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Give Us a Clue

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Give Us a Clue
Presented byMichael Aspel (1979–83)
Michael Parkinson (1984–92)
Tim Clark (1997)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series18 (ITV)
1 (BBC One)
No. of episodes324 (ITV)
30 (BBC One)
Production
Running time30 minutes
Production companiesThames (1979–92)
Grundy (1997)
Original release
NetworkITV (1979–92)
BBC One (1997)
Release2 January 1979 (1979-01-02) –
19 December 1997 (1997-12-19)

Give Us a Clue is a British televised game show version of charades which was broadcast on ITV from 1979 to 1992. The original host was Michael Aspel from 1979 to 1984, followed by Michael Parkinson from 1984 to 1992. The show featured two teams, one captained by Lionel Blair and the other by Una Stubbs. Later versions of the programme had Liza Goddard as captain of the women's team. Norman Vaughan stood in for Blair for a short spell in 1980. Originally, each team consisted of the captain, two celebrities and one non-celebrity. The non-celebrity participation was dropped and another celebrity was added in their place. On one infamous edition of the programme, the male non-celebrity was handed the title he had to mime on a card by host Michael Aspel, but, rather than read the title, he read the wrong side of the card, on which his name was printed. He thus mimed his name to his teammates. Lionel Blair later wrote this incident led to the dropping of non-celebrity participants.[1]

A revived version was broadcast by BBC One in 1997 over 30 episodes, hosted by Tim Clark. Teams were captained by Christopher Blake and Julie Peasgood and the show introduced a lateral thinking puzzle (which the host could "give clues to"). Give Us a Clue returned for a special Comic Relief episode in March 2011 with Sara Cox, Christopher Biggins, Lionel Blair, Una Stubbs, Holly Walsh, Jenni Falconer and David Walliams.

Format

The game was based on charades, a party game where players used mime rather than speaking to demonstrate a name, phrase, book, play, film or TV programme. Each player was given roughly two minutes to act out their given subject in front of his/her team, and if the others were unsuccessful in guessing correctly, the opposing team would have a chance to answer for a bonus point.

Transmissions

Series Start date End date Episodes
1 2 January 1979 27 March 1979 13
2 29 October 1979 11 February 1980 16
3 25 August 1980 29 December 1980 19
4 1 September 1981 5 January 1982 15
5 6 April 1982 18 May 1982 6
6 7 September 1982 4 April 1983 17
7 6 September 1983 2 January 1984 18
8 13 March 1984 17 April 1984 4
9 4 September 1984 1 January 1985 16
10 28 May 1985 2 July 1985 6
11 12 September 1985 26 December 1985 15
12 3 July 1986 21 August 1986 8
13 4 January 1988 18 March 1988 55
14 1 November 1988 2 December 1988 20
15 14 February 1989 10 March 1989 16
16 5 December 1989 19 January 1990 16
17 15 January 1991 8 March 1991 32
18 3 September 1991 4 May 1992 32
19 10 November 1997 19 December 1997 30

The first series was not networked. Following the launch of morning programming on ITV in September 1987, the last five series of the original run moved from peak-time to daytime slots. The Thames series ended in October 1991, but a one-off special was broadcast on 4 May 1992. Series 18 was made for the BBC.

Theme music

The original theme tune is called "Chicken Man", written by Alan Hawkshaw, which was also the theme tune of Grange Hill. However, while Grange Hill used the original library recording, Give us a Clue used a less dynamic custom arrangement more in keeping with the style of light entertainment programming.

In 1981, David Clark took over as producer/director and commissioned a new theme tune which was composed by Denis King; followed in 1988 by a theme song written and composed by Alan Braden, which remained in use until the end of the Thames series in October 1991. Uniquely, the Braden theme song featured separate lyrics for both the opening titles and closing credits.

Other versions

SVT in Sweden broadcast their own version with the title Gäster med gester. Dutch Public broadcasting organisation KRO aired the program from 1983 till 2003 and one series in 2010 under the name Hints (nl).

A licensed New Zealand version of Give Us a Clue was first broadcast on TVNZ during the early 1980s and hosted by Australian journalist Les Thompson. Teams were captained by Peter Rowley and Jenny Maxwell. The show was revived in 1993 via TV3 with Brian Edwards as host and Gary McCormick and Belinda Todd as team captains, and again in 1999 via TVNZ with Marcus Lush as host and Gary McCormick and Alison Wall as team captains.

The series is rebooted for TVNZ in 2021. Former New Zealand politician Paula Bennett serves as host, with news reporter Hilary Barry and actor/comedian Tom Sainsbury as team captains.

NZ format

Rounds 1 & 3

Each team gets 3 points if the team solves the clue in <60 seconds, 1 point for 60-120 seconds. In the final 15 seconds, the opposing team can steal the clue to get 3 points, but 3 points would still be awarded to the original team if the answer is incorrect. During Steal phase, the person giving the clue stops acting. All 4 member include captains alternate until all 8 questions.

The categories: Film, Book, TV Show, Song, Play, and Quote/Saying. Some can be a combination of at least 2 categories.

Round 2

In the Show-off round, Team captains act as guesser, and every other member act on one-worded clues with no categories. Captains guess as many as they can in 150 seconds. This is also a chance for the captain to scout the best clue-giver for the next round. If anyone struggles to act out the clue, teammates can tag in to act the clue, but the acting order doesn't alter. The captain can only pass on one question.

Round 4

In the two-minute Quick-Fire round, one member mimes 5 clues back-to-back. The set of 5 are all of a theme. 2 points per correct answer. If they guess all 5 correctly, the point will be doubled, meaning the maximum score is 20.

References

  1. ^ 'Stage Struck'. Blair, Lionel. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd (14 March 1985). ISBN 978-0297785521
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