Password
Contents |
Host
Shaw Taylor (ITV, original)
Brian Redhead (BBC 2)
Eleanor Summerfield (BBC 1, series 1)
Esther Rantzen (BBC 1, series 2)
Tom O'Connor (Channel 4)
Gordon Burns (ITV, revival)
Co-host
Announcer (UTV version): John O'Hara
Hostess: Dinah May
Broadcast
ATV for ITV, 12 March to ? 1963
BBC 2, 24 March to 28 April 1973 (6 episodes in 1 series)
BBC 1, 7 January 1974 to 1976
Thames for Channel 4, 6 November 1982 to 14 May 1983 (25 episodes in 1 series)
Ulster for ITV, 22 July 1987 to 5 August 1988 (48 episodes in 2 series)
Synopsis
Afternoon word game with the added bonus (if we remember correctly) of sometimes not having any adverts midway through the show, a bit like This Is Your Life (when it was on ITV, that's not something to be too impressed by on the BBC, is it?).
The most '70s image on our websiteBased on the American show that's a bit like The Pyramid Game (indeed, the French show Pyramide probably has more to do with Password than it has to do with The Pyramid Game), two teams consisting of celebrity and real-life person compete in guessing passwords. If anything, though, 'Password' was even more like Three Little Words, which definitely did involve one-word clues.
One person gives a one word clue and their partner has to try and guess from that what the password is. If they don't then their opponents get a go but for less points. Keep going back and forth until someone gets it; keep going to a certain amount of points are reached then something good is bound to happen.
The team decide to resort to navel gazingLasted a couple of years but eventually made way for the behemoth that was Chain Letters and the underrated excellence of Talkabout.
Inventor
Based on a classic US Mark Goodson-Bill Todman game show.
Theme music
Channel 4 version composed by Mr Lovejoy himself, Denis King. A clip can be found on the relevant page of TV Ark.
