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While game and quiz shows had long been a key component of TV schedules,
since the demise of the BBC's Top of the Form (1962-75) there were few
opportunities for younger audiences to participate. The BBC's children's film
quiz, Screen Test, which launched in 1971, came to an end in 1984.
The teenage quiz Blockbusters was based on a US show of the same name. A test
of speed and general knowledge, this was an unusual format, pitching two
contestants against one (in the US version the pairs were related) in a race
across a 20-hexagon grid arranged in five columns of four, with each segment
containing the initial letter of a one-word answer. Contestants advanced by
completing a string of segments linking one end of the board to the other; they
could also attempt to delay their opponents' progress by seeking to capture one
of the segments they needed. While the single player could theoretically cross
the board with fewer correct answers, the pair had a definite advantage on the
buzzer. The goal was to reach the 'Gold Run' final, in which the contestant or
pair had to cross a different grid containing two- or more-letter clues to
multi-word answers in under sixty seconds. Gold Run success was rewarded with
generous prizes ranging from a day's rally driving to the ultimate prize of an
adventure trip to an exotic location.
In a bold act of scheduling intended to dent the BBC's teatime audience,
Blockbusters was 'stripped' across consecutive weekday evenings. This created a
useful 'cliffhanger' when games that could not be completed during a single
edition were carried over to the next (the final programme ended in the middle
of a game). The strategy proved successful, winning the show an audience well
beyond its teenage target. Channel Four followed a similar pattern when
the first series of Blockbusters was repeated over the summer of 1984. In 1988 a
Saturday edition was added, making the series the first British programme to be
stripped over six nights, although it returned to five nights a week the
following autumn.
The series was hosted for its entire ten-year run by the genial Bob Holness.
A veteran of earlier quiz shows such as Take a Letter (ITV, 1962-64) and Junior
Criss Cross Quiz (ITV, 1957-67), Holness was likened to a headmaster, and his
interactions with the young, sometimes mischievous contestants were often
unintentionally hilarious.
Kathleen Luckey
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