1983 in television: Blockbusters starts and coins a catchphrase

A long-running game show made its UK debut in 1983, which eventually drew a large cult following and introduced a humorous catchphrase to the lexicon.

Blockbusters, hosted by veteran presenter Bob Holness, was based on an American format but it was the British version of the show which would run for longer. The premise was that a solo contestant would take on a team of two, in trying to complete a path of a game board consisting of hexagons, each with a letter. That letter would form the basis of the question which Holness would put to either side, and a successful answer won the hexagon. If the answer was wrong, the other side would get the chance to answer the question, win the hexagon and 'block' the path of their opponent. The team of two had the longer horizontal path across the board while the solo contestant would play vertically, the shorter route. The contestants were students, and Holness established himself as the older genial host. The humour often derived from a contestant requesting the hexagon containing the letter 'P', leading to the catchphrase "Can I Have A 'P' Please, Bob?".

The show ran for eleven years on ITV, and enjoyed its most successful period from about the late 1980s. Occasionally, the end credit sequence showed the studio audience performing the 'hand jive' to the theme music, something which became more frequent as it caught on in popularity.

The show eventually ended in 1994 after a short-lived move to satellite channel Sky One, but Bob Holness was indelibly associated with the programme for the remainder of his life. He died in January 2012 at the age of 83, and tributes to him inevitably focused on his time presenting 'Blockbusters'. Re-runs of the series are sometimes seen on UK satellite television today.

Here is the opening theme to 'Blockbusters' - hand jives optional!