''Give Us a Clue'' is a British televised

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

version of

charades Charades (, ). is a parlor game, parlor or party game, party word game, word guessing game. Originally, the game was a dramatic form of literary charades: a single person would act out each syllable of a word or phrase in order, followed by the wh ...

which was broadcast on ITV from 1979 to 1992. The original host was

Michael Aspel Michael Terence Aspel (born 12 January 1933) is an English retired television presenter and newsreader. He hosted programmes such as '' Crackerjack!'', '' Ask Aspel'', ''Aspel & Company'', '' Give Us a Clue'', '' This Is Your Life'', '' Strange ...

from 1979 to 1984, followed by

Michael Parkinson Sir Michael Parkinson (28 March 1935 – 16 August 2023) was an English television presenter, broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other ta ...

from 1984 to 1992. The show featured two teams, one captained by

Lionel Blair Lionel Blair (born Henry Lionel Ogus; 12 December 1928 – 4 November 2021) was a Canadian-born British actor, choreographer, tap dancer, and television presenter. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, he made regular appearances as a danc ...

and the other by

Una Stubbs Una Stubbs (1 May 1937 – 12 August 2021) was a British actress, television personality, and dancer who appeared on British television, in the theatre, and occasionally in films. She became known after appearing in the film '' Summer Holiday'' ...

. Later editions of the programme had Liza Goddard as captain of the women's team. Norman Vaughan stood in for Blair for four episodes in the second series and Joyce Blair stood in for Stubbs for the 1981 Royal Wedding special. Originally, each team consisted of the captain, two fellow celebrities and one non-celebrity, but the non-celebrity participants were soon dropped, another celebrity being added in their place. In the second episode of Series 2 (broadcast on 5 November 1979), the non-celebrity contestant, London fashion designer Leslie Dean, read the wrong side of the card handed to him and as a result started miming his own name rather than the specified film. In his autobiography, Lionel Blair stated that it was this incident that led to the dropping of non-celebrity participants.'Stage Struck'. Blair, Lionel. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd (14 March 1985). A revived version was broadcast by

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

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 Lateral thinking is a manner of Problem solving, solving problems using an indirect and creativity, creative approach via reasoning that is not immediately obvious. Synonymous to thinking outside the box, it involves ideas that may not be obtai ...

puzzle (which the host could "give clues to"). ''Give Us a Clue'' returned for a special

Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

episode in March 2011 with Sara Cox, Christopher Biggins,

, Holly Walsh, Jenni Falconer and

David Walliams David Edward Williams (born 20 August 1971), known professionally as David Walliams (), is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television personality. He is best known for his work with Matt Lucas on the BBC sketch comedy series '' Little ...

Format

The game is 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.

Episode list

The coloured backgrounds denote the result of each of the shows: : – indicates Una's team won : – indicates Lionel's team won : – indicates the game ended in a draw

Series 1 (1979)

Series 2 (1979–80)

Series 3 (1980)

Royal Wedding Special (1981)

Series 4 (1981–82)

Series 5 (1982)

Series 6 (1983–84)

Transmissions

DVD release

The first six series of ''Give Us a Clue'' have been released on DVD by Network, but only 98 out of the first 105 episodes were included. The seven episodes that are not in the collection had appearances of three celebrities with sexual abuse offences that were investigated in Operation Yewtree.

International versions

References

External links

*.
''Give Us a Clue (1979–1992)''
at BFI.
''Give Us a Clue (1997)''
at BFI. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Give Us A Clue 1979 British television series debuts 1997 British television series endings 1970s British game shows 1980s British game shows 1990s British game shows BBC television game shows British panel games British English-language television shows ITV game shows Television series by Fremantle (company) Television series by Reg Grundy Productions British television series revived after cancellation Television shows produced by Thames Television Television shows shot at Teddington Studios