These proved very popular indeed and ran each summer from to Nicholas Parsons of Sale of the Century and Bob Grant from On the Buses enjoy a bit of Knockout fun And, as if all that wasn't enough for you, saw possibly the oddest spin-off special programme: It's A Miners Knockout , where miners from England, Scotland and Wales battled it out for a trophy which was presented by Keith Chegwin He keeps getting in there, doesn't he?
But surely the bubble would burst? It's A Knockout saw out the s still in excellent shape. With the series taking in the domestic heats, celebrity, championship, international and Christmas broadcasts, It's A Knockout featured in the schedules for nearly five months of the year. The triumvirate of Stuart Hall, Eddie Waring and Arthur Ellis were still at the top of their game and the viewing figures continued to be encouraging - the International Final was, for instance, seen by million viewers across Europe.
However, new decades often bring sweeping changes, and with the dawn of the s, the writing was on the wall for the series. The announcement of the series itself gave regular viewers a slight cause for concern. From , the series had been given a full one-hour slot on BBC1. The series would see that time whittled back to fifty minutes.
The series would remain in this format until - when it was completely whittled away by BBC1 Controller, Alan Hart, who was not among the series' fans. As with many older properties, you got the feeling with the BBC that series such as It's A Knockout were only kept going out of habit, and even then grudgingly so with little support from management as they were felt to be "old hat". This view was reinforced by critics, anxious for something to lay in to and the BBC, in time honoured fashion, paid more attention to the critics than to audiences who patently still loved the innocent fun of it all.
It could be said though that was the last genuinely vintage series of It's A Knockout , where all the elements came together and everyone was on top form. The crux of the matter was Eddie Waring's health, which clearly took a knock between the and series. It was painful to watch. The much-loved Waring sounded confused, out of his depth and not totally cognisant of what he was commentating on. He still managed the odd clever comeback at Hall, but these were few and far between At 71, Eddie Waring was suddenly succumbing to an inevitable slowing down, and this cast a pall over the series.
Eddie saw out the series determinedly, but it was to be his last. He retired from the series and from his beloved Rugby League commentary job also with the BBC and lived out his last years in his native Yorkshire.
He died in October , aged His role would be filled by a succession of celebrities in the series, including actors and actresses from several BBC programmes of the time, such as Hi-De-Hi! The nadir of was undoubtedly witnessed when the desperately unfunny children's comedy duo, The Krankies stepped into Eddie Waring's shoes. Never was a greater insult paid to the King of Dewsbury So, the team - together for ten memorable seasons of It's A Knockout - was broken, its chemistry consigned to memory.
Escalating costs were becoming simply too much to bear. This meant the BBC effectively had nowhere to go with It's A Knockout , it being perceived by this time as essentially a qualifier-series for the international competition, so would see the end of the domestic competition too.
The BBC continued with the occasional special, at Christmas or just for the hell of it, but they ended up as little more than nostalgic one-off returns with no chance of a series.
The games of the early Eighties must rank as the most impressive of the whole British Domestic Series, thanks to the creation of high-quality costumes, and the genius of Stuart Furber, who devised and designed the games.
Highlights were definitely the Wasbees pictured, left - larger than life half-wasp, half bees with springy antennae and a sting on the snout for bursting balloons - the Budgies, a succession of giants, chefs and many other creations brightened up the weeknights of the annual British transition between a dull, windy and wet Spring and a slightly brighter, windy and wet Summer.
Even though It's A Knockout found itself in its twilight years, the standard of competition was just as strong as ever.
Contests were always keenly fought, with some extremely close finishes. Teams that won through to the international stages of the competition performed well, particularly Rhuddlan, second in the International Final and Dartmouth, who achieved a joint-1st Place in the following final. Much was expected of Charnwood in , who were unbeaten in the domestic events, winning their heat against Rutland and Melton Mowbray and then emerging victorious from the Championship Knockout along with West Dorset, who tied with them on 40 points beating five other teams in the process.
Unfortunately, it was there that their luck ran out. Charnwood finished a disappointing 5th. It was certainly a case of what might have been. But sometimes things never go to plan. As has been mentioned before, the BBC continued It's A Knockout in fits and starts after the cancellation of the series proper. However, their plans were thwarted at the first attempt to revive the show with the Trio competition planned for 30th December Trio was planned as unsurprisingly a competition between three teams, hailing from Great Britain, Portugal and Netherlands.
Unfortunately, even though listings for the transmission had been included in the Christmas edition of Radio Times magazine, the programme was ultimately never shown.
The BBC put this down to quality issues with the recording - by which we can take it that the master recording made was damaged in some way. It is also possible that the event itself fell victim to severe weather conditions.
Sadly, no visual record of the event has been retained by the BBC. Trio 's alloted broadcast slot was subsequently taken up with a hastily produced retrospective about It's A Knockout , hosted by Stuart Hall.
Due to time restrictions, this was simply a quick re-edit of 's Look Back and Laugh , replacing Hall's and Eddie Waring's links from the programme with new links, recorded in the environs of BBC Manchester. Trio was reportedly not shown in Portugal or Netherlands, either, so this programme is now one of the real mysteries of the series history.
After the blip that was Trio , and saw the continuation of the BBC's traditional Christmas editions, with both events being staged at home - at the Aviemore Centre in Scotland and at Blackpool in England. In a twist on previous events, both these festive frolics were staged on ice. Against the run of history, British teams won both these events. Much was made of the event, which was marked by It's A Knockout 's first Radio Times cover since May and a hardcover souvenir book issued for Christmas , Knockout: The Grand Charity Tournament from the Collins publishing house which was superbly illustrated with images from the event.
Just before the main finale game the scores for the Marathon would be added onto the running totals for the teams. Joker Cards.
This considered of a large playing card style joker being presented before the start of the game and double points being awarded for their score on it. The earlier games started off as almost school sports day type tasks. Top cast Edit. Billy J. Smith Self - Host as Self - Host. Jacki MacDonald Self as Self. More like this. Storyline Edit. Add content advisory. Did you know Edit. Connections Version of It's a Knockout Needless to say, the satirists had a field day and the tabloids newspapers laughed themselves out of printers ink.
But if you think that was bad, in the late 's the BBC sold the format of It's a Knockout to Channel 5 and a new series was made so all three channel 5 viewers could experience how Friday night's used to feel like but experience it on a Saturday afternoon instead. Keith 'Cheggers' Chegwin hosted the debacle while the barely literate Frank Bruno took the Waring role.
Thankfully it died the death it deserved and lasted 1 season. Challenge TV has at last started to show the old Stuart Hall shows and even my kids are now enjoying these shows as much as I did over 25 years ago. I hope the BBC bring it back one day because they were definitely on to a winner.
If they do bring it back however, it has to be with Herb Alperts great theme and of course Stuart Hall as host otherwise it wouldn't be the It's a Knockout we knew and loved. TV never got better than this. MartynGryphon Aug 4, Details Edit. Release date August 7, United Kingdom. United Kingdom. Technical specs Edit.
Color Black and White Color. Related news. Nov 29 eyeforfilm. Contribute to this page Suggest an edit or add missing content. Top Gap. What is the English language plot outline for It's a Knockout ?
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