Catchword
Contents |
Host
Gyles Brandreth (BBC Scotland)
Broadcast
BBC 1 Scotland, 17 April 1985 to 2 April 1986
BBC 2, 5 January 1988 to 23 May 1995
Synopsis
Word game designed to pick up the pre-Countdown audience.
Main game involved a computer who generates three letters (each one with an ear-piercing beep) and you have to come up with the longest word you can think of which contains those letters within a few seconds (Masterteam had used this in their 'In A Spin' round). Letter combinations such as "A S M", "T N B", "P O S" and "F H F" let to an unending use of "Antidisestablishmentarianism", "Tintinabulations", "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis", and "Floccinaucinihilipilification" (the last two of which our spell checker doesn't recognise, bizarrely). One point if the word was valid, and a bonus if you got the longest word out of the three contestants taking part.
Host of Catchword, Paul Coia.Other word games included looking for a hidden word in a sentence, anagrams and synonyms.
Winning a match meant you got to pick a reference book from the Catchword library, and winning five games in a row meant winning a bigger prize (an Amiga computer or something similar).
Rarely exciting, and it has to be said this wasn't the BBC at its most dynamic. Still, someone must have liked it, given that it lasted for more than seven years.
Inventor
Bryan Mitchell, from an idea by Alasdair Alston Adamson.
Trivia
It was first made as a Scottish regional programme. BBC1 Scotland opted out of Rolf's Cartoon Time to show it!
The abovementioned ear-piercing "beep" with each letter was, for the last series if not the one before it, replaced with a "whoosh" for each set of three - getting rid of the one really annoying element of the show.
The computer's name was Bryan, named after the creator of the show Bryan Mitchell who was also in the production team.
Dean Mayer writes: "I took part in the final series of Catchword, finishing runner-up in the grand final. In a bizarre twist, the chap who won - the prize was a lavish overseas holiday - actually died. He had a terminal illness and from what I can gather only the production bosses knew about it. The prize for winning 5 games in a row was a Philips CDi player - remember that one?"
