Jigsaw (British TV series)

Last updated

Jigsaw
Genre Children's Game show
Created by Clive Doig
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series6
No. of episodes50
Production
Running time25 minutes
Original release
Network BBC1
Release16 July 1979 (1979-07-16) –
15 June 1984 (1984-06-15)
Related
See It Saw It

Jigsaw is a BBC show aimed at children between the ages of 4 and 7 that combined elements of puzzle solving and entertainment, which was broadcast from 16 July 1979 until 15 June 1984.

Contents

Written and directed by Clive Doig, the show was presented by mime artist Adrian Hedley, Janet Ellis and "Jigg" - a giant floating orange jigsaw piece, voiced by John Leeson later replaced by Tommy Boyd then Howard Stableford.

Ellis left in 1983 to become a Blue Peter presenter, at which point she was replaced by Dot, played by Julia Binsted - an anthropomorphism of the "cursor dot" (the dot made by the raster-scanning beam in the analogue CRT television sets of the time).

Featured supporting cast also included Paul Clayton, Biggum the giant (played by Leeson) and Wilf Lunn who appeared as a mad inventor. Other unusual characters included Pterry, a puppet Pterodactyl (operated by Joe Barton); Cid Sleuth (played by David Cleveland), a Sherlock Holmes-looking bumbling detective plagued by a mysterious burglar (David Wyatt); Hector The Hedgehog; and the O-Men (Sylvester McCoy and David Rappaport), a pair of hapless superheroes summoned by saying any six consecutive words containing a double-O (even the same word repeated six times counted once, albeit inadvertently - Dot said 'coo' four times imitating a pigeon, then Adrian mocked her attempt, saying it twice more to trigger the summon). Arguably the most memorable supporting character made his debuting in Series 2. Mr. Noseybonk (also known as Noseybonk) was performed by Hedley in a dinner suit and a white face mask with a prominent nose and toothy grin. This last character has proved the most enduring due to him allegedly terrifying children as much as amusing them, and has been popularised by Stuart Ashen's series of Noseybonk Returns videos as well as later his appearance as Mr. Noseybonk in Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, and was satirised as Mr Chuckleteeth in the X-Files episode Familiar .

Throughout the show, the presenters and supporting characters came together to solve a number of puzzles; these puzzles would then contribute to one larger conundrum that would be revealed at the end of the show. The viewer was encouraged to take part and solve the puzzles at home.

The theme music for 'Jigsaw' was composed by Martin Cook and Richard Denton (also responsible for the theme for Tomorrow's World ) using a mixture of electronic keyboards and musique concrète. Cook would later compose a revised theme on his own. The theme used for the Noseybonk segments was "A Hippo Called Hubert," composed by Joe Griffiths and also used in Kentucky Fried Chicken's Charlie Chickenhawk and Frederick Fox advertising in Australia between 1984 and 1987.

Transmissions

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
116 July 1979 [1] 20 August 1979 [2] 6
220 May 1980 [3] 24 June 1980 [4] 6
321 September 1981 [5] 14 December 1981 [6] 13
410 January 1983 [7] 21 February 1983 [8] 7
517 January 1984 [9] 21 February 1984 [10] 6
65 April 1984 [11] 15 June 1984 [12] 12

Related Research Articles

A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are different genres of puzzles, such as crossword puzzles, word-search puzzles, number puzzles, relational puzzles, and logic puzzles. The academic study of puzzles is called enigmatology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jigsaw puzzle</span> Type of tiling puzzle

A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaicked pieces, each of which typically has a portion of a picture. When assembled, the puzzle pieces produce a complete picture.

<i>Grange Hill</i> British childrens television series (1978–2008)

Grange Hill is a British children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical comprehensive school. The show began its run on 8 February 1978 on BBC1, and was one of the longest-running programmes on British television when it ended on 15 September 2008 after 31 series. It was created by Phil Redmond, who is also responsible for the Channel 4 dramas Brookside and Hollyoaks; other notable production team members down the years have included producer Colin Cant and script editor Anthony Minghella.

<i>Blue Peter</i> British childrens television programme

Blue Peter is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Television Centre in London until September 2011, when the programme moved to dock10 studios at MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester. It is currently shown live on the CBBC television channel on Fridays at 5 pm. The show is also repeated on Saturdays at 11:30 am, Sundays at 9:00 am and a BSL version is shown on Tuesdays at 2:00 pm.

<i>Mastermind</i> (British game show) British quiz show

Mastermind is a British television quiz show for the BBC, currently presented by Clive Myrie. Its creator, Bill Wright, drew inspiration from his experiences of being interrogated by the Gestapo during World War II. The show features an intimidating setting and challenging questions. Four contestants face two rounds, one on a specialised subject of the contestant's choice, the other a general knowledge round.

Blankety Blank is a British comedy game show which first aired in 1979. The show is based on the American game show Match Game, with contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity panellists to fill-in-the-blank questions.

Janet Ellis, is an English television presenter, actress and writer, who is best known for presenting the children's television programmes Blue Peter and Jigsaw between 1979 and 1987. She has published two novels, The Butcher's Hook (2016) and How It Was (2019). She is the mother of three children: singer/songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor, musician and former child actor Jackson Ellis-Leach and art historian Martha Ellis-Leach.

<i>A Question of Sport</i> British television sports quiz show (1970–2023)

A Question of Sport was a British television sports quiz show produced and broadcast by the BBC. It was the "world's longest running TV sports quiz". Following a pilot episode in December 1968, broadcast only in the north of England, the series ran from 1970 until production ceased in 2023. The final presenter was Paddy McGuinness, with team captains Sam Quek and Ugo Monye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Leeson</span> English actor

John Francis Christopher Ducker, known professionally as John Leeson, is an English actor. He is known for portraying Bungle in Rainbow and voicing K9 in Doctor Who and spin-offs The Sarah Jane Adventures and K9.

<i>Live & Kicking</i> BBC childrens TV series, from 1993

Live & Kicking is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for Going Live!, and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, comedy, competitions and the showing of cartoons. Once Live & Kicking had become established in series two, it reached its height in popularity during series four, when it was presented by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston; their final edition won a BAFTA award. After this, the programme's ratings dropped with the launch of SMTV Live on ITV and the show ended in 2001.

Pop Quiz was a British television quiz programme that originally aired on BBC1 from 4 July 1981 to 28 December 1984 with a Top of the Pops special on 4 January 1994 hosted by Mike Read. It was then revived from 21 May to 9 July 1994 on the same channel but this time hosted by Chris Tarrant. It was revived again on Red TV from 14 June to 30 August 2008 with Mike Read returning as host; he also hosted two specials on BBC Four in December 2016 and January 2017.

<i>Multi-Coloured Swap Shop</i> BBC childrens television series (1976–1982)

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, more commonly known simply as Swap Shop, is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1976 to 27 March 1982. It was groundbreaking in many ways: by broadcasting on Saturday mornings, being live, being three hours in length, and using the phone-in format extensively for the first time on TV.

Saturday Superstore is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1982 to 18 April 1987. It was shown on Saturday mornings with presenters including Mike Read, Sarah Greene, Keith Chegwin, and John Craven. The show was very similar to its predecessor Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, which had ended the previous October–March season following its presenter Noel Edmonds moving away from children's TV to present his prime-time Late Late Breakfast Show.

Fully Booked, later retitled FBi, is a British children's television series produced by BBC Scotland and broadcast from 22 April 1995 to 23 September 2000.

Holiday is a British television programme, which aired mainly on BBC One, and sometimes on BBC Two. It is the longest running travel review series on UK television, showing every year from 1969 until its demise in 2007.

Jigsaw may refer to:

<i>The Great Egg Race</i> BBC television series, 1979 to 1986

The Great Egg Race was a BBC television series, in which problem solving teams are given a challenge to design and build machines using limited resources and time, to solve a problem set by the judges.

<i>Whickers World</i> TV series or program

Whicker's World was a British television documentary series that ran from 1959 to 1994, presented by journalist and broadcaster Alan Whicker.

This is a list of British television related events from 1986.

<i>Crimewatch</i> British television programme produced by the BBC

Crimewatch is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was originally broadcast once a month on BBC One, although in the final years before cancellation it was usually broadcast roughly once every two months.

References

  1. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 16 July 1979". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  2. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 20 August 1979". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  3. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 20 May 1980". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  4. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 20 May 1980". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  5. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 21 September 1981". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  6. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 14 December 1981". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  7. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 10 January 1983". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  8. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 21 February 1983". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  9. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 17 January 1984". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  10. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 21 February 1984". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  11. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 5 April 1984". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  12. ↑ "Jigsaw - BBC One London - 15 June 1984". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 15 July 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.