Call My Bluff

Call My Bluff
Format	Game show
Created by	Philip Hindin (based on a format created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman)
Presented by	Robin Ray Joe Melia Peter Wheeler Robert Robinson Bob Holness (1996-2003) Fiona Bruce (2003-2005)
Starring	BBC2 series: Frank Muir and Robert Morley Patrick Campbell Arthur Marshall BBC1 series: Alan Coren and Sandi Toksvig Rod Liddle
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC2 (1965-1988) BBC One (1996-2005)
Original run	BBC2 series: 17 October 1965 – 22 December 1988 Special 16 April 1994 BBC One series 13 May 1996 – 17 July 2005

Call My Bluff was a long-running British game show between two teams of three celebrity contestants. The point of the game is for the teams to take it in turn to provide three definitions of an obscure word, only one of which is correct. The other team then has to guess which is the correct definition, the other two being "bluffs". It was brought back to BBC TV by producer Richard Lewis.

Examples of words used in Call my Bluff, taken from a book published in connection with the show in 1972, are 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", or "a mini-jungle of mixed vegetation". The first and second of those particular definitions are bluffs.

Broadcast history

Call My Bluff originally aired on BBC 2 from 1965-1988. The original host was Robin Ray, later succeeded by Joe Melia, Peter Wheeler, and finally Robert Robinson.

Robert Morley and Frank Muir captained the teams. Morley was succeeded by Patrick Campbell, who was in turn succeeded by Arthur Marshall.

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 show was resurrected in 1996 after an eight-year rest (apart from one special edition for BBC2's thirtieth birthday in 1994), now as a daytime series on BBC 1. Alan Coren and Sandi Toksvig became the team captains, and Bob Holness replaced Robinson as chairman.

In 2003, Toksvig was replaced by the journalist Rod Liddle, and newsreader Fiona Bruce took the chair. The series finished again in 2005.

Book

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

Foreign versions

Call My Bluff
Format	Game show
Created by	Mark Goodson Bill Todman
Presented by	Bill Leyden
Narrated by	Wayne Howell
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	March 29 – September 24, 1965

• The original United States version (with the same title) aired on NBC daytime from March 29 to September 24, 1965. The Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Production was hosted by Bill Leyden with Wayne Howell as announcer.

Despite its short run, Milton Bradley issued a board game version of it during the Summer of that year.

• A similar gameshow ran on MTV3 in Finland between 2001 and 2003, called Kuutamolla ("In the Moonlight"), except with fewer celebrities and a focus on anecdotes about the lives of the guests, rather than on word meanings.

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2008)

• On the musical episode of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (more commonly known in the UK as Two Pints) Donna Henshaw and Janet Keogh (played by Natalie Casey and Sheridan Smith) Sang:

Smith: "Skankarific's not a word!"

Casey: "It means teriffically skankified, it was on Call My Bluff"

• 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").
• 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.

See also

• Balderdash (game)
• Wordplay (a game show that wired on NBC from 1986-1987)

External links

• Call My Bluff at UKGameshows.com