Call My Bluff

Call My Bluff is a British panel game show based on the short-lived US version of the same name. It was originally hosted by Robin Ray and later, most notably, by Robert Robinson. Its most prominent panelist was Frank Muir.

This article is about the UK game show. For the US game show, see Call My Bluff (American game show). For the dice game, see Liar's dice.

Call My Bluff
GenrePanel game show
Created byMark Goodson
Bill Todman
Presented byRobin Ray (1965–66)
Joe Melia (1966–67)
Peter Wheeler (1967)
Robert Robinson (1967–88, 1994)
Bob Holness (1996–2002)
Fiona Bruce (2003–04)
Angus Deayton (2011)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series25 (BBC2)
12 (BBC1)
No. of episodes542 (BBC2)
469 (BBC1)
Production
Running time30 minutes
Release
Original networkBBC Two (1965–94)
BBC One (1996–2005)
Original release17 October 1965 (1965-10-17) –
18 June 2004 (2004-06-18)
Chronology
Related showsCall My Bluff

Call my Bluff ran for 23 years, from October 1965 to December 1988, with brief revivals in 1996, 2003 and 2011.

Format

The game comprised two teams of three (a captain and two guests) who would compete to earn points by determining the correct definitions to obscure words. The teams took turns to give three definitions, one true and two bluffs, while the other team attempted to determine which was correct. If the correct choice was made the team earned one point, if not, the bluffing team earned one point. Both teams took turns turns bluffing and determining definitions.

Examples of words used in the show, taken from a 1972 book published in connection with the show, include "queach", "strongle", "ablewhacket", "hickboo", "jargoon", "zurf", "morepork", and "jirble". "Queach", for instance, was defined as "a malicious caricature", "a cross between a quince and a peach" and "a mini-jungle of mixed vegetation". The first and second of those particular definitions were bluffs.

The theme music for the show was Ciccolino by Norrie Paramor.[1]

Broadcast history

Call My Bluff originally aired on BBC2 from 17 October 1965 to 22 December 1988. The original host was Robin Ray.

Robert Morley and Frank Muir captained the teams. Morley was later succeeded by Patrick Campbell, and Arthur Marshall took over upon Campbell's death. Various celebrities also stood in as team captains, including Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams and Alan Melville. The original series finished after Marshall's death, although a general change in the tone and atmosphere of broadcasting at the time may also have affected its temporary demise. The final host for this run was Robert Robinson.

The show was resurrected in 1996 after an eight-year rest (apart from one special edition on 16 April 1994 for BBC Two's thirtieth birthday, which still featured Robert Robinson, but this time with Joanna Lumley as a team captain opposite Frank Muir), now as a daytime series on BBC1. It began airing on 13 May 1996 with Alan Coren and Sandi Toksvig as the team captains and Bob Holness replacing Robinson as chairman.

In 2003, Toksvig was replaced by the journalist Rod Liddle, and newsreader Fiona Bruce took the chair. The series finished again on 18 June 2004.

Call My Bluff returned for a special during the BBC's 24 Hour Panel People in aid for Comic Relief 2011, with Alex Horne, Roisin Conaty, Russell Tovey, Tim Key, Sarah Cawood and David Walliams participating. The host was Angus Deayton.

Transmissions

BBC2
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
117 October 1965[2]29 June 1966[3]37
22 October 1966[4]14 April 1967[5]26
31 October 1967[6]7 July 1968[7]39
424 April 1969[8]28 May 1970[9]59
514 September 1970[10]25 January 1971[11]20
614 June 1971[12]7 February 1972[13]34
713 November 1972[14]7 May 1973[15]26
83 September 1973[16]28 January 1974[17]22
930 September 1974[18]24 March 1975[19]26
1029 April 1976[20]12 August 1976[21]16
1129 April 1977[22]12 August 1977[23]16
1222 March 1978[24]2 August 1978[25]18
132 January 1979[26]15 May 1979[27]20
1413 January 1980[28]30 March 1980[29]12
153 July 1980[30]4 September 1980[31]10
1613 February 1981[32]26 July 1981[33]20
1728 January 1982[34]17 June 1982[35]20
1811 April 1983[36]4 September 1983[37]20
1923 January 1984[38]20 August 1984[39]29
2019 October 1984[40]21 December 1984[41]10
2129 October 1985[42]31 December 1985[43]10
228 January 1987[44]28 May 1987[45]20
2310 September 1987[46]10 December 1987[47]14
2414 April 1988[48]16 June 1988[49]9
2526 October 1988[50]22 December 1988[51]8
One-off16 April 1994[52]1

Almost all the first 263 episodes from Series 1–8 have been wiped from the BBC archives. The episodes that survived in the archives are Episode 3 of Series 2, Episodes 5 & 38 of Series 4, Episodes 3–4 of Series 5 and Episodes 15–16 of Series 8.[53]

BBC1
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
113 May 1996[54]31 May 1996[55]14
22 September 1996[56]10 January 1997[57]80
31 April 1997[58]17 July 1997[59]58
41 September 1997[60]3 April 1998[61]143
54 January 1999[62]1 April 1999[63]64
66 September 1999[64]17 December 1999[65]75
722 May 2000[66]12 July 2000[67]20
84 September 2000[68]14 September 2000[69]9
93 January 2001[70]19 January 2001[71]13
104 February 2002[72]31 May 2002[73]40
1119 May 2003[74]1 July 2003[75]30
121 June 2004[76]18 June 2004[77]9

Book

References in other works
Smith: "Skankarific's not a word!"
Casey: "It means terrifically skankified, it was on Call My Bluff"
  • An episode of the early-'80s LWT sketch-comedy series End of Part One parodied the show as Scrape My Barrel, where panelists had to figure out the meaning of the word working class.
  • In the "Europe" episode of QI (series E), a segment was featured entitled "Call My Euro Bluff", featuring stories about laws in the EU. The panel then had to decide whether each story was true or a "bløff" (Stephen Fry pronounced it "blerff").
  • The show (and in particular its host, Robert Robinson) was the subject of a sketch by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in the second series of A Bit of Fry and Laurie.
  • In the Doctor Who episode "Bad Wolf" Call My Bluff is mentioned as one of the games hosted in the game station.
  • In May 2014 the quirks of the show were lampooned by Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse in BBC Two's satirical Harry and Paul's Story of the Twos, where the show was given the name "Speech Impediment" and the word chosen for the panel was paedophile.[78]

References
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