Blankety Blank

I do like Blankety Blank, i first watched it when Lilly Savage did it in 1998, i never knew that it was as old as me, it first started in 1977, i never watched it with Terry Wogan or Les Dawson until i watched it on a TV programme called Challange TV.

The concept of Blankety Blank was pretty monotonous. Each week, contestants were joined by a number of celebrities. The contestants were asked to guess the missing word of a sentence. This was the easy part. They then had to pick a celebrity-who had jotted down his/her own answer a few minutes before-and hope that the celebrity had guessed the same answer.

The only saving grace of the show was the hosts. The original was the charismatic Terry Wogan who provided plenty of entertainment. Then there was the late Les Dawson. Les had been a comic and he too provided the fun on the show.

Then, we came to Lily Savage (for those who don't know, a man dressed as a woman). I can't really take to men in women's clothes and Savage could not compare to Wogan or Dawson. The Lily Savage years were not too bad but not as good as the earlier years.

As stated earlier, it was the hosts that made this show watchable. It certainly wasn't the rubbish prizes on offer. The losers usually walked away with a cheque book and pen and don't even ask about the main prizes-straight from a jumble sale I reckon.

A simple parlour game. Answer a question and hope as many of the celebrity panel of six as possible gave the same answer. The concept is simple, and was never designed to keep you on the edge of your seat. It cheered you up after a day at work, and relaxed you after that evening meal. Hopefully relaxed enough not to bother getting up to switch channels (OK we got TV remote after the USofA).

Its run has seen three very different hosts, the overbearing 'Terry Wogan' (qv) (why didn't he stay in that bank in Ireland?) was followed by quirky northern comic ' Les Dawson' (qv) . Six years after Les's sad, sudden death the show came back with Lily Savage, the loud-mouthed, brash, welfare-claiming friend of 'Paul O"Grady' (qv) . The prizes reinforced the idea that the show was just fun. They were so bad they became a running joke, and I can't even remember what the winners got, but when losers were presented with their consolation ornament who can forget the cry `Blankety Blank Chequebook and Pen'?

One of Great Britian's long-running popular game shows has indeed proved to be the perfect laughter tonic for anyone.

I've only seen a couple of episodes from the Les Dawson era, but I must admit that, despite the "tacky" prizes (well... they really weren't THAT tacky!) and the catchy/annoying theme song (so I won't bother reciting it), the Brits really did a fantastic job keeping contestants and fellow viewers entertained with funny quirks and in-jokes.

I might as well close my review with this quirk:

'When Brendan Richards finished writing his comment of the show, he said, "If you laugh too much watching this show, you'll literally laugh your BLANK off."'

(Don't forget, the clue is on this large thing made of hypertext and all that other stuff)

Blankety Blank began this year (2016) in focus, due to the death of its original host, Terry Wogan, and ended it through a one off (i.e. ITV testing the water) special, hosted by David Walliams.

It's a show that needs a good host, because the format is so simple it can become a bit dull.

Every host has brought their own spin to it, and if given the chance I'm sure Walliams would do the same.

One thing that is for sure though is that if you do it well, the show becomes synonymous with you. And that's a potentially wonderful thing. Whether ITV take the plunge, risk the legacy, by bringing it back full time remains to be seen.