Alan Carr goes on a game show marathon with ITV
ITV return to a Gameshow Marathon style series with Alan Carr and his Epic Gameshow
Alan has already given his unique twist to The Price Is Right over on Channel 4.
“We are really excited to bring these brilliant shows back to prime time with Alan Carr, they are the perfect match and we can’t wait for the audiences to fall in love with both” – Joe Mace, Commissioning Editor for Entertainment, ITV
ITV has commissioned Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow, which will air across seven episodes. The format will see five of the country’s all-time favourite game shows supersized and reinvigorated for 2019. Presented by comedian Alan Carr, the five legendary formats getting the big scale treatment are: Play Your Cards Right, Take Your Pick, Strike It Lucky, Bullseye, and The Price is Right. The latter Alan hosted a version of for Channel 4 last year.
The series will see contestants hoping to win either big-cash rewards or top-of-the-range prizes. Alongside the entertaining, hilarious and nail-biting contests that viewers know and love, every format will climax with an all-new epic endgame, bringing these iconic shows bang up to date.
Also featuring a Christmas edition of The Price Is Right, and a Play Your Cards Right Celebrity Special, Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow promises – ITV note – ‘excitement, drama, scale and big family laughs.’ The format was first aired on ITV in 2005 as Ant and Dec’s Gameshow Marathon as part of the channel’s 50th anniversary celebrations which saw classic game shows such as The Golden Shot, Blankety Blank and Family Fortunes all revisited. Another version of Gameshow Marathon, this time with Vernon Kay as host, aired in 2007.
The leader of the pack, Sir Bruce Forsyth.
Michael Barrymore on the set of Strike It Lucky.
Bullseye was launched by ATV in 1981 with the show running until 1995. Hosted by Jim Bowen it was all about general knowledge and darts, a super, smashing mix that entertained millions on a Sunday evening. Dave Spikey hosted a short-lived revival in 2005 for Challenge TV. LWT brought Play Your Cards Right to ITV screens in 1980. Hosted by Bruce Forsyth the show ended in 1987 before being reborn, with Brucie back as host, in 1994. In 2003 the series came to a sudden end following a revamp by new producers Thames Television which failed to win viewers over. The basic mix of general knowledge and turning cards higher or lower than the previous was the main game play.
Thames Television, and later LWT, had a hit with Strike it Lucky with host Michael Barrymore. The series, like Play Your Cards Right, involved a mix of getting questions right, then avoiding going wrong on the game board – in this case several TV screens which offered up different options. A Hot Spot halted your progress. The show first aired on ITV in 1986; it was rebooted as Strike it Rich in 1996 and ended in 1999.
You can’t beat a bit of Bully, Bullseye with mascot Bully the bull and host Jim Bowen.
Des O’Connor invited contestants to Take Your Pick in the 90s.
Take Your Pick first aired on ITV back in its first year on air, 1955. It ran for twelve years with Michael Miles as host on the Associated Rediffusion production. Contestants successful in the ‘yes – no game’, where you weren’t allowed to say either word to questions that would normally bring such an answer, would then go on to be offered money for their box, turning the money down saw the box opened with sometimes amazing prizes and sometimes big boobie prizes. Thames Television rebooted the format with Des O’Connor in 1992 with the show running until 1999.
The Price Is Right is most fondly remembered for the version that never gets repeated, the Leslie Crowther Central Television produced era of the 1980s. The UK first heard ‘come on down’ as contestants were plucked from the audience in 1984. The series saw various games with the basic premise that participants had to guess the right price of items on display. The show switched from ITV to Sky One in 1989, with new host Bob Warman before returning to ITV in 1995 with Bruce Forsyth overseeing proceedings from Yorkshire Television until 2001. A terrible version with Joe Pasquale aired on ITV in 2006 and in 2017 Channel 4 and Alan Carr proved there is nothing like the original, both later versions imagined by Thames Television.
“It is such a privilege for me to be involved in these truly iconic shows that have brought so much joy to my childhood. A little bit of nostalgia but a whole load of fun. Big shoes to fill I know, but these shows should be back on telly for a whole new generation to sit down and enjoy with their family just like I did all those years ago!” – Alan Carr
