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 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

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	17 October 1965<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	29 June 1966<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	37
2	2 October 1966<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	14 April 1967<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	26
3	1 October 1967<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	7 July 1968<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	39
4	24 April 1969<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	28 May 1970<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	59
5	14 September 1970<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	25 January 1971<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	20
6	14 June 1971<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	7 February 1972<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	34
7	13 November 1972<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	7 May 1973<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	26
8	3 September 1973<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	28 January 1974<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	22
9	30 September 1974<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	24 March 1975<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	26
10	29 April 1976<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	12 August 1976<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	16
11	29 April 1977<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	12 August 1977<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	16
12	22 March 1978<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	2 August 1978<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	18
13	2 January 1979<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	15 May 1979<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	20
14	13 January 1980<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	30 March 1980<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	12
15	3 July 1980<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	4 September 1980<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	10
16	13 February 1981<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	26 July 1981<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	20
17	28 January 1982<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	17 June 1982<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	20
18	11 April 1983<ref name="google">Template:Cite web</ref>	4 September 1983<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	20
19	23 January 1984<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	20 August 1984<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	29
20	19 October 1984<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	21 December 1984<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	10
21	29 October 1985<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	31 December 1985<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	10
22	8 January 1987<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	28 May 1987<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	20
23	10 September 1987<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	10 December 1987<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	14
24	14 April 1988<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	16 June 1988<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	9
25	26 October 1988<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	22 December 1988<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	8
One-off	16 April 1994<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>		1

BBC1

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	13 May 1996<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	31 May 1996<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	14
2	2 September 1996<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	10 January 1997<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	80
3	1 April 1997<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	16 July 1997<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	58
4	2 September 1997<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	3 April 1998<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>	131
5	5 January 1999<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>	1 April 1999<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	65
	23 May 2000<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
6	6 September 1999<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	17 December 1999<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	75
	22 May 2000<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
7	24 May 2000<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	30 May 2002<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>	77
8	19 May 2003<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	1 July 2003<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	30
9	1 June 2004<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	17 July 2005<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	20

Season 4 was due to premiere on 1 September 1997,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Template:IMDb title
• Template:IMDb title
• Template:UKGameshow