Monday 24 August 2015

216 Celebrity Squares



First  watched  : 1975

This  was  Bob  Monkhouse's  valedictory  show  ; hosting  the  British  version  of  the  US  game  show  Hollywood  Squares  was   part  of  the  pound  of  flesh  he  extracted  for  his  return  to  The  Golden  Shot. 

It  was  a  quiz  show  where  the  contestants  didn't  have  to  answer  the  questions  which  were instead  thrown  at  one  of  the  nine  celebrities  seated  in  a  noughts  and  crosses  grid. The  contestant  had  merely  to  say  whether  the  celebrity's  answer  was  correct  or  not  to  get  their  cross  or  nought. A  nominated  "secret  square"  gave  the  contestants  an  opportunity  to  win  extra  prizes.  At  the  end  of  the  show  a  man  in  shadow  brought  in  a  briefcase  with  £1,000  in  cash,  to  win  which  the  wining  contestant   had  to  give  nine  correct  answers  to  a  question  in  30  seconds. At  the  time  it  seemed  an  enormous  sum.

Inevitably  I  didn't  recognise  some  of  the  celebrities , some  of  whom  were  on  nearly  every  week.  I  can't  recall   seeing  the  silly-voiced  Patty  Coombs  in  anything  else  and  it's  still  hard  to  believe  that  bumptious  cricket  bore  William  Rushton , who  seemed  permanently  ensconced  in  the  middle  square,  was  once  regarded  as  a  cutting-edge  satirist.

The  show  was  rested  in  1979  while  Bob  did  Family  Fortunes  , then  he went  to  the  Beeb  and  didn't  return  to  Celebrity  Squares  until  1993  when  he did  another  four  year  stint  now  with  a  car  as  the  star  prize.

It  returned  to  ITV  last  year  with  Warwick  Davis  as  host.

No comments:

Post a Comment