Let's start with an easy one. It's a TV show. Four words. The second and third ones are very short. The third word is "A". That's right! It's Give Us a Clue. The much-loved series aired on ITV between 1979 and 1992. It was later revived briefly in 1997 and for a one-off special in 2011.
Television audiences were first introduced to Give Us a Clue on the second day of 1979 when it was screened at 7pm, right after that evening's episode of Crossroads.
With Britain still in the throes of the industrial chaos of the winter of discontent, ITV remained inaccessible to viewers in the Yorkshire Television region as it had throughout the festive season until the next day. Despite this, the new show fared well against the channel's two other TV rivals, which included another new programme, the science-themed The Great Egg Race on BBC Two, hosted by Brian Cant.
The format was simplicity itself, only requiring, as host Michael Aspel joked: "A sharp wit, a keen eye and a strong stomach... and that's just as a viewer!"
Although the word "charades" was never mentioned that's essentially all it was, a televised version of the old parlour game in which two teams divided along gender lines would compete against each other to successfully mime whichever book, stage play, TV programme or film is presented to them on a card for their teammates to identify.
The first series had been filmed between September and November 1978, with several editions recorded bac-to-back on a daily basis, a fact which explains why team captains Lionel Blair and Una Stubbs wore the same outfits for the first few episodes.
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THE FEW ON SCREEN
Steven Taylor looks at the Battle of Britain across film and TV
Table Service
Rachel Toy looks at the history of Ridgway Homemaker tableware
Hever Forever
Claire Saul studies the newly refurbished Boleyn Apartment at Hever Castle & Gardens - a castle fit for a queen
Shining a Light
Tony O’Neil tunes into the history of the last manned lightvessel
The Man With the Goldeneye
Film stills photographer Keith Hamshere describes how he came to enter the world of James Bond
THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN BALLS
lan Wheeler looks back on 70 years of Tiger comic and Roy of the Rovers, and chats to the man who edited and oversaw both titles
To Play the Queen
Chris Hallam looks back on the life of one of the UK’s best known lookalikes
POOLING RESOURCES
Martin Handley looks at what life was like after the Vernons Girls
POSTCARD FROM= SUSSEX
Bob Barton indulges in pleasure piers and fairground delights, as well as fulfilling a long-held ambition to visit the home of Rudyard Kipling
Oh, Miss Jones
Chris Hallam looks back at the origins and legacy of Rising Damp, ITV's most successful sitcom