Talking Telephone Numbers
Contents |
Host
Danny Baker (non-broadcast pilot)
Phillip Schofield
Emma Forbes (1994-6)
Claudia Winkleman (1997)
Co-hosts
Cash Peters (1994)
Voiceover:
Bruce Hammal (1994-5)
Enn Reitel (1996)
Caroline Feraday (1997)
Broadcast
Celador and Carlton for ITV, 28 February 1994 to 22 December 1997 (44 episodes in 4 series)
Synopsis
Weirdo interactive show. Celebs and guests performed acts and then found a way to create a random number. When five numbers were revealed, if they matched the last five digits of your telephone number you were invited to call in with the vain hope you might win something.
After the obligatory teenybopper act, one of the lines was randomly selected and if it was you, and you had a one in 96 chance, then you had to answer three number related questions. These were always easy so its surprising that many people got them wrong (although, to be fair, there were sometimes some trick questions). They'd keep selecting lines until they either (a) run out of time (doh!) in which case the prize would rollover to next week, or (b) somebody gets it right, in which case they win £10,000.
They then had the option of gambling their winnings in order to win £25,000 as each Talking Telephonist had a card. Inside half of the cards was a prize larger than £10,000 (£25,000 max) and half had lesser sums (but nothing less than £1,000). Sadly, they might not as well have bothered with this bit because nobody ever gambled (well, occasional exception but not regularly) proving that when they want to be, the British public could be incredibly boring.
Key moments
The moment when a pre-recorded item accidentally fast forwarded to a number generating game.
VT! VT!! VT!!!
Inventor
Steven Knight, Mike Whitehill and David Briggs - the same team responsible for Winning Lines and Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.
Theme music
Keith Strachan
Trivia
The programme won a Bronze Rose of Montreux in 1997.
Presenter Phillip Schofield once nearly gave a man £10,000 for saying a spider had six legs. OOOPS!
Charlotte Church got her first big break on this show when she came on to perform Pie Jesu.
Web links
Celador's Talking Telephone Numbers Page
Pictures
"Schofield and Winkleman in front of RINGO.