Blockbusters

BLOCKBUSTERS
Made by: Central TV
Shown on: ITV
Years shown: 1983-1993 (the golden era, anyway)

Bob Holness was the firm-but-fair and jovial host of this much-loved quiz show for sixth-formers, where two geeks played against one loner, usually accompanied by ‘gonks’ or mascots (teddies with scarves most of the time.)

The opening titles had us flying through a futuristic Blade Runner-style cityscape, and straight into the Central TV studios, where the walls were covered in stone carvings (really polystyrene) of famous people, including Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa, Einstein, Shakespeare and, oddly, Tina Turner, Kenny Dalglish and Daley Thompson. The teams had to try to make a line of hexagons on the board, either vertically or horizontally (depending on the team), and therefore reach ‘Blockbusters’.

The hexagons were all marked with a letter of the alphabet; the teams chose whichever one they needed to help them get across the board, the answer always beginning with the selected letter. If they answered correctly, it would light up in their colour, and they would win £5 per answer (wow!) Bob was always very scathing of the un-sporting teams who would try to block off their opponent so they had no chance of winning. It was always the best of three contests, and whoever won overall had the chance to play the Gold Run, where they would be asked to “put yourself on that Hot Spot, please”.

Shrouded in darkness for added dramatic effect, the scared teenager was faced with a green board covered in acronyms, such as VAT or IRA, and they would be given clues as to what the initials stood for. Inevitably, they passed on the most basic of questions, and I remember being exasperated by some of these big kids when I was an eight-year old viewer. If they somehow completed a horizontal line, they would win a fabulous prize, usually rafting in Anglesey or, if you were particularly lucky, hang-gliding in Normandy for a weekend. If, however, you screwed the whole thing up, you were presented with a Blockbusters sweatshirt and dictionary, which marked you as a loser for life, really.

The studio audience was made up of the teams’ friends, and every Friday afternoon at the end of the show, there was a tedious hand-jive to the theme music, for that thank-goodness-it’s-Friday feeling. Blockbusters was briefly re-launched on cable television in the late 90s, and was presented by Liza Tarbuck, but by this stage we were all sick of having to hear why Jonathan from Romsey High School wanted to be an ethnobiologist when he grew up, and how he came to be nicknamed Divvy.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 8/10