Punchlines

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Punchlines was a comedy game show series hosted by Lennie Bennett that was produced by LWT and aired on the ITV network from January 3, 1981 until December 22, 1984.

The show was based on an unsold U.S. pilot hosted by Bill Cullen which was made for daily syndication on December 30, 1979 as an attempt to revive Eye Guess which ran on NBC from January 3, 1966 to September 26, 1969 and, like Punchlines, was created by Bob Stewart and hosted by Cullen.

An Australian pilot was also made for the Seven Network on August 20, 1986 - hosted by Jeremy Kewley but it failed to sell.

Broadcast dates

  • 79 episodes and 1 special
  • Series 1 - 13 x 30' 03/01/1981 - 28/03/1981
  • Special - FA Cup Final edition 09/05/1981
  • Series 2 - 16 x 30' 05/09/1981 - 19/12/1981
  • Series 3 - 16 x 30' 24/12/1982 - 09/04/1983
  • Series 4 - 17 x 30' 10/09/1983 - 31/12/1983
  • Series 5 - 17 x 30' 01/09/1984 - 22/12/1984

(Source: ITN Source website)

Gameplay

Each week, teams of a celebrity guest and a member of the public had to match the punchlines which were given by 8 other guests who were seated in 'Celebrity Squares' style boxes to the questions that were asked by the host, the first team to reach 150 points won the chance to win a major prize while the losing contestant left with a 'Lennie Bennett' doll in the first two series then from series three onwards they left with a case of champagne and some glasses.

In the first two series, the panel of eight Punchliners consisted of actors and comedians who weren't yet well known to the British public, including:

  • Matthew Kelly
  • Rose Marie
  • Patti Gold, who was a former singer with the Three Degrees style group and Opportunity Knocks contestants 'Cool Breeze' and future member of Russ Abbott's Madhouse.
  • Fogwell Flax, who is an English comedian.
  • Bryan Joan Elliott, who is an American Comedienne.
  • Judy Gridley, who went on to play Percy Sugden's niece Elaine who married Bill Webster in Coronation Street.

At the beginning of each show, they would all look into the camera one at a time and introduce themselves.. 'I'm Matthew', 'I'm Patti' etc... From the third series onwards, the Punchliners consisted of a mixture of the original Punchliners and more well known celebrities.

Bonus Round

In the final, round the winning contestant had to match seven of the eight punchlines correctly to win the star prize but if they failed to do so, they went away with the prize that corresponded to how many correct punchlines they had matched.

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