Family Fortunes

Synopsis

Take two families, a large game board which looked like it was brought from a dodgy salesman at a bargain price, a host who could do an impression of Mavis from Coronation Street and questions supplied by the public in specially commissioned surveys.

Then sit back and watch the 'fun' in the peak years of what was one of television's highest rated and longest running game shows, Family Fortunes.

As Paul Merton said in Have I Got News for You - "they'll get asked to name something with a motor in it and they'll say something like... 'a cat' " and it was so true!

100 people were polled on a innocuous question such as Name something you do in bed, and a person from each family hit a buzzer and guessed as to what the public might have said.

If it wasn't the top answer then the opposing team were allowed to guess. Whoever had the most popular answer got to take the question for their team (they could pass it if they wanted, but that was a rare occurrence). The rest of the family then took it in turns to guess answers until they got three incorrect guesses (as represented by a cross and a UH-UHHHHH! sound).

If the opposing team then guessed an answer not yet found they won the money (a pound for every person that replied to that answer). If not, any found money went to the first team.

After the break they played for Double Money. You're probably intelligent enough to guess what happened there.

The family who first made £300 went through to the final round where the excitement peaked (apparently) when the family with the most points selected two members of the family to play a fast money game against the clock- yes, it was time for Biiiig Money! (At least, Max Bygraves enjoyed whipping it up in that way, but the other hosts didn't tend to make such a big deal of it, except for reminding the contestants of the money - and possibly car or holiday - they could win).

It was a nice gentle show with a lot of humour in it, and there was some evolution of the format near the end - particularly the chance to win a car (and later a holiday) if you found all five top answers in the end game. But as the millennium approached we thought couldn't ITV be a bit braver and try something new for a change instead of cranking out yet another series? Come in number 5, your time is up.

Then, in 2002, the show moved to daytime. Les Dennis left, knowing that this was going to be the final nail in the coffin for the show, and the oh-so-famous Andy Collins became the new host. Ratings were unspectacular, and one of ITV's longest running institutions disappeared with a whimper at the end of the year.

All Star Family Fortunes

After a successful run out as part of Antandec's Gameshow Marathon, 2006 saw celebrity editions with stars playing with their real-life less glamourous relatives. The changes to the game were subtle but noticeable: Mr Babbage had been given a large shot of Technicolor Botox; the new title sequence is as camp as you like; there's a special reveal for announcing the top answer in Big Money; the game now ends after four rounds (two Single Money, two Double Money) regardless of the scores. Vernon Kay is affable if too shouty as a host. There's a lot to commend this fresh remake but some polishing would not go amiss either.

Once More, with Gino

One further remake was broadcast in 2020, with Gino D'Acampo at the helm. It was very much a civilian version of All Star Family Fortunes, with a 60 minute runtime and the same prize (£10,000 + another £20,000 for all five top answers), but with its own quirks, such as six games rather than four (three single three double, and with teams nominating a contestant for the sixth). A few problems: Its consolation prize of twice the losing total is frankly miserly when in 2006 losing All Star teams got three times that and from 2007 on the higher of ten times that or £1,000, and Gino has a really annoying habit of obstructing the board when not given answers are being revealed. We do rather miss the scrum at the end of jackpot-winning episodes, though we understand why it was missing; there was social distancing in place as a result of Covid-19. However, we do wonder rather whether they perhaps ought to have waited to produce the series; one lesson which definitely should have been learnt from Andy Collins' version is that you need a full audience to squeal in case of ridiculous answers; an audience of 100 in an auditorium of 350 is just too quiet, and canned laughter was clearly applied a little too liberally (as evidenced by Gino ignoring one round of applause, since he clearly didn't hear it).

Key moments

The famous UK Game Show Page cockups list! A fairly comprehensive list of the hilarious wrong answers produced by some contestants over the years can be found here! Many were featured on two programmes entitled 'Family Misfortunes', in which Les Dennis showed footage of these answers and spoke to some of the families involved, who were in the audience.

Bob Monkhouse and the rather aptly named 'Thicke Family' in 1980:
(GAME BEGINS)
Bob: "Name something blue..."
Family Member 1 (Liam): "Sky"
Bob: "Top answer!, play or pass?"
Family Member 2 (Liam's Mother): We'll play!
Bob: "Name something blue..."
Family Member 2: "We've already answered that one!"
(PAUSE) Bob explains the rules of the game.
Bob: "Name something blue..."
Family Member 2: "My cardigan"
Bob: (looking gobsmacked) "Let's see if it's up there!"
(UH UHH!)

Les's catchphrase of "if it's up there, I'll give you the money meself" backfired on at least two memorable occasions. One of the questions was "Name a way of toasting someone"; the contestant buzzed in with the answer "over a fire"! Cue huge laughs from the audience and Les making his promise... only to find that it was the 6th most popular answer and 12 people had said it - yes, the people surveyed could quite often come up with answers just as bizarre as the contestants did! Once Les had shouted "Oh no!" he looked at the board, shook hands with the contestant and laughed his way through the words "I owe you twelve pounds!". The woman in question appeared in the audience of the retrospective show Family Misfortunes where Les asked her to confirm that he wrote her a cheque for £12 after the recording. She confirmed that Les had indeed done this...but that the cheque bounced! In response, Les gave her a second, framed cheque! The second occasion involved a contestant who had faced the question, "Name something that a dog can do that you wish you could?" and she came out with, "Wee in the street". Les once again promised to give her the money himself if it was there - and it was the 4th most popular answer (or "Wee in public", to be more precise). On this occasion, Les claimed that he was like the Queen - he never carried money - so he'd pay up after the show.

In the Bygraves years, one man (Bob Johnson, who died in 1999) managed to answer "turkey" for the first three answers in the end game, running out of time before he answered the last two. Certainly, eyebrows were raised when he answered "turkey" to the question "Name something people take with them to the beach." Then he said the same thing for "The first thing you buy in a supermarket" and "A food often stuffed". Thinking of "a famous snooker player", he repeated the answer already given (Higgins) and eventually ran out of time, scoring a grand total of 21 for his contributions, all of which came from correctly answering question 3. The story - as given by his family in the documentary Our Survey Said - goes that he overheard 'chicken' as the answer to the third question, and he got it into his head that if 'chicken' had worked, then surely 'turkey' must be one of the answers as well! Give him his due, though: "turkey" and "chicken" actually were two good answers to the same question - the only problem was that he failed to spot which question it was, or more to the point, wasn't. Another theory (which sounds suspiciously like someone being creative after the fact) goes that Johnson had meant to say 'Turkish towel' as his first answer, but got stuck on his nerves and ended up coming out with 'turkey' for those first three answers. Other people seeing the clip out of context (thanks to Denis Norden in the first instance, and YouTube later on) have assumed that "turkey" was the first thing that came into his head because that was the destination of the prize holiday, but actually the reference (after Bob gave his answers) to "two weeks in Turkey" was just Max riffing - holidays were awarded on later series, but not on Bygraves' watch. In any case, it's certainly become one of the show's, and television in general's, most famous (or should we say infamous?) bloopers.

According to the excellent 'Gameshow Handbook' by David N Mason, there was a further twist to this episode. Mrs. Johnson went up to Max after the recording and asked him how much money he'd take not to broadcast the show. Max duly consulted William G. Stewart, the producer, who asked her how much she had in mind. She said, "£100" and Stewart then had to explain that a single edition of the show cost £38,000 to mount. She wisely decided not to pursue the matter further!

Les having great fun with 'the Dicks' in 1998. "So you're the head of the family, that makes you, the, er..."

In the closing moments of one end-of-series episode from the late 1990s, Les and the winning family were waving at the camera when Mr. Babbage repeatedly sounded the wrong answer noise whilst flashing the words 'Les Dennis Tonight…'. An understandably confused Les looked round (whilst continuing to wave!) only for Michael Aspel to emerge from the side of the set to explain that the full, uncut sentence was 'Les Dennis, tonight This Is Your Life'. Under the sound of the applause, Les could be just about heard to say 'I'd better not open that, had I?' to which Aspel laughed, 'That's the empty one!' You're giving away trade secrets, man!

Somewhat inevitably, one of the questions in the first series of the Gino D'Acampo revival was "Name a famous TV chef"; the two teams could only think of Gino himself, who scored 7, and Gordon Ramsay, who scored 51, much to Gino's annoyance. Jamie Oliver, Ainsley Harriott, James Martin and Fanny Cradock rounded out the published list, scoring 19, 6, 4 and 2 respectively.

Catchphrases

(Monkhouse era) "The question will appear at the bottom of the screen for viewers who are hard of hearing"

"Top [six] answers on the board"

"Let's see if it's up there!"

"Rejoin your family - no conferring - but the (whichever) family, think of some answers in case you get a chance to steal..."

(Max Bygraves): "Biiiig Moooney!"

(Les Dennis): "If that answer's there, I'll give you the money meself"

"The top answer was..."

"You said (whatever), our survey said...."

"We asked 100 people to name...."

(After reading a risqué question): "You're making up your own jokes there!"

(Before the endgame): (Max): "Join me front and centre, please" and (Les): "Join me at the mike".

"Right - (whoever) - you're going to play first - and (whoever), go and put the headset on and we'll call you back when we're ready for you..."

"Rejoin your family - we'll clear the board and bring back (whoever)".

"...And if you duplicate any of the answers, you'll hear this sound ('oomp') and I'll ask you for another answer..."

"Can we remind the viewers at home of the answers that we had from (whoever), and can I have 20 seconds on the clock, please?"

(D'ACampo era!): "Come to Gino and we'll play Round 1 (or whatever).

Inventor

Based on the US Mark Goodson-Bill Todman format Family Feud.

Theme music

1980-5: Jack Parnell and David Lindup.

1987-2002: Mike Alexander, credited as "Musical Director". Rearranged in 1993 and again in 2000, on the latter occasion by Mike Woolmans (credited as "Musical Arranger", funnily enough).

2006-15: Ash Alexander and Simon Darlow. A slightly dancy rearrangement of Mike Alexander's theme.

2020: Marc Sylvan. Yet another rearrangement of Mike Alexander's theme.

Trivia

Veteran light entertainment producer William G. Stewart (now best known as the host of Fifteen-to-One) wasn't happy that "only" 10,000 families applied for his series.

The computer which runs the electronic board is called Mr. Babbage named after Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first programmable computer.

When the show returned in 1987 (with Les Dennis), after a 2-year break, the original Mr. Babbage computer was replaced with a coloured scoreboard for a few episodes. The new scoreboard didn't last long and they quickly reverted to the original.

A surprise ending occurred in an early-90's Christmas celebrity edition, when the winning team, who included Brian Conley and the "Allo, Allo" actor Gorden Kaye, failed to win the jackpot (for charity, of course) at the end. Les promised that that they'd double the score that the team had achieved, but then Kaye piped up, "No, it's not the end - I've got a set of questions for you", and sure enough, he asked Les 5 questions in the usual style of the endgame. The latter did better on some than on others, but nonetheless notched up enough points to push the team's score over 200, thus generating even more money for charity.

The American version of the show was entitled 'Family Feud', but Bob Monkhouse didn't want the British version to be called that, on the grounds that it sounded too aggressive.

Most series offered a family photograph of the contestants, posing with the host, as a consolation prize. The winning team received a colour photograph, but - in possibly the most mean-spirited gesture imaginable - the losers received theirs in black and white!

In an interview some years after he'd finished hosting the show, Les Dennis said that he used to fear for his life when a family won the Big Money game, because they'd be going so wild with delight that they'd almost strangle him when trying to hug him - and the fact that he was often doing his final piece to camera at the time can't have helped much. One would imagine that one of Les's former fellow-gameshow hosts, the late Leslie Crowther, would have sympathised, because some of the latter's contestants on The Price is Right tended to do the same. Oh, and during one of the shows, Les revealed that people used to react to seeing him in the street by calling out, "Uh-uhh!" - very similar to the late Richard Whiteley having the Countdown catch-tune, "Da da da da, da-da-da-da, BOOM!" shouted at him in public places.

Lostshows.com tells us that many of the Bob Monkhouse episodes have been wiped from the archives with 28 of them surviving. These are the episodes that survived:

Series 1: Episode 1
Series 2: Episode 23
Series 3: Episodes 2 & 5
Series 4: Episodes 1-12 & 15-26

Bob Monkhouse on the other hand saved over 80 episodes in his private collection of video cassettes he recorded off-air.

Merchandise

Family Fortunes interactive DVD game 2005

Family Fortunes Board game

Family Fortunes Computer Game for Windows

Web links

Wikipedia entry (Original version)

Wikipedia entry (Celebrity version)

Pictures

Videos

Feedback

To correct something on this page or post an addition, please complete this form and press "Send":
If you are asking us a question, please read our contact us page and FAQ first.

Name: E-mail: