Play Your Cards Right
A British game show of higher-or-lower card guessing.
Play Your Cards Right (also known as Bruce Forsyth's Play Your Cards Right) is a British television game show based on the American program Card Sharks. It was produced by LWT for ITV and hosted by Bruce Forsyth.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Game show
- Based on
- Card Sharks, Chester Feldman
- Presenter
- Bruce Forsyth
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Series
- 16
- Episodes
- 248 (inc. 6 specials & 4 unaired)
- Runtime
- 30 minutes (inc. adverts)
Facts from the source article.
History
Play Your Cards Right was broadcast from 1 February 1980 to 22 November 1987, produced by LWT for ITV and hosted by Bruce Forsyth. LWT produced a more modern version from 18 March 1994 to 4 June 1999; Brian Conley recorded a pilot before Forsyth returned after quitting The Generation Game. In 2002, Thames Television produced another revival with slightly modified rules, ending on 20 June 2003. A parody appeared on Have I Got News for You in June 2003. One-off returns occurred in 2005 and 2007 as part of Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon. Interactive DVD games were released in 2007 and 2008.
Format
Two couples (two single players during the first series) alternated who went first on each question. Questions were based on surveys of 100 people. The first couple guessed how many of the 100 gave a certain answer; the second guessed whether the actual number was higher or lower. If the first couple guessed exactly, they won a case of champagne. Whoever was correct gained control of the cards. Questions often had comedic value; for example, tattoo-artists were asked if they would try to talk someone out of a Bruce Forsyth tattoo. The first couple would joke with Bruce and choose a number; the second would say higher or lower. If wrong, the first couple started with the cards. Each team had five cards laid out, and had to guess if the next card was higher or lower — ace highest, two lowest. The first card could be changed if desired. Correctly guessing all cards won the game; a wrong guess or a pair sent the couple back to their starting card, and the other team got a free attempt. After any correct guess, a couple could freeze, placing a marker by the frozen card, so a later wrong guess would not push them back further. If a couple regained control on a correct question, they could change the frozen card.
Potential revivals
In 2011, a pilot for a reboot with Vernon Kay as host was made but scrapped in November 2013 because it 'didn't involve enough skill'. In June 2019, it was announced as one of the country's five all-time favourite game shows, to be 'supersized and rebooted' in Alan Carr's Epic Gameshow, filmed at dock10 studios for ITV. A celebrity special hosted by Alan Carr aired on 30 May 2020. In 2020, Ryan Swain revived the show digitally via Instagram with daily celebrity guests to entertain NHS staff, carers and key workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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