Family Fortunes. For some reason it's still going, and it gets funnier every year. Odd 'Uncles', old women who give the stupidest replies to questions (name something blue-er..my eyes??) hideous prizes, "Yes Bob, you've won a set of patio chairs/Breville sandwich toaster/shoe tree", and Les Dennis, who is obviously on some sort of mind bending drugs. It's easily the best programme on ITV!

Wasn't Robin Huston the voice of that 1970s/80s quiz from YTV *Winner Takes All* hosted by a certain Jimmy Tarbuck?

Regional telly throws up some gems. BBC East ran *The Commuter Quiz* which was really *Cross Wits* with local teams competing for soem silverware. Central had a regional quiz called *Home Run* which had a map that lit up(?) But Anglia topped 'em all with the annual *Cross Question Xmas Quiz* It sounds irrevelant, until you understand that *Cross Question* was Anglia's equivalent of *Question Time*.

I am addicted to Family Fortunes. It's on Challenge TV every night! It's great to see what kind of mood Les is in. Especially when he has lost all patience (doubtless on the 5th show he has recorded that day) He can actually get quite rude. Then other days he is skittish and surprisingly witty. Other days lazy and bad.
You can also take bets on how long it'll be before he says "If it's there I'll give you the money myself". He's the king of the world

...oh, forgot to mention that with *The Commuter Quiz* that the teams were meant to be from towns with railway stations, hence *commuters* (geddit?) One year (this is true) the team from Kettering won. It then transpired that all three were from Corby.

Note> Corby doesn't have a railway station.

Wasn't it Geoffrey Wheeler wot was the voice on Winner Takes All? Same Geoff who was behind some awful early 1980s Radio 4 Schools 'Modern Hymns' type programme? (name escapes me at the moment)

Les Dennis factoid: he went straight into showbiz after leaving school, doing turns in WMCs. He's never had a job outside performing.

Which is kinda ironic, because Lee&Herring get slagged off (by some people) for being out-of-touch student-types, but they've had more proper jobs than him.

Can anyone think of any other celebrities who've never had jobs? Nicky Wire (Manic Street Preachers). I don't think Ben Elton's ever had one either, but I could be wrong.

Spooky coincidence: The League of Gentlemen were on the Big Breakfast this morning and Reece Shearsmith said he'd never had a job. But is he a "celebrity"? He'd probably think so, but none of my friends or colleagues have ever heard of him...

But would they recognise him as "someone off the telly"?

A few of them might if he sellotaped his nose up and said "Are you local?"... let's face it, most people have never heard of LoG, as was made clear by the "from the top" summary on Big Breakfast this morning. In fact, most people never watch comedy shows except repeats of Only Fools and Horses. Puts this little place into perspective, doesn't it?

Did anyone see the ABBA quiz on Channel 5 the other weekend? Contestants dressed vaguely like ABBA - FANTASTIC!!!

VLS once claimed (well, he's probably flogged the story a few times) that he wrote a silly article suggesting a game show called "Not so clever now, eh?" (or something like that), in which senile political figures of yesteryear could sit uncomprehending whilst they were mocked for their misjudgements. And someone then approached him for the rights to the show.

I first read that in the 'TV Hell' issue of TimeOut (1992), so it's probably appeared 15 times in the Evening Standard since then.

The UK Games Shows Pages (http://www.qwertyuiop.co.uk/gs/) has lots of quiz show trivia on an interesting (if incomplete in part) site. No mention of Geoffrey Wheeler, who did indeed do the voiceovers on Winner Takes All, plus hosted some other shows, which I also can't remember at present. Bah - no Peter Fenn on the organ for Sale Of The Century, either! Spot the cheesy photos of the hosts, the slightly sarcastic captions on the video stills and Anorak Corner, where there are lists of the finest consolation prizes (from Bendy Bully to ceramic Dusty Bin).

What about that Chris Tarrent show a few years ago on ITV where the contestants had to answer yes/no questions incorrectly. There was a load of tension near the end where Chris would ask a harder question (not like the earlier "is Ian McCaskill a watherman") and if the answer was the required one he'd say "You've got it wrong" at which point the contestant would invariably by disappointed until the poor fool reaslised that that meant he had won.

>Did anyone see the ABBA quiz on Channel 5 the other weekend? Contestants dressed vaguely like ABBA - FANTASTIC!!!

yeah, i did. did you see the really ugly female contestant? Was she supposed to be Benny or bijorn?

>What about that Chris Tarrent show a few years ago on ITV where the contestants had to answer yes/no questions incorrectly.

Wasn't it called "Lose A Million", and (briefly) featured in the movie version of Trainspotting, presumably as an example of the mind-sapping game shows you can get sucked into watching? (Renton's speech, you know the one. Can't remember it word for word. That one, underneath Iggy, at the beginning.)

>>What about that Chris Tarrent show a few years ago on ITV where the contestants had to answer yes/no questions incorrectly.
>
>Wasn't it called "Lose A Million", and (briefly) featured in the movie version of Trainspotting, presumably as an example of the mind-sapping game shows you can get sucked into watching? (Renton's speech, you know the one. Can't remember it word for word. That one, underneath Iggy, at the beginning.)
>
No, it was in Shallow Grave. Good example of a mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game show, though.

Has anyone (and I include myself in this, as I can't remember what I did two minutes ago) mentioned the Channel 5 spectacular "Win Beadle's Money"?
That was fairly bad. It was his money though.
Can't help thinking "Win Beadle's Dignity" would have been better. Shit prize though.

What about 2 afternoon shows from TSW: That's My Dog and the rather cheesy Sounds Like Music, hosted by Bobby Crush.

Thats My Dog!??
Excellent! How does that work then?
Henry Kelly: "Okay, Leslie, can you tell us which one is your dog?"
Contestant: "It's that one Henry. The black and white one."
HK "Correct Leslie! THATS YOU'RE DOG <catchphrase>... we're all barking here!"

>Thats My Dog!??
>Excellent! How does that work then?
>Henry Kelly: "Okay, Leslie, can you tell us which one is your dog?"
>Contestant: "It's that one Henry. The black and white one."
>HK "Correct Leslie! THATS YOU'RE DOG <catchphrase>... we're all barking here!"

Actually the host was Derek Hobson.

>>Thats My Dog!??
>>Excellent! How does that work then?
>>Henry Kelly: "Okay, Leslie, can you tell us which one is your dog?"
>>Contestant: "It's that one Henry. The black and white one."
>>HK "Correct Leslie! THATS YOU'RE DOG <catchphrase>... we're all barking here!"
>
>Actually the host was Derek Hobson.
>
>
But I was correct about the format? Jesus.

I've been enjoying 'Mystic Challenge' on UK Living. It's similar to 'Through the Keyhole' but instead two mediums contest against each other to guess the celebrity behind the screen purely based upon the psychic vibes they pick up. Then the celeb comes out and proclaims the winner based on how many personal details or past experiences the mystics described accurately.

> I've been enjoying 'Mystic Challenge' on UK Living. It's similar to 'Through the Keyhole' but instead two mediums contest against each other to guess the celebrity behind the screen purely based upon the psychic vibes they pick up. Then the celeb comes out and proclaims the winner based on how many personal details or past experiences the mystics described accurately.

Charlie Catchpole in The Mirror mentioned this show in his column on Tuesday. 'Original' I think he called it.

Rather cheesy Sounds Like Music? That one with Bobby Crush? God that must be the cheesiest quiz of all time!!! Remember that one where the whole of the first half was ruined because they played muzak instead of the soundtrack (presumably accidentally)? Great stuff...

Mind you, the greatest tacky quiz shows must be Sale Of The Century (both the 70's one with Nick Parsons, earlier versions of which looked like they were shot in someone's front room, and the Keith Chegwin one on The Family Channel, where Cheggers was forced to play to a non-existent, canned audience...), and who could forget Whittle, on C5. David Vine is god!! ;)

Well, David Vine might be god, but so is Tim...

What about 'Love Me Love Me Not', from 1988. TVS had come on air six years earlier promising classical music, opera, the arts and good quality programming. What happened? Contestants ran around a giant stylised flower - tacky or what. For the TVS Telethon, Fred and Fern took part in an ill-judged celebrity version.