Weaver's Week 2024-08-04

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The ongoing campaign to count up all of the episodes of game shows, and work out which shows have made the most. A show needs 500 episodes to get in the list, or 100 primetime episodes, and we only count episodes aired before the end of 2023.

Last time, Fame Academy helped us to Face the Music, played by Family Fortunes. With Four in a Bed making Fighting Talk, we had a Flying Start to find our Gamesmaster.

But Dominik Diamond wasn't the only teatime magazine show about video games in the early 90s.

Contents 1 Games World 2 The Generation Game 3 Gladiators 4 Going for a Song 5 Going for Gold 6 The Golden Shot 7 The Great British Bake Off 8 Great British Menu 9 Have a Go 10 Top show tables 10.1 Overall 10.2 Primetime 11 In other news

Games World

Always first to copy someone else's great show, KYTV commissioned their own show completely different from Gamesmaster. It's on every day at 6 o'clock, not once a week at 6.30! And there's a space in the title! And the host is not as good as Dominik Diamond!

Excellent video games players in silly costumes take on the best amateur competitors in challenges. Aired every weekday, building to "Beat the Elite" on Friday evenings.

Three series ran from 1993 to 1995, though our research is stymied by the way contemporaneous listings – even in KYTV's house rag – don't distinguish between new episodes and repeats. Our best evidence is 26 weeks for each series; in '93, '93-4, '94-5, so 390 primetime episodes.

There was also a revival in 1998-9; this went out in 15-minute blocks at breakfast, and we believe 150 episodes in that run, some of which were repeated during school holidays the following year.

Total for Games World is 390 primetime episodes, and 540 episodes in total.

KYTV weren't done with video games, and made Gamezville as part of their "Jobs For The Girls" scheme in 2003-4. (The "girl" in question was Lizzy Yellowhammer, daughter of the company's founder.) Cheap, over-long, and stretched 50 episodes' material into 192 programmes. Mercifully, these went out at 4pm, and we don't count that at primetime.

The Generation Game

Nice to see you, to see you...

Here is a thing, being done by an expert. See how easy it is to make a paper rose, or dance a claymore, or host a light entertainment programme? Now you have a go.

Bruce Forsyth kept a tight grip on things; when he defected to ITV, the Beeb employed Larry Grayson, who would not keep a tight grip on an umbrella. Bruce revived the show in the 1990s; when he again defected to ITV, the Beeb employed Jim Davidson who never demonstrated how to host a light entertainment programme. He seems to have put the hex on Gen Game, revivals hosted by Graham Norton and by Mel and Sue lasted about as long as a lettuce.

The Generation Game lent itself to episodes containing highlights from recent shows. It also lent itself to episodes where all of the games were themed around Christmas or Easter. For this count, we include "Special" themed competitive shows. We also include "Compilation" episodes, the best of one series, as some new material was included (even if it's just Isla St Clair singing). We don't include straight repeats, but do include the UK Gold clips-and-business "Now and Then" shows in 2007.

All that gives a total of 425 primetime episodes. Good game, good game.

Get Your Own Back. Ah, where would we be without the gunk dunk? Less messy, that's for sure. Crank 'em up for 190 episodes.

Charades! Lionel Blair, Dame Una Stubbs. Michael Aspel, and then Michael Parkinson. 354 episodes, but almost entirely in daytime. That's Give Us a Clue.

Gladiators

Contender, ready! Decade-defining ITV show, ready!

Ulrika Jonsson and John Fashanu hosted the combination of sport, combat, and pantomime. Expertly pitched for family audiences: we could admire the physical ability of all concerned, we could laugh at Wolf being a div, and there was something for the dads as well. And – in a sentence we wrote in early July – everybody loved John Anderson's calm under pressure and enthusiastic positivity for the contenders.

Came off air in 1999, when it was getting a bit stale and running out of steam. Always first to copy someone else's great show, KYTV made their attempt a decade later, to complete indifference. BBC1's revival has been the biggest entertainment launch of the year so far, though it comes just too late for our survey.

160 primetime episodes. Plus the children's spin-off Gladiators: Train to Win, which had 37 episodes.

Going for a Song

The BBC archive says:

Each programme began with a mechanical bird singing in an ornamental cage, competing against the theme tune (a movement from Ottorino Respighi's The Birds). The guests had to examine antiques and guess their value. The item was then passed across to the experts – invariably Arthur Negus and another – who gave it a professional evaluation. The guest with the closest estimate was the winner. Negus believed the programme was best when the objects examined were relatively ordinary ones that might also be tucked away, unappreciated, in the viewers' homes. Going for a Song ended in 1977, but returned, presented at different times by Michael Parkinson, Anne Robinson and Michael Aspel. Arthur Negus inspired interest in 'collectables', and went on to host The Antiques Roadshow, a programme which is still thriving today.

15 local prime editions in 1965.
160 episodes, mostly at about 5pm Sunday. Transmission time varied from week to week, and we're going to be charitable and put all of these as "prime time".
46 episodes aired in mid-afternoon. This total includes 14 episodes aired on Tuesday afternoons during 1972, which may well be repeats – but aren't marked as such in the Radio Times.

The turn-of-the-century revival: 348 daytime eps

Total: 175 primetime episodes, and up to 569 episodes

Going for Gold

Reg Grundy's finest 22 minutes aired every lunchtime on BBC1 for years and years. However, this is about Going for Gold, which followed Neighbours in The Reg Grundy Three Quarters Of An Hour.

Contestants from across Europe gathered in glamorous Manchester, or salubrious Elstree, for the honour of being told they're wrong by Henry Kelly. The daily winner got to escape this madness, everyone else had to come back tomorrow. Catchphrases such as "The First Round Proper", "Play or Pass", "Select", and "The Big Four Zone" became recognisable through sheer repetition.

Revived by Channel 5 as One to Win (2) at the turn of the century (5.30 on a weeknight is not primetime), and again during the call-and-lose mania early this century. 1058 episodes. Still going in France, and we couldn't rule out another sneaky revival on Channel 5.

Golden Balls had 288 episodes of people bickering about what they're not showing. Began at 5pm every day; by 5.05, we'd be annoyed that the contestants were just shouting at each other.

The Golden Shot

Live crossbows being shot at apples and targets on network television. On live network television, no less. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything could go wrong! The show was incredibly complex and fiddly to run, with so many moving parts and dangerous weapons. Sharpest thing in the box was Bob Monkhouse's wit, and when they gave the show to someone else it just didn't work. They made a couple of episodes in the Gameshow Marathon series; digital delays and the way everyone watches television on digital devices makes a full revival impossible.

339 primetime episodes.

The Great British Bake Off

Mel and Sue take their travelling tent to various places, where contenders make cakes and bread with a local theme. The local bits (and Sue Perkins' Brief History of Cake) got phased out after the first series, preferring to make stars out of the judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood.

From this humble start, Bake Off grew into television's biggest competition show. Mary's comments may be harsh, but they were always fair, and always delivered with the quiet authority of someone who knows what they're talking about. Paul is also a harsh taskmaster. Mel and Sue would make the contestants' worst gaffes completely unbroadcastable by standing in shot calling out brand names and singing songs from the musicals.

Love Productions lost a lot of goodwill when they sold the show to Channel 4 in 2016, and it's not been quite as good since. Breadxit means breadxit, and the majority view seems to be to reverse it, except the decision-makers are too proud and/or foolish to respect the changed minds. But let's count the crumbs:

134 episodes in the main series
15 Christmas specials (and one on New Year's Day 2024, literally hours too late)
50 charity editions
100 Extra Slice programmes
126 Junior Bake Off episodes, out of primetime
69 Crème de la Crème (or Professionals, as Channel 4 calls it)

That's 368 primetime episodes, and 494 in total. Yes, if we'd made the cutoff on 6 January, Bake Off would get into the overall lists.

Great British Menu

Culinary professionals compete to get their dishes onto the menu for a big event at the end of the series. Had a theme every year, rarely a major influence on what's cooked. Spent most of its time on air without a host, just a patronisingly obvious narrator telling us what we can already see.

Shown at 6.30 for the first six series, which we deem to be not in primetime because BBC2 "daytime" reaches as late as "shows opposite the 6pm news block". Moved to 7.30 from 2012's series, and it's clearly been in primetime since. We've also counted the 2010 special Great British Waste Menu as a primetime competition episode, as it went out in primetime and had some competition in it.

741 episodes. Of those, 469 primetime episodes.

The Great British Sewing Bee has amassed 85 episodes to the end of 2023's series. If only they'd commissioned the spin-off show Sewing Bee Your Bobbins. Or commissioned a home-and-away challenge against the Stitchers from last year's Only Connect.

Have a Go

Britain's very first broadcast quiz to give away money prizes, Have a Go was a hugely popular "people show" in which Wilfred Pickles (and his wife, Mabel) travelled around the country, turning up in village halls and asking ordinary folk up on stage to talk about their lives and memories.

This done, the member of the public would then be invited to "have a go" at the quiz, which consisted of four questions worth increasing amounts between 2s 6d and one guinea. There was also a jackpot question, and other local produce for the participants.

The show toured the length and breadth of the country, and made overseas visits – Ireland, armed forces in Germany, Malta. Have a Go couldn't resist a party, turned up to St Andrew's or Burns Night each year, then would visit somewhere appropriate for St Patrick's or St David's such as the 1956 visit to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Nor could they resist Christmas, recording once a year at "a well-known department store" after the shoppers had gone home. There were regular visits to some institutions society has rather abolished: sanatoria, orphanages, convalescent homes, and hospitals.

After 26 episodes in the Home Service North, Have a Go transferred to the Light Programme, where it remained for over two decades. Riotously popular and ubiquitous – at one point in the early 50s, Have a Go originated in the Light Programme at 8pm Wednesday; the show was repeated in the Home Service at least twice, and again in the Light on Sunday lunchtimes.

Our totals deem episodes to the end of 1959 as "primetime". We do not include a schools broadcast, where Wilfred went back to a Tudor village and asked the inhabitants to speak about their lives. Had he just invented Horrible Histories?!

Total of 390 primetime episodes, and 567 episodes in total.

Top show tables

Shows beginning with numbers, or A-Have A Go

Overall

Show	Episodes
Countdown	8732
Bamboozle	5900
Big Brother	4183
Deal or No Deal	3011
Fifteen-to-One	2683
Come Dine with Me	2432
The Chase	2247
Eggheads	2239
Bargain Hunt	2085
The Big Quiz (1)	2000
Brain of Britain / What Do You Know	1592
Blockbusters	1586
100%	1546
Brainteaser	1200
Four in a Bed	1058
Going for Gold / One to Win	1058
Call My Bluff	1047
Dickinson's Real Deal	1025
Antiques Road Trip	905
Fighting Talk	835
Great British Menu	741
Family Fortunes	717
The Brains Trust	691
Can't Cook, Won't Cook	685
Coach Trip	630
Catchphrase	583
Going for a Song	569
Have a Go	567
Games World	540
Criss Cross Quiz	508
Fame Academy	500

Going for Gold slots in just ahead of Call My Bluff. Even before this year's series, Great British Menu had overtaken Family Fortunes.

Primetime

Show	Episodes
Big Brother	4173
Family Fortunes	647
Call My Bluff	542
Catchphrase	531
Double Your Money	470
Great British Menu	469
The Apprentice	468
Come Dancing	431
The Generation Game	425
Blind Date	416
The Brains Trust	416
Games World	390
Have a Go	390
Britain's Got Talent	383
Bullseye	369
The Great British Bake Off	368
Blockbusters	366
The Golden Shot	339
Blankety Blank	320
Celebrity Juice	271
Dragons' Den	269
Big Break	252
Fame Academy	251
Dinner Date	242
8 Out of 10 Cats	232
Ask the Family	221
Criss Cross Quiz	220
Celebrity Squares	210
What Do You Know?	200
Dancing on Ice	189
Artist of the Year	175
Going for a Song	175
Face the Music	166
The Chase	163
Eggheads	160
Gladiators	160
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown	157
3-2-1	154
BBC New Comedy Award	149
Every Second Counts	142
Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway	141
Cardiff Singer of the World	141
Britain's Next Top Model	138
The $64,000 Question	137
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral	131
Gamesmaster	129
The Crystal Maze	124
Flying Start	123
Do I Not Know That?	121
Bob's Full House	117
Eurovision Song Contest	112
Ask Me Another	109
Busman's Holiday	103

At present rates, Great British Menu will overtake Catchphrase during the 2026 series. That, young Mulhern, is a gauntlet thrown down. The Generation Game finished six episodes shy of Come Dancing, ahead of Blind Date, which feels about right.

We'll put this project on ice for a week, while we review Battle In the Box.

In other news

John Anderson has died, aged 92. The original voice of ITV's Gladiators, a referee who was fair and scrupulous. Nobody watched Gladiators for the ref, but it was always reassuring to hear the booming Scottish tones. For the next thirty seconds, you're in safe hands, whatever hijinks Wolf might do.

Prior to his engagement on Gladiators, John was a track and field coach, guiding Liz McColgan, Judy Simpson, Sheila Carey, Karen Pugh and Dave Moorcroft to international success. "He turned water into wine," said Dave Moorcroft this week. "At our club, we'd never had anybody break four minutes for the mile, but suddenly four of us did it. John just got the best out of people. I would never have been a decent athlete if it wasn't for John."

Katie Glass has died. Best known as a continuity announcer on Anglia TV, she later became a wedding celebrant, and was glimpsed in the closing moments of Wedding Day Winners making sure the couple were properly wed.

The Game of Wool is a new commission for Channel 4. Ten "ambitious creatives" take on a series of "complex challenges" where they have a "chance" to win a "money-can't-buy" prize and become the first "TV knitting champion". There will be team-based "Big Knit" challenges, and individual "Wee Knit" tests. Di Gilpin and Sheila Greenwell are the resident judges, joined by a guest judge each week. Eight episodes, from Hello Halo (part of STV Studios). No word yet on which knitted character will host.

Channel 4's also bringing us Second-Hand Showdown, which might qualify as a game show if you squint at it. Guests try on looks created by stylists Sabrina Grant and Joey Bevan using only second-hand fashion. After trying on all the outfits, each guest chooses just one of the stylists' collections to keep – the other wardrobe is sold on an online clothes reseller. Vicky Pattison hosts, with episodes set to "drop" on E4 broadcasting and Channel 4's online "presence".

Bridge of Lies is coming back for another series – five civilian weeks, and 10 celebrity eps. Good, the show has a tremendous mixture of witty questions, entertaining wrong answers, and you literally cannot watch without playing along in some way.

(We are aware that GSN has brought the format of Bridge of Lies to the States. We have a sample episode to review, and watch for that feature on the 31st of next month.)

Netflix brings a local edition of Love is Blind to its subscribers this week. They've got advertorials and soft-soap interviews with the hosts in all the listings mags, something that leaves this column cold. We hope that Love is Blind encourages diverse representations of gender, sexuality, body shape, celebrates tough women and soft men and soft women and tough men and all shades between. We hope that the show doesn't lean in to stereotypes of emotion, that it applies the same standards to all participants.

We hope that contestants have been treated well, feel free to back out from the show at any point, and do not feel coerced into "marriage" for the producers' convenience. In the US, the producers of Love is Blind are set to have a number of days in court, because contestants feel they've been treated inhumanely. We hope this doesn't apply over here.

Sometimes, all we have is hope.

A new fact-smuggling show with one of comedy's power couple? That's The Unbelievable Truth (Radio 4, Mon). The 3rd Degree also has a new episode (Radio 4, Sun), and we promise it is the final of Y Talwrn this week (Radio Cymru, Sun).

Other new thrills: Countdown and The Great House Giveaway (C4, weekdays), plus Catsdown and I Literally Just Told You (C4, Fri). There's also another chance to see Popmaster tv (C4, Fri). Cooking With the Stars continues (ITV, Tue), Battle in the Box concludes (The Dave Channel, Tue, Wed); we'll have a review next week. Imports: Shark Tank (BBC3) is joined by Love Island Us (ITVB).

And with sports still colonising BBC1, they're spinning the random wheel of misfortune on BBC4. This week, the first Strictly Come Dancing, a 90s The Generation Game with Bruce, and more Blankety Blank than is good for you.

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