17 September 2005(2005-09-17)– 26 May 2007(2007-05-26)
Gameshow Marathon was a British game show, broadcast on ITV from 17 September 2005 to 26 May 2007. After a quick retrospective look at the history of the particular show, the show itself is recreated. This involved recreating the original set and using original opening programme titles, including the appropriate producer ident (excluding Blankety Blank). All participants are celebrities, and any prizes won go into a "Viewer Prize Mountain" which is awarded to a viewer via a phone-in competition.
ITV is a British free-to-air television network with its headquarters in London, it was launched in 1955 as Independent Television under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to BBC Television, that was established in 1932. ITV is also the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, its legal name has been Channel 3, to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, namely BBC 1, BBC 2 and Channel 4. In part, the number 3 was assigned because television sets would usually be tuned so that the regional ITV station would be on the third button, with the other stations being allocated to the number within their name.
Station identification is the practice of radio or television stations or networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name. This may be to satisfy requirements of licensing authorities, a form of branding or a combination of both. As such, it is closely related to production logos, used in television and cinema alike.
Blankety Blank was a British comedy game show which ran from 18 January 1979 to 12 March 1990 on BBC One, hosted first by Terry Wogan from 1979 until 1983, then by Les Dawson from 1984 until 1990. Regular members of the celebrity panel included Kenny Everett, Lorraine Chase, Gareth Hunt, Gary Davies, Paul Daniels and Cheryl Baker.
Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon was a seven-episode special event aired in 2005 on Britain's ITV Network, as part of a celebration of ITV's 50th Anniversary. In it, hosts Ant & Dec presided over recreations of seven classic game shows that had been seen on the network. Six celebrity contestants competed in a series-long tournament, receiving a donation to their favourite charity for their participation. In addition, home viewers were given the opportunity to win the cash and prizes each episode's winning contestant "won" via telephone.
Ant & Dec are an English TV presenting duo, consisting of Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Formed after their meeting as actors on CBBC's drama, Byker Grove, they performed together as pop musicians PJ & Duncan, the names of their characters from Byker Grove. The duo have since led successful careers as television presenters, best-known for currently hosting Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, and Britain's Got Talent. Previous hosting credits include SMTV Live, CD:UK, Friends Like These, Pop Idol, PokerFace, Push the Button, Red or Black?, and Text Santa. They presented the annual Brit Awards in 2001, 2015 and 2016.
ITV Studios is a television production company owned by the British television broadcaster ITV plc. It is primarily based in Greater Manchester and London in the United Kingdom. It was formerly ITV Productions, and originally Granada Productions.
Talkback Thames was a British television production company, a division of FremantleMedia. It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames Television. This merger was arranged in February 2003 and reversed in January 2012.
Eamonn Holmes is a journalist and broadcaster from Northern Ireland, best known for presenting Sky News Sunrise and This Morning. Holmes currently presents drivetime (4–7pm) weekdays on Talkradio, and is the lead relief anchor for Good Morning Britain.
Vernon Charles Kay is an English television presenter, radio DJ and former model best known for his television roles with ITV, presenting shows such as All Star Family Fortunes (2006–2015), Beat the Star (2008–2009) and Splash! (2013–2014).
Patricia Jude Francis Kensit is an English actress, singer, model, and former child star. She was lead singer of the band Eighth Wonder from 1983 to 1989. Between 2004 and 2006, Kensit played the role of Sadie King in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale. Following this, she played Faye Byrne in the BBC One medical drama Holby City from 2007 until 2010. Kensit has been married to musicians Dan Donovan, Jim Kerr, Liam Gallagher, and Jeremy Healy.
The series was run as a three-round tournament. In the first round, each show was played by every contestant who had not already won a show. The four winners from the first round then competed in single-elimination format.
Carol Vorderman was the eventual winner of the series. The Golden Shot was broadcast live like the original show, and Sale of the Century had a dedication at the end to comedian Ronnie Barker, who had died five days earlier.
The Golden Shot was a British television game show produced by ATV for ITV between 1 July 1967 and 13 April 1975, based on the German TV show Der goldene Schuß. It is most commonly associated with host Bob Monkhouse, although three other presenters also hosted the show during its lifetime. Hostess Anne Aston was on hand to read out the scores achieved by the contestants, and each month a "Maid of the Month", usually a glamour model of the era, would demonstrate the prizes and announce the contestants. When Bob Monkhouse returned to present the show in 1974, he was joined by co-hostess Wei Wei Wong, recently seen in The Man with the Golden Gun and an ex-member of the Young Generation and Second Generation dance troupes. This was one of the earliest regular appearances by an East Asian woman on British TV.
Sale of the Century is a British game show based on a US game show of the same name. It was first shown on ITV from 9 October 1971 to 6 November 1983, hosted by Nicholas Parsons. Special edition Celebrity Sale of the Century aired occasionally, starting on 2 January 1981 with Steve Jones as a host. The first series was supposed to air only in the Anglia region, but it rolled out to other regions since 8 January 1972 and achieved full national coverage by the end of 10 May 1975, at which point it was one of the most popular shows on the network – spawning the often-mocked catchphrase "and now, from Norwich, it's the quiz of the week." Since Norwich was considered something of a backwater compared to London, it was often used ironically.
Ronald William George Barker, was an English actor, comedian and writer. He was known for roles in British comedy television series such as Porridge, The Two Ronnies, and Open All Hours.
Following the series, several of the shows were revived; Bullseye returned on the game show channel Challenge, followed by The Price Is Right and Family Fortunes (in a celebrity format) on ITV, the latter hosted by one of the Gameshow Marathon celebrities, Vernon Kay. (Ironically, on Kay's Family Fortunes, the Vorderman family would play the game again. They did not win on their second attempt, however.)
Les Dennis presented the prizes each week to the winners of the home viewer competition.
Progression
Round
Show
Winner
Eliminated
First
The 'Price' Is Right
Carol Vorderman
No eliminations
Take Your Pick!
Patsy Kensit
The Golden Shot
William Roache
Sale of the Century
Vernon Kay
Eamonn Holmes, Ruby Wax
Semi-finals
Play Your Cards Right
Carol Vorderman
Patsy Kensit
Bullseye
Vernon Kay
William Roache
Final
Family Fortunes
Carol Vorderman
Vernon Kay
Series 2
Series 2 logo.
Gameshow Marathon was presented by series 1 runner-up Vernon Kay. The programme aired every Saturday night on ITV from 7 April to 26 May 2007.
There was a slight change to the format for this series. As before, each show in the first round was played by those celebrities who have not already won a show. However, the remaining rounds were each a single show played by all celebrities still in the tournament: five in the quarter-final, three in the semi-final and two in the final.
In Mr. and Mrs., the celebrities invited their real-life partners to play along.
On Bullseye, the celebrities were paired up with professional dart players. Andrea Catherwood was paired with Martin Adams, Graeme Le Saux was paired with Phil Taylor and Michael Le Vell was paired with Raymond van Barneveld. Tony Green reprised his role as the scorer.
On Play Your Cards Right, each celebrity invited another celebrity to play with them. Graeme Le Saux played with Kyran Bracken and Michael Le Vell played with Kym Ryder.
On the Blankety Blank and Mr and Mrs editions, the more recent revivals of both series were not mentioned on Gameshow Marathon, due to Blankety Blank having been presented by Paul O'Grady (no footage of him), who was then in a legal dispute with ITV.
Countdown is a British television show involving word and number tasks. It is broadcast on Channel 4. It is currently presented by Nick Hewer, assisted by Rachel Riley, with regular lexicographer Susie Dent. It was the first programme to be aired on Channel 4 and 80 series have been broadcast since its debut on 2 November 1982. With over 7,000 episodes, Countdown is one of the longest-running game shows in the world, along with the original French version, Des chiffres et des lettres, which has been running on French television continuously since 1965. Countdown was initially recorded at The Leeds Studios for 27 years, before moving to Manchester-based Granada Studios in 2009. Following the development of MediaCityUK, Countdown moved again in 2013 to the new purpose-built studios at Dock10, Greater Manchester.
Family Fortunes is a British television game show based on the American game show Family Feud. The programme ran on ITV from 6 January 1980 to 10 January 2003, before being revived by the same channel in 2006 under the title All Star Family Fortunes.
Nadia Sawalha is a British actress and television presenter known for her role as Annie Palmer in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders from 1997 to 1999. After winning the 2009 series of Celebrity MasterChef, Sawalha has continued to make appearances on cookery shows, not only as a presenter, but also as a chef. She currently appears on ITV Daytime show Loose Women and was one of the original presenters from its start in 1999. Nadia returned to the show in 2013 as a panelist after a presenter revamp.
John Leslie is a Scottish former television and radio presenter. Debuting on Music Box in 1987, he later presented BBC One's Blue Peter, and ITV's This Morning and the gameshow Wheel of Fortune. He was also the studio host for the first series of the UK version of Survivor.
Bullseye is a British game show television programme, with a darts theme. It was first made for the ITV network by ATV in 1981, then by Central from 1982 until 1995, and was hosted by comedian and TV presenter Jim Bowen.
Teresa "Terri" Dwyer is a British television presenter and actress, best known for her role as Ruth Osborne in the British soap opera Hollyoaks. She has also presented the ITV home makeover show 60 Minute Makeover.
Shauna Lowry is a television presenter from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is probably most famous for being the reporter on the popular BBC series, Animal Hospital, and bbc's Style Challenge. She also presented the National Lottery and presented coverage of Northern Ireland's celebrations on the Millennium eve party and was for a brief period a reporter for GMTV. In the early 1990s she also presented the RTÉ TV show Jo Maxi and the UTV/RTÉ co-produced travel series Bon Voyage.
Blankety Blanks is an Australian game show based on the American game show Match Game. It was hosted by Graham Kennedy on Network Ten from 1977–1978.
Sherrie Lynn Hutchinson is an English actor, presenter, broadcaster, television personality and novelist. She is known for her roles on the ITV soap operas Coronation Street, Crossroads (2001–2003), Emmerdale (2004–2006) and Are You Being Served? (2016–2018)
Nicholas David Weir is an English entertainer. He was the second presenter of Catchphrase and is currently the Vice President of Entertainment for Royal Caribbean International. Weir is a former consultant and entertainer who was born in London, England and grew up in West Sussex, England. He presented six game shows, including two unbroadcast pilots, all for ITV productions. Of the game shows he presented, Catchphrase was the only one he presented more than one series of.
Gameshow Marathon is an American television program which aired on CBS from May 31 to June 29, 2006. It is based on the United Kingdom series Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon which aired on ITV in 2005. It also aired in Canada on CTV.
The Mint is a live, late night, interactive quiz show with celebrity guests and live studio contestants filmed on a large extravagant set designed to look like the inside of a mansion. The programme, which was dogged by criticism that its questions were ambiguous and arbitrary, aired on ITV and ITV2, Sunday to Wednesday. On 26 February 2007, ITV announced that The Mint would return to screens later in 2007, however an announcement on 12 September 2007 confirmed that the show, along with similar late night phone ins, would not be returning.
The Price is Right is a British game show based on the US version of the same name. It originally aired on ITV from 24 March 1984 to 8 April 1988 and was hosted by Leslie Crowther. The show later briefly moved to Sky One for one series as The New Price is Right from 4 September 1989 to 31 August 1990 with Bob Warman as the host.
Andrea Catherine Catherwood is a Northern Irish television presenter and journalist.
All Star Family Fortunes is a British television game show broadcast on ITV and presented by Vernon Kay which began airing on 28 October 2006 and ended on 14 June 2015 after its twelfth series. It is a celebrity revival of the original Family Fortunes that aired from 6 January 1980 until 10 January 2003, which is based in turn on the American game show Family Feud.
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway is a British television variety show, created and presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, and broadcast on ITV since its premiere on 8 June 2002, enduring a three-year hiatus between 2010–2012, while its presenters worked on other projects. The show's format, heavily influenced by previous Saturday night light entertainment shows such as Noel's House Party, Opportunity Knocks and Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, focuses on a mixture of live and pre-recorded entertainment and quiz segments, including an audience-based quiz involving the television adverts during a week's episode of one of ITV's programmes, and a competition in each series between the two series.
Red or Black? is a British television game show which was broadcast on ITV between 3 September 2011 and 29 September 2012. Presented by Ant & Dec and developed by Simon Cowell, Red or Black? is the most expensive game show in television history, with a £15 million budget.
Keep It in the Family is a British game show that aired on ITV from 26 October 2014 to 19 December 2015 and is hosted by Bradley Walsh.
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