizes.
Round two was the Monkhouse Mastercard and the players would try and light up the middle row. Here, a board in the studio would revolve to reveal an electronic display. On that display would be a list of numbers (0-9, 10-19 etc.) and next to each one would be a different category. The contestants played individually in this round and could win a prize if they found their 'Lucky Number' and answered the corresponding question correctly. Questions were, as Bob put it, "Open to the others" if answered incorrectly, but if another contestant buzzed and also answered incorrectly, they would be 'wallied', so that they could not buzz in if the next contestant failed to answer, or, worse, if their own turn was next, they would lose it! Scary!
Round three was going for the Full House to decide who was going to play for that fabulous holiday we neglected to mention at the top this description. This again was on the buzzers and played in fast and furious fashion. The first player to light up every square on their card won the game. Moreso in earlier series', many of the questions in the Full House round were multiple choice, but many of the questions were designed to catch the unwary contestant in the high speed haze and often the required response was "neither!"
Bob Monkhouse quizzes a contestant in the end game.The winner went through to the Gold Card with a chance of winning a nice holiday. The board had 18 squares on it but some would be starred out. Each square had a pseudo-random number between 1 and 90. Bob had 15 questions and one minute on the clock. When the player got a question right they'd pick a number on the board. If nothing was behind it, they'd win that number in pounds.
The Golden Card game. Looks like the prize is a holiday to Kowloon.Behind some of them was a letter. These letters, when read out in usual reading order revealed a holiday destination and if the contestant could uncover all the letters then they'd win the fabulous holiday. Lucky they never tried sending them to Llanfair PG really.
A very enjoyable and entertaining show, just right for its Saturday-night slot, thanks mainly to Bob's excellent hosting and the fact that it was very easy and fun to play along with!
Key moments
Bob's flagrant cheating when the contestant was rapidly running out of time.
Bob opened each show with about 10 minutes of jokes (often about his wife - how did she put up with it?!) and topical gags. Later series also featured jokes about his unmarried sister, Beryl and his dim cousin, Wilfred (both of whom were, presumably, fictional?!)
Bob used to get the audience to shout out the requisite bingo responses to the numbers - such as:
- "Two little ducks" - "Quack, quack!"
- "Doctor's Orders, Number Nine" - "Cough, cough!"
- "All the threes" - "Wogan's knees!"
- "Five and Nine, the Brighton Line" - "Choo choo!"
- "P.C. 49" - "Evenin' all!"
Catchphrases
(At the start of the show): "Ladies and gentlemen - the master of the house - Bob Monkhouse!"
"You've been wallied", or, "You're wallied, you can't answer this!"
"Join us this week and every week on 'Bob's Full House' - the doors are always open for you!"
Segue into the Monkhouse Mastercard round: "In Bingo lingo clickety-clicks, it's time to take your pick of the six"
"Mix the Six!"
"Let's meet my Full House guests!"
"It's open to the others!"
"Will you please join me at your Golden Bingo Card?"
"Flash the figures - make them big ones!"
(The announcer, revealing the prizes to be won): "And for the four corners, Bob...!" then the same again for the middle line and the full house.
Inventor
Game devised by Terry Mardell and David Moore.
Theme music
Composed by John Mealing, brass band effects by Viv Fisher.
Trivia
Bob used to write 'Joke' on some of his question cards and made up one-liners on the spot.
Bob was credited at the end for writing some of the questions.
In the early 90s the format was remade in the US as 'Trump Card'.
Merchandise
There was a Bob's Full House board game.Pictures
Picture 1 - The end game set