Take the Plunge

Host

Broadcast

Thames in association with Jay Wolpert Productions and Action Time for ITV, 4 October to 6 December 1989 (10 episodes in 1 series)

Synopsis

Hi-de-Hi star Su Pollard shows off her fashion wardrobe in this word description game.

Su Pollard in one of her many dresses throughout the show's run.

Two couples go head to head where one member on one team has been given a word and they have 20 seconds to describe the word, only the audience and their opponents can hear the info, the other team member is wearing headphones and is facing toward the set to avoid any lip reading from their teammate when they're describing the word.

Chatting with a couple, a game show staple.

After the 20 seconds is up, the person who is wearing the headphones then hears the 20 second clip of their teammate describing the word played back to them. But there is a catch...well, two in fact. One of the members on the opposing team gets their chance to interfere by blocking out any clues they can by pressing their plunger, but every time it is used, they use up some of their 7 second time and when it reaches 0, they can no longer plunge to mute.

Whatever you're going to ask...don't.

However, if the teammate describing the word repeats a key clue, then a second or two could be added to the member of the opposing team's plunger. If the member of their teammate describing the word correctly gets it then they score a point on the board, if not, then the member on the opposing team who did not plunge out the clues gets a chance to steal that point to get a correct answer.

A contestant trying to describe the word.

Repeat this in round two and then it's all change for rounds three and four where the word describers from the first two rounds now gets to plunge out the descriptions to the plungers who are now describing the words.

What a love triangle this is. Oh, never mind. There's only one and it's upside down.

The next round is the elimination round. The two couples are on the buzzer as it's Su's turn to describe the word and it's the only time the word is revealed to the viewers at home.

How would you describe this item?

The team that buzzes in and gets the word correct gets the advantage in the elimination round to either play or plunge, the elimination round is exactly the same, but the word represents a prize the couple that got the advantage choice to play could win if they get it right, not only that, it eliminates their opposing couple from the game.

Su giving the clues to the twos.

We then say goodbye to the eliminated couple who go away with a Silver Plunger trophy as a complimentary prize.

Imagine that covered in gold.

The winning couple goes through to the final round where a series of clues for either a movie, TV show, book, etc. are shown one at a time, the person from the winning team then has to predict how many clues their teammate can correctly get the title from the clues they are given out of a possible five by saying "solve it", if their teammate doesn't know the answer from very little clues that they're given, they can pass and a new set of clues for a title are given, if they get enough clues to get it right, they score a point, get seven correct in 70 seconds, they win a holiday, but this is where part one's scoring system comes into play, how many points they scored in the first half of the show is added on the scoreboard for this final round, which gives them an easier chance to win the holiday.

Can you guess what TV show it is from three clues?

So, we have a very simple "try and block out as many descriptions as the person described from that word" game ruined by producers messing with the show's format. The American version had a phrase on the board with four words to reveal from the game we just described and the main game segment gets used for a possible 12 times while the UK version just gets five with no phrase on the board. Theme tune was quite catchy though.

Su Pollard as host is very 50/50 for us, on the one hand we enjoyed her bouncy and infectiously bubbly demeanour while on the other hand we did notice that she was struggling balancing with the contestant bantering and her own style of humour.

Aired on Wednesday evenings at 6.30pm in most ITV regions, the show was part of ITV's new "Get Ready" package when the channel rebranded in September 1989, hoping that the show will have a longer run in the UK, but it ran three weeks less than its US originator and was never seen again after that. And when we say "most ITV regions", Anglia aired it on Thursdays at 5.10pm and so did Scottish but they aired it at 7pm, while Central waited until the following Tuesday to air it, also at 5.10pm.

Inventor

Based on the short-lived US show Blackout created by Jay Wolpert.

Theme music

Danny Schogger

Videos

An episode from the show.

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