For the benefit of younger forumgoers, GFAL was:

Jeremy Beadle
Matthew Kelly
Henry Kelly
Sarah Kennedy

It started during a very grim period of the early 80s, it involved setting up ordinary people in pointless practical jokes and (I think) it started the hilarious practice of 'bleeping' swear words so it could be heard during family viewing time.

And it was shite.

I'd totally forgot about this show until you mentioned it Jon.

I disagree with the ground-breaking claims. It seemed to extend or copy ideas from shows such as Candid Camera but GFAL did get copied a lot - if you've seen Mr N Edmonds do his gotchas then you've basically seen a GFAL set-up with celebs.

The rise of Mr J Beadle was frighteningly correct. Worse still he stuck with the format in Beadles About with (sub Status Quo theme) for quite a few years (shudder).

Still it was a stepping stone to fame for the presenters who are of course, now giants in entertainment:

Henry Kelly: Going for Gold (GfG now mutated into *One to Win* on Channel5), Classic FM (makes lame puns about CD booklet notes)
Sarah Kennedy: Prim BBC Radio 2 presenter (only laughs at anecdotes about kids as sent in by listeners - the type done in newspaper letter pages for years)
Matthew Kelly: Stars in Their Eyes (and tonight I'm going to be.......nothing like Jarvis Cocker)
Jeremy Beadle: Last seen in the wilderness of Channel5 on some poor quiz show.

....oh, and yes Jon it was <bleep> and everyone knew what was really being said.

Of course, though, GFAL had a second incarnation. Round about 1985, it relaunched with only Beadle from its earlier series, and three new presenters:

Martin Daniels (yes, son of Paul)
Laughing TV-am chef Rustie Lee
Lee Peck (who probably does the afternoon show on BBC Radio Chipping Sodbury these days).

Anyway, it moved from Saturday to Sunday nights, and only lasted the one series, as it was felt it was "unsuitable material for a Sunday night".

Loved the moment on Victoria Wood about the Midlands couple who won a million pounds for inventing shades of furniture covering ("sprout, liver and bandage". Duncan Preston: "What colour is bandage?" Answer: "Grey.") The couple are presented with their cheque by the real Henry Kelly:

"Did you used to be on that programme where you ran down those steps laughing?"
HK: "Yes, I did."
"We couldn't stick that."

GFAL was indeed shite. It later gave birth to Beadle's About.

Wasn't there a later version with Martin Daniels and Debbie Rix? I last saw her reading Meridian News (South-East)at the weekend a couple of years ago.

> Lee Peck (who probably does the afternoon show on BBC Radio Chipping Sodbury these days).

Lee Peck hosted some sub-standard pop quiz for TVS in the mid-80s. Like many people in tv, he left to set up his own consultancy, commanding sky-high fees.

That's showbusiness, folks!

>Lee Peck hosted some sub-standard pop quiz for TVS in the mid-80s. Like many people in tv, he left to set up his own consultancy, commanding sky-high fees.
>
Pop the Question! In the 5.15 slot. Chris Tarrant and Diddy Hamilton were the team captains. I wonder what happened to them?
>

Chris tarrant himself went on to host the revived version of Pop Quiz in '94, which featured a storming performance from Jarvis Cocker, when he was on it.

Whats the difference between Pop Quiz and Question of Pop anyway?

The fact that Queen's Roger Taylor appeared to be permanently grafted to the scenery on Pop Quiz.