Give Us a Clue

*Give Us a Clue*
Give Us a Clue
Presented by	Michael Aspel (1979–83); Michael Parkinson (1984–92); Tim Clark (1997)
Opening theme	"Chicken Man" by Alan Hawkshaw (1979-81)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	17 (ITV); 1 (BBC One)
No. of episodes	303 (ITV); 30 (BBC One)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Thames (1979–92); Grundy (1997)
Original release
Network	ITV (1979–92); BBC One (1997)
Release	2 January 1979 –; 19 December 1997

Give Us a Clue is a British televised game show version of charades which was broadcast on ITV from 1979 to 1992. The original host was Michael Aspel from 1979 to 1984, followed by Michael Parkinson from 1984 to 1992. The show featured two teams, one captained by Lionel Blair and the other by Una Stubbs. Later versions of the programme had Liza Goddard as captain of the women's team. Norman Vaughan stood in for Blair for a short spell in 1980. Originally, the teams consisted of the captain, two celebrities and one member of the public. The public participation was dropped and another celebrity was added in their place. On one infamous addition of the programme, the male member of the public was handed the title he had to mime on a card by host Michael Aspel, but rather than read the mime, he read the wrong side of the card on which his name was printed. He thus mimed his name to his team mates. Lionel Blair later wrote this incident led to the dropping of the public participants^[1].

A revived version was broadcast by BBC One in 1997 over 30 episodes, hosted by Tim Clark. Teams were captained by Christopher Blake and Julie Peasgood and the show introduced a lateral thinking puzzle (which the host could "give clues to"). Give us a Clue returned for a special Comic Relief episode in March 2011 with Sara Cox, Christopher Biggins, Lionel Blair, Una Stubbs, Holly Walsh, Jenni Falconer and David Walliams.

Format

The game was based on charades, a party game where players used mime rather than speaking to demonstrate a name, phrase, book, play, film or TV programme. Each player was given roughly two minutes to act out their given subject in front of his/her team, and if the others were unsuccessful in guessing correctly, the opposing team would have a chance to answer for a bonus point.

Transmissions

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	2 January 1979	27 March 1979	13
2	29 October 1979	11 February 1980	16
3	1 September 1980	29 December 1980	18
4	1 September 1981	5 January 1982	15
5	6 April 1982	18 May 1982	6
6	7 September 1982	4 April 1983	17
7	6 September 1983	2 January 1984	18
8	13 March 1984	17 April 1984	4
9	4 September 1984	1 January 1985	16
10	28 May 1985	2 July 1985	6
11	12 September 1985	26 December 1985	15
12	3 July 1986	21 August 1986	8
13	4 January 1988	18 March 1988	55
14	14 February 1989	10 March 1989	16
15	5 December 1989	19 January 1990	16
16	15 January 1991	8 March 1991	32
17	3 September 1991	25 October 1991	32
18	10 November 1997	19 December 1997	30

The first series was not networked. Following the launch of morning programming on ITV in September 1987, the last five series of the original run moved from peak-time to daytime slots. The Thames series ended in October 1991, but a one-off special was broadcast on 4 May 1992. Series 18 was made for the BBC.

Theme music

The original theme tune was called "Chicken Man", which was also the theme tune of Grange Hill. However, while Grange Hill used the original recording, Give us a Clue used a less dynamic custom arrangement more in keeping with the style of light entertainment programming.

In 1981, David Clark took over as producer/director and commissioned a new theme tune, followed in 1988 by a theme song written and composed by Alan Braden, which remained in use until the end of the Thames series in October 1991. Uniquely, the Braden theme song featured separate lyrics for both the opening titles and closing credits.

Trivia

The programme has been repeated on satellite TV and is also still parodied in British comedy. It was frequently referred to by Humphrey Lyttelton, chairman of BBC radio's long-running "antidote to panel games", I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, during a round of Sound Charades — usually with a gay innuendo-laden gag at the expense of Lionel Blair.

Other versions

A licensed New Zealand version of Give Us a Clue was first broadcast on TVNZ during the early 1980s and hosted by Australian journalist Les Thompson. Teams were captained by Peter Rowley and Jenny Maxwell. The show was revived in 1993 via TV3 with Brian Edwards as host and Gary McCormick and Belinda Todd as team captains, and again in 1999 via TVNZ with Marcus Lush as host and Gary McCormick and Alison Wall as team captains.

SVT in Sweden broadcast their own version with the title Gäster med gester. Dutch Public broadcasting organisation KRO aired the program from 1983 till 2003 and one series in 2010 under the name Hints (nl).

External links

^ 'Stage Struck'. Blair, Lionel. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd (14 March 1985). ISBN-13 : 978-0297785521

[1] 'Stage Struck'. Blair, Lionel. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd (14 March 1985). ISBN-13 : 978-0297785521

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