3-2-1
A trio of quiz, variety, and game show.
3–2–1 is a British game show produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, hosted by Ted Rogers and broadcast from 29 July 1978 to 24 December 1988. Based on the Spanish programme Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez, it combined a quiz, variety acts, and a game show into a single format. The series drew large audiences throughout its run, with the first series attracting up to 16.5 million viewers and subsequent series never falling below 12 million.
Quick Facts
- Based on
- Un
- dos
- tres... responda otra vez
- Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
- Presenter
- Ted Rogers
- Announcer
- Anthony Schaeffer; John Benson
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Series
- 10
- Episodes
- 141 (inc. 12 specials)
- Runtime
- 60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Facts from the source article.
The format
The game's overall objective was to survive elimination into the third part and solve cryptic clues to win the star prize, though one clue referred to Dusty Bin, the booby prize; contestants who ended with Dusty received only a new dustbin. Each show had a theme—such as 'Sea cruise' or the 'Swinging Sixties'—that guided the variety acts, quiz questions, stage sets, and clues. In later series, Dusty appeared at the start dressed in a costume matching the theme, but the changing themes were dropped for the final series in favour of a generic stage set reused each week. Part one featured three couples competing in the '1,000 to 1 quiz' for up to £1,000. The first round allowed a maximum of 10 questions in 30 seconds, each correct answer worth £10 (or £1 in the first series, which had three rounds). Passes were allowed but questions could not be revisited. Couples answered alternately, with the woman answering first and receiving the first answer to avoid a zero score. An incorrect answer or time limit ended the round. In the second round, each correct answer was worth the total from the first round, making a zero score problematic. Questions typically used word association: Ted Rogers would give a word, such as an island, and the contestant named the country (e.g., 'Gozo' – 'Malta'), or a song title and the artist (e.g., 'Never Say Die' – Cliff Richard). In the first series, the quiz winners returned the following week, while the other two couples progressed to part two; from the second series, the worst-performing couple was eliminated, taking home their quiz winnings and a ceramic model of Dusty Bin. Dusty Bin was conceived by producer Derek Burrell-Davis and created as a cartoon character by designer and animator John Sunderland, who also designed the opening and end titles and the themed costumes for Dusty Bin.
Acts who appeared on the show
The show started with a regular group of comedy performers: Chris Emmett, Mike Newman, Felix Bowness, Debbie Arnold, and Duggie Brown. Later on, the format shifted. Each episode began to feature a lineup of variety acts from the era, plus a resident dance troupe. One such troupe was the Brian Rogers Connection, who danced solo during the first act and often backed up the headlining performers. Earlier dance and hostess groups included Lipstick, which was choreographed by hostess Libby Roberts, and the Gentle Secs. A long list of hostesses appeared over the years: Mireille Allonville, Jenny Layland, Patsy Ann Scott, Annie St John, Karen Palmer, Gail Playfair, Tula, Alison Temple-Savage, Libby Roberts, Fiona Curzon, Karan David, Wei Wei Wong, Caroline Munro, and Lynda Lee Lewis. The roster of acts was vast. It included Gloria Gaynor, George Roper, Ken Dodd, Charlie Williams, Bonnie Langford, Duncan Norvelle, Black Lace, Bernie Winters, Wall Street Crash, Kiki Dee, Michael Ball, 'Nasty Nigel' Lythgoe, Fay Presto, Pete Price, Manhattan Transfer, Shane Richie, Stan Boardman, Fascinating Aida, Showaddywaddy, Kajagoogoo, Frankie Howerd, Colm Wilkinson, Wilfrid Brambell from Steptoe and Son, Sinitta, Five Star, Cheryl Baker, Phil Cornwell, Jaki Graham, Nana Mouskouri, the Chuckle Brothers, Brian Conley, Roy Walker, the Drifters, John Sparkes, Wayne Sleep, Andrew O'Connor, Gareth Hunt, Peter Beckett, Syd Lawrence with his orchestra, Humphrey Lyttelton, Frankie Vaughan, Jessica Martin, Mud, Keith Harris and Orville, Mick Miller, Diane Solomon, Tony Christie, Cover Girls, Lyn Paul, the Searchers, the Rockin' Berries, Stephanie Lawrence, Don Lusher with his band, Madeline Bell, Georgie Fame, Wayne Dobson, the Real Thing, Rebecca Storm, Richard Digance, Anna Dawson, Marion Montgomery, Bill Maynard, the Krankies, Terry Scott, Carmel McSharry, Bob Carolgees, Diana Dors, Lionel Blair, Alvin Stardust, Phil Cool, Vince Eager, Mike Reid, Nicholas Parsons, Sheila Steafel, Danny La Rue, Les Dennis, The Wurzels, Joan Benham, Ken Colyer with his jazzmen, Frazer Hines, Pan's People as Dee Dee Wilde's Pan's People, Rita Webb, The Great Soprendo, Bernard Bresslaw, Charlie Drake, Aimi MacDonald, Mark Heap of the Two Marks, Vince Hill, and Paul Da Vinci.
Dusty Bin
Dusty Bin served as both the show's mascot and its booby prize. The character appeared at the start of each show dressed in the style of that week's theme, except in the 1987 series, which had no theme. The cartoon character was created by freelance designer John Sunderland, who developed it based on the producers' brief for a booby prize for the British version; the original Spanish version had used a pumpkin. Sunderland's concept for the original titles included the birth of the bin: Yorkshire Television's chevron logo shot up like a rocket, fell to earth, and exploded in a dustbin standing by the studio's stage door. The bin contained a clown's costume, parts of which merged with the bin, bringing it to life as Dusty Bin—part dustbin, part clown. The original robotic Dusty Bin, along with his Yorkshire Terrier dog Garbage, was assembled by Ian Rowley in his converted chapel workshop in Rodley, Leeds. Rowley used over 73 microprocessors, cutting-edge remote control robotic technology at the time, at a cost of around £10,000. Over 151 shows, Dusty and Garbage performed antics including dressing as a caveman and dinosaur, bullfighting as a matador and bull, dressing as a baby, driving into the studio in a Ford Model T, juggling, playing the piano like Elton John, flying with a James Bond jetpack, escaping from chains like Harry Houdini, riding a bike, spraying Ted Rogers with paint, and driving a tank into the studio to bomb the audience with confetti. Three Dustys were made: one fully robotic with creator Ian Rowley, one greeting people at the ITV studio entrance, and one owned by Ted Rogers' son Danny.
In popular culture
In 1999, as part of their Christmas special 'The Phantom Millennium', French and Saunders included Dusty Bin in a parody of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, where Dusty Bin played Droid DB-321. Dawn French made the 3–2–1 hand signal while commanding the droid in the guise of Queen Amanana. Dusty also appeared briefly in a robot-themed chapter of the webcomic Scary Go Round. The Class 321 trains were nicknamed 'Dusty Bins' due to the number bearing the same name as the game show, and class 153 unit number 153 321 is also affectionately known as 'Dusty Bin' by train crews. The Airbus A321 is also nicknamed 'Dusty Bin'. The radio comedy show The Burkiss Way, which co-starred 3-2-1 regular Chris Emmett, parodied the show with a sketch involving a final clue of 'It's a dustbin and not a car,' revealed to be an anagram of 'It's a car and not a dustbin,' meaning the contestants had turned down a new car. Another parody appeared on Russ Abbot's Madhouse, where the show was named 1-2-3; the host, played by Les Dennis, presented a suitcase as the final clue, which the contestants picked, only to find it was the bin. In the Artic text adventure game 'Planet of Death' for 8-bit computers in the early 80s, 3-2-1 was a major clue: after passing a force field, the character found a room with three switches and the clue '3,2,1 – No Dusty, Bin Rules. The two-time Scottish BAFTA award-winning jester and pro-gamer Brian 'Limmy' Limond regularly analyses old episodes of the show on his Twitch stream.
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