Concentration
Contents |
Host
Barry McQueen (1959)
Chris Howland (1960)
David Gell (1960)
Nick Jackson (1988)
Bob Carolgees (1989-90)
Co-host
Announcer: Malcolm Brown (TVS version)
Broadcast
Granada for ITV, 16 June 1959 to 7 June 1960 (70 episodes in 1 series)
TVS in association with Mark Goodson Productions and Talbot Television for ITV, 4 September 1988 to 1990
Synopsis
Two people played against each other to solve rebuses covered by squares.
On a board were 25 squares and each person picked two at a time. If they matched, they'd win the prize they'd matched up. Those squares would also disappear, revealing part of a picture puzzle. They could keep going until they failed to match. Instead of prizes, three of them were 'Wild' squares, automatically giving you a prize under a square (if they matched up Two 'Wild squares, I think they won a bonus) and thereby revealing three pieces of puzzle. There were also four 'Take' squares where if you were jealous of your opponent's prizes you could take one.
It takes concentration to read an idiot board, tooYou only won the prizes if you solved the puzzle and you could only solve the puzzle if you had just matched some squares. It was best of three puzzles. Whoever won went through to the end game where they would be given 45 seconds to match 14 out of 15 holiday destinations, 7 pairs, the one that doesn't match is the destination of the winners holiday.
At least it's not a speedboatPerhaps more polished than the American version, but not as much fun.
Catchphrases
"The game that needs not only a very good memory, but lots of concentration!"
Theme music
Ed Welch composed the music for the 1988-1990 version.
Trivia
Nick Jackson used to be the voice of the Sun newspaper TV adverts.
The 1980s version of the show used graphics by Dick Burn. We kid you not.
The original version of the show had 30 squares on the game board.
Merchandise
A board game based on the show was produced in 1990.
Web links
Pictures
The gameboard from the early Granada version