Ask the Family
A family quiz show revived twice after cancellation.
Ask the Family is a British game show that originally aired on BBC1 from 1967 to 1984, hosted by Robert Robinson. It was later revived on UK Gold in 1999 with Alan Titchmarsh and again on BBC Two in 2005 with Dick & Dom.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Game show
- Creator
- Patricia Owtram
- Presenter
- Robert Robinson
- Alan Titchmarsh
- Dick and Dom
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Series
- 18
- Episodes
- 275
- Runtime
- 30 minutes
Facts from the source article.
Format
The show pitted two teams of four family members—two parents and two teenage children—against each other in a quiz. Over thirty minutes, teams answered general knowledge questions and mental puzzles, with certain questions directed only at specific members, such as children only or father and elder child only. The winning team advanced to later rounds, culminating in a grand final between the two unbeaten families.
In popular culture
The show was parodied in several contemporary comedy programmes. Not the Nine O'Clock News featured a sketch where both families were nearly identical, all being quantity surveyors by profession, including the children. The Kenny Everett Television Show spoofed it with Everett playing both Robert Robinson and the female heads of the Windsor and Thatcher families. An episode of the radio sketch show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again opened with a parody where John Cleese's character 'Robin Robertson' poured scorn on the families and abandoned them. The Burkiss Way parodied it as Ask the Cleverdicks. In the late 1990s, a sketch on The Fast Show had three middle-aged men arguing about their middle-class upbringing; one boasted that his family appeared on the show and won. Tabloid newspapers reported an occasion when a father correctly answered the sum of numbers from 1 to 100 in seconds, though a quick formula for the answer exists, attributed to Carl Friedrich Gauss, and the answer may have been known to the contestant.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who created Ask the Family?
Ask the Family was created by Patricia Owtram.
How many episodes of Ask the Family are there?
Ask the Family has 275 episodes across 18 seasons.
When did Ask the Family first air?
Ask the Family first aired on 12 July 1967.
When did Ask the Family end?
Ask the Family last aired on 22 October 1984.
More in British Television Series Revived After Cancellation
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