Call My Bluff


Call My Bluff is a British panel game show based on the 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.
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.

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, 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

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.

BBC1

Book