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Call My Bluff

British TV panel game (1965–2004)

British TV panel game (1965–2004)

FieldValue
imageCall My Bluff.jpeg
genrePanel game show
creatorMark Goodson
Bill Todman
presenterRobin Ray (1965–66)
Joe Melia (1966–67)
Peter Wheeler (1967)
Robert Robinson (1967–88, 1994)
Bob Holness (1996–2002)
Fiona Bruce (2003–05)
Angus Deayton (2011)
theme_music_composerNorrie Paramor
open_theme"Ciccolino"
countryUnited Kingdom
languageEnglish
num_series25 (BBC2)
9 (BBC1)
num_episodes542 (BBC2)
550 (BBC1)
locationPebble Mill Studios (1996–2005)
runtime30 minutes
companyBBC Pebble Mill (1996–2005)
networkBBC Two
first_aired
last_aired
network2BBC One
first_aired2
last_aired2
Note

the UK game show

Bill Todman Joe Melia (1966–67) Peter Wheeler (1967) Robert Robinson (1967–88, 1994) Bob Holness (1996–2002) Fiona Bruce (2003–05) Angus Deayton (2011) 9 (BBC1) 550 (BBC1)

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 panellist was Frank Muir. The theme music for the show was "Ciccolino" by Norrie Paramor.

Format

The game comprised two teams of three (a captain and two guests) who would compete to earn points by identifying the correct definitions of 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 bluffing and determining definitions.

Examples of words used in the show, taken from a 1972 book published in connection with it, include queach, strongle, ablewhacket, hickboo, jargoon, zurf, morepork, and jirble. The word queach was defined by the contestants as "a malicious caricature", "a cross between a quince and a peach" and "a mini-jungle of mixed vegetation" (with the last definition being the true one).

Broadcast history

Call My Bluff originally aired on BBC2 from 17 October 1965 to 22 December 1988.

Robert Morley and Frank Muir captained the teams. Morley was later succeeded by Patrick Campbell, and Arthur Marshall took over in 1981 following 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. For the majority of this run (from 1967 onwards) the host 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 17 July 2005.

Call My Bluff returned for a special during the BBC's 24 Hour Panel People in aid of 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 196529 June 196637
22 October 196614 April 196726
31 October 19677 July 196839
424 April 196928 May 197059
514 September 197025 January 197120
614 June 19717 February 197234
713 November 19727 May 197326
83 September 197328 January 197422
930 September 197424 March 197526
1029 April 197612 August 197616
1129 April 197712 August 197716
1222 March 19782 August 197818
132 January 197915 May 197920
1413 January 198030 March 198012
153 July 19804 September 198010
1613 February 198126 July 198120
1728 January 198217 June 198220
18url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2mus-XyGPC0C&dat=19830411&printsec=frontpage&hl=entitle=Evening Timesaccess-date=17 April 2015}}4 September 198320
1923 January 198420 August 198429
2019 October 198421 December 198410
2129 October 198531 December 198510
228 January 198728 May 198720
2310 September 198710 December 198714
2414 April 198816 June 19889
2526 October 198822 December 19888
One-off16 April 19941

BBC1

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
113 May 199631 May 199614
22 September 199610 January 199780
31 April 199716 July 199758
42 September 19973 April 1998131
55 January 19991 April 199965
23 May 2000
66 September 199917 December 199975
22 May 2000
724 May 200030 May 200277
819 May 20031 July 200330
91 June 200417 July 200520

Season 4 was due to premiere on 1 September 1997, but was postponed due to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales the night before. It was replaced by a delayed Going for a Song.

Book

  • Call my Bluff by Frank Muir and Patrick Campbell, published by Eyre Methuen, London, 1972.

References in other works

  • An episode of the early-1980s 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.
  • 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 "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"). Fry frequently drops into the impersonation of Robinson that he used in the sketch from 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.

References

References

  1. "rest of britain".
  2. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 17 October 1965". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  3. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 29 June 1966". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  4. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 2 October 1966". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  5. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 14 April 1967". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  6. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 1 October 1967". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  7. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 7 July 1968". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  8. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 24 April 1969". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  9. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 28 May 1970". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  10. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 14 September 1970". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  11. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 25 January 1971". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  12. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 14 June 1971". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  13. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 7 February 1972". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  14. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 13 November 1972". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  15. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 7 May 1973". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  16. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 3 September 1973". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  17. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 28 January 1974". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  18. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 30 September 1974". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  19. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 24 March 1975". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  20. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 29 April 1976". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  21. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 12 August 1976". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  22. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 29 April 1977". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  23. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 12 August 1977". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  24. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 22 March 1978". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  25. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 2 August 1978". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  26. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 2 January 1979". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  27. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 15 May 1979". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  28. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 13 January 1980". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  29. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 30 March 1980". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  30. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 3 July 1980". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  31. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 4 September 1980". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  32. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 13 February 1981". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  33. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 26 July 1981". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  34. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 28 January 1982". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  35. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 17 June 1982". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  36. "Evening Times".
  37. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 4 September 1983". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  38. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 23 January 1984". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  39. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 21 December 1984". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  40. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 19 October 1984". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  41. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 21 December 1984". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  42. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 29 October 1985". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  43. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 31 December 1985". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  44. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 8 January 1987". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  45. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 28 May 1987". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  46. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 10 September 1987". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  47. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 10 December 1987". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  48. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 14 April 1988". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  49. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 16 June 1988". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  50. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 26 October 1988". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  51. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 22 December 1988". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  52. "Call My Bluff – BBC Two England – 16 April 1994". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  53. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 13 May 1996". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  54. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 31 May 1996". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  55. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 2 September 1996". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  56. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 10 January 1997". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  57. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 1 April 1997". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  58. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 16 July 1997". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  59. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 2 September 1997". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  60. (September 2025). "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 3 April 1998". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  61. (September 2025). "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 4 January 1999". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  62. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 1 April 1999". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  63. (September 2025). "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 23 May 2000". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  64. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 6 September 1999". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  65. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 17 December 1999". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  66. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 22 May 2000". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  67. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 24 May 2000". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  68. (September 2025). "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 30 May 2002". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  69. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 19 May 2003". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  70. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 1 July 2003". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  71. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 1 June 2004". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  72. "Call My Bluff – BBC One London – 17 July 2005". [[BBC Genome Project]].
  73. (1 September 1997). "Call My Bluff – BBC One".
  74. (2 September 2015). "Diana Week".
  75. "Harry And Paul's Story of the 2s press clippings".
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