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Small Talk

Small Talk – 1994

The simplist ideas are often the best.  The idea of kids and game shows was nothing new, even this one wasn’t the first, but as it’s Ronnie Corbett , it’s worth a closer look.

Small Talk was a game show hosted by Ronnie Corbett (an obvious choice for the subject matter) that ran on the BBC for four series totalling fifty two episodes.

Summary

The game was split into four rounds.

Rounds 1 & 2

Three contestants are asked a question that they asked panel of 9 children (10 or 11 if 1 or 2 squares have pairs). The contestants secretly lock in what they think the majority of the panel answered (the majority guess), and those who are correct get 20 points (10 points in series 1) otherwise, they are out for the rest of the round, which was dropped after series 1.
After this, one by one, the contestants picked a single child or single pair of children and guess what he, she or they said, and if correct they score 30 points (20 points in series 1) in Round 1 and 40 points (30 points in series 1) in Round 2.

Round 3

The two players with the highest score from the previous two rounds come through to this round.  players alternate randomly selecting children by square with buzzers located at their lecterns. Otherwise, game play is the same, awarding players 40 points per match (30 in series 1).  The winner from this round goes into the final round.

Final Round

In the final round, the winner will try to turn his or her main game score to 500 and to do this they must do the following. The contestant picks 5 panelists and each is given a question. Each kid or pair holds a card with a number on it from 50 to 500. If the contestant guesses the response of the kid or pair correctly he or she will get the points on the card added to his or her overall score. If the contestant gets 500 points or more they will win the grand prize and £500, if they score less than 500 he or she will win £1 a point minus the number of points needed to make 500; for example, a contestant finishing on 470 points would win £440. In later series, the contestant was given the consolation prize of a “slap-up” night out with theatre tickets and dinner.

Clips

 

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Details

Channel: BBC1
Original Transmission Dates: 24th July 1994 – 18th December 1996