Blockbusters (British game show)
Blockbusters is a British television quiz show based upon an American quiz show of the same name. A solo player and a team of two answer trivia questions, clued up with an initial letter of the answer, to complete a path across or down a game board of hexagons.
This article is about the television game show. For other uses, see Blockbuster.Blockbusters
All New Blockbusters (2012)
- Andrew Lodge
- Peter Tomlinson
- Susan Rae
- Dan Strauss
- Simon Mattacks
- Ed Welch (1983–95, 2000–01)
- Paul Boross (1997)
- Rage Music (2012)
- Marc Sylvan (2019)
- Richard Jacques (2019)
United Kingdom
English
- ATV Elstree (1983)[2]
- Television House (1984–89, 90–95)[2]
- Central House (1989–90)[2]
- Granada Studios (1997)[3]
- The Leeds Studios (2000–01)[3]
- Sky Campus (2012)
- BBC Elstree Centre (2019)
30 minutes
- Central in association with Talbot Television and Goodson-Todman Productions (1983–95)
- Fremantle (UK) Productions and BBC North (1997)
- Grundy (2000–01)
- Thames (2012, 2019)
29 August 1983 –
19 May 1993
18 April 1994 –
23 March 2001
31 March –
28 August 1997
14 May –
3 August 2012
21 March –
5 December 2019
The programme premiered on 29 August 1983 on ITV and ran for ten series, ending on 19 May 1993. It has since been revived for four additional series, the most recent of which was a comedy version hosted by Dara Ó Briain, which aired on Comedy Central from 21 March to 5 December 2019.
Other versions[edit]
Sky One[edit]
In 1994, Sky One created a new series with original host, Bob Holness. It was produced by Central, which had made the programme since 1983, and sponsored by Thomas Cook. This series featured a bonus question for any player who chose a particular letter and correctly answered that question, thereby earning the right to answer a £5 follow-up question. Sky One brought the series back again in 2000, this time produced by Grundy (which owned the format) and presented by Liza Tarbuck, but it did not capture the same degree of popularity as the Holness incarnation. The format stayed the same in both versions, and both versions involved sixth formers.
BBC Two[edit]
BBC Two used adult contestants, instead of sixth formers. This version was broadcast in 1997 and presented by Michael Aspel; the show stayed with the same format. Famous contestants included Stephen Merchant.
This is the only version to use purple hexagons; all other versions still used blue to represent the pair of players. The solo player still played white hexagons. The Gold Run used a blue background in this version and the Liza Tarbuck version.
Champions in the Aspel era were limited to three wins before retiring undefeated.
Gameshow Marathon[edit]
On 14 April 2007 at 20:40, Vernon Kay hosted a networked edition of Gameshow Marathon on ITV1 in which celebrity contestants revived the classic 1980s Holness version of the show. It also featured an edited version of the show's opening titles.
Merchandise[edit]
Blockbusters spawned a number of items of merchandise. 12 quiz books were released from the show[14] which also led to a spin-off: "Blockbusters Gold Run Volumes 1–5" being produced.[15]
In 1986, Waddingtons created a board game version of the show, which was named Game of the Year in 1986 by The British Association of Toy Retailers.[16] This led to several successful spin offs; a "Gold Run" Card Game, a Junior Blockbusters board game (a children's edition) and a Super Blockbusters board game (essentially, a second edition standard game with its own set of "Gold Run" cards).[17] A computer game version of the show was also created for the Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.
In 2006, a DVD game based on the show was released by Circle Studio under license from FremantleMedia, with Bob Holness reprising his position at the helm. The DVD is based on the same format as the TV show, with a virtual set design and game graphics matching the original version of the programme.[18]
In 2012, FremantleMedia's gaming division launched an online slot game based on the British game show. The game is featured at many of the UK's leading gambling sites, including Sky Vegas and Bet365.
Reruns[edit]
Challenge TV aired Blockbusters starting from September 1996 during the final months of The Family Channel and was the first game show broadcast on the relaunch from the Family Channel to Challenge TV on 3 February 1997 showing reruns from Series 9, it was repeated in February to June 1997, January to May 1998, September 1998 to January 1999 and May to September 1999.
In 2004, Saturday Night Takeaway showed clips from a 1992 episode with a contestant in the audience who did not get very far on the show and only won £10. Following requests on the (now "defunct") Challenge forums to air the show, Challenge managed to acquire Blockbusters from June 2004 to June 2006, but they only showed the first 25 episodes from Series 10, which generated low ratings. Carlton Select also showed old shows while that channel was still operational.
Challenge reacquired Blockbusters but this time, they acquired 72 episodes from Series 10, and broadcast them during 2011. On 8 May 2014, they acquired the first series,[44] which aired from 26 May.[45] On 4 January 2016, Challenge began showing Series 11 (the first Sky One series), acquiring 179 of the 180 episodes in the series. In April 2024, Challenge began to rebroadcast Series 2 for the first time since its original broadcast in 40 years.
– The Australian version of Blockbusters, hosted by Michael Pope, was broadcast on the Seven Network from 1991 to 1993. It had schools competing against other schools. Additionally, it also had an intro that looks similar to the Holness era from the UK version, although the theme song was different.
Australia
– A German version called Supergrips (originally called Grips before it) aired from 1988 to 1995 on the Bavarian TV network. Frank Laufenberg was the show's original host from 1988 until 1990, then was later replaced by Ingo Dubinski from 1991 until 1995.
Germany
– The French version was called Parcours d'enfer (Course of Hell) aired on TF1 and hosted by Pierre Bellemare.
France
– The Indonesian version called Aksara Bermakna (Meaningful Letters) aired on two networks, first on TVRI from 1989 to 1996 with Kepra as host, then on antv for a brief period from 1997 to 1999, this time with Anton Gemilar as host. It was created by Ani Sumadi.
Indonesia
– The Israeli version, called Nuts, ran on Israeli Educational Television from 1985 to 1994 with teenagers playing. Hosts of the Hebrew version were Shosh Atari, Avri Gilad, Ito Aviram, Anat Dolev, Mennachem Perry and Nahum Ido. An Arabic language version, called Paths (masarat, مسارات), aired on the same network in 1996.
Israel
– The Italian version is called Doppio Slalom (Dual Slalom) aired on Canale 5 from 1985 to 1990, originally hosted by Corrado Tedeschi from 1985 to 1990. Followed by Paolo Bonolis in the 1990 series.
Italy
– A Dutch version of the show called Blokletters (Block Letters) ran for a brief period from 1986 on AVRO with Fred Oster at the helm. Its set with a mix of half light and dark colours and gameplay is very similar to that of the short-lived 1980–82 U.S. original.
Netherlands
– In Paraguay, called Blockbuster, like the Australian version, where two schools competed against each other. It aired on Telefuturo for a brief period in 1999, its hosts were Clari Arias and Leti Medina.
Paraguay
– The Saudi Arabian version is called ABC Program/Competitions Letters, hosted by Ibrahim al-Qasim, Majid Cub, Ghanem Al Saleh, and Ghalib Full. The network for this version in particular aired on First Channel Saudi Arabia from 1987 until 1994. Then it was revived again three years later from 1997 until 1998. Twenty years later, a version hosted by Salman Al-Otaibi aired in 2017.
Saudi Arabia
– SVT in Sweden had their own version very similar to the UK one. 2 mot 1 (2 to 1) was a weekly afternoon programme forming part of SVT's youth output. The programme was produced in Malmö airing from 1998 to 1999 and was hosted by Stellan Sundahl until he died from a heart attack in 1999 at the age of 52.
Sweden
– The Swiss version, also called Blockbusters, was hosted by Sven Epiney and aired on SF from 1997 to 2000.
Switzerland
– The Turkish version called Haydi Bastir (Let's Print) aired on Show TV from 1992 to 1993, the host was Mim Kemal Öke. Additionally, its set (and intro) looks similar to the original Holness era.
Turkey
– Blockbusters (the UK edition) was such a sensation with the entire English speaking expatriate community in Dubai, U.A.E, that the city nearly came to a shutdown during its evening broadcast on Channel 33. Although there was no separate local TV version, the local paper, Gulf News, ran a yearly Blockbusters quiz competition, often hosted by Holness himself, between 1988 and 1994.[48] The Gulf News Blockbusters show was telecast on Dubai TV too and was broadcast as a month-long event, with the heats during Ramadan and the finals after Eid al-Fitr.
