Taking Sides: Blankety Blank with Terry Wogan or Blankety Blank with Les Dawson?

of COURSE it's Les Dawson! though for a minute i was getting him mixed up with Les Dennis = a heinous crime.

Ooer, Sounds a Bit Rude, with Ivor Whopper was much better.

"The rules of the game, like the panel, are very simple, hur hur. I say a phrase that sounds 'a bit rude', the contestant laughs dirtily, and then has to come up with a clean version. For example... I never impress the girls at parties because I've only got a tiny BLANK"
- "Oo, penis!"
"erm, and the answer is c- car."

Les Dennis's crushing miserabilism wins.

as a general point, was Lorraine Chase on Blankey Blank before or after the Campari ad? was she ever in anything else?

don't you mean les dawson? (er, who is les dennis?)

i remember one Blankety Blank when les dawson was clearly rat-arsed drunk, in a bumbling don't-give-a-fuck way rather than an abusive way. it was great.

heinous crime, heinous crime, heinous crime!!!

I meant Les Dawson.

does anyone remember The Dawson Watch, Les Dennis' Brass Eye style current affairs/issues based programme?

as a general point, was Lorraine Chase on Blankey Blank before or after the Campari ad? was she ever in anything else?

after. i think. a quick google reveals:

1) starred in the BBC sitcom Lame Ducks

2) played cockney girl from wrong side of town who falls for Tory MP in ITV's The Other 'Alf, 1980-1984

3) Since then, dunno what she's been at - but here's more about that career-launching Campari ad (from Lnodon freesheet Midweek):

"Back in the seventies, game show stalwart Lorraine Chase starred in a television advert for Campari. Lorraine's act -- and it got her a lot of work -- was that she was tall, slim and glamorous but sounded as common as muck.

In the ad, set in an exotic holiday location, a Latin smoothie asked her if she had "truly wafted in from paradise". Lorraine replied, in what would now be termed "estuary English", "nah, Luton Airport". The nation fell about laughing. Along with John Inman's camp "I'm free" from Are you Being Served?, "nah, Luton Airport" was probably the defining catchphrase of the seventies."

here's the ad -- http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/colmor/100adsb.htm (scroll to #41 - some of the other ads here are funny, too)

also had a 'hit' single "Luton Airport". thought it was worth mentioning. sorry if it's too obv

ahhhh! but alan, *wags finger pedantically* in fact "Luton Airport" was a hit for girl group Cats UK, and not lorraine chase at all! (i read this off the web today, otherwise i'd have assumed it was her)

i'm going to a pub quiz tonight -- after all the time i've spent on this subject there'd *better* be a lorraine chase round.

I have no memory of this Campari ad. But then, Campari meant nothing to me in the 1970s.

Unlike today.

there were loads of classy drinks in the 70s, like Campari, Dubonnet, Cinzano and Martini. why do people not drink them any more? maybe i'll start ordering them in pubs to make myself look sophisticated.

i am posting too much to my own thread.

Vermouth!! It is undrinkable => hence classy!! My gran wuvved all the above. Also Bendinck's bittermints, which = chocolates WITHOUT SUGAR!!

they sound k-tasty mark! (the mints). ahh i wuvved Dubonnet as a child. i might get some for my camping trip this weekend! (imagine me charging around in a FIELD off my head on Dubonnet, on second thoughts...)

Anyway, meanwhile, back at the subject, it's funny (but also inevitable) how many of things that i thought were grebt abt Wogan-era BB at the time don't seem so in retrospect, e.g. Kenny Everett being on and bending Wogan's microphone. Has anyone ever wondered what the guys who "revealed the legend" in the Supermatch game (Eugene under Wogan, Eamonn on Dawson's watch) actually looked like? BB was the first show I remember where contestants were required to wave enthusiastically; NB this is now a game/quiz show staple (e.g. Millionaire).

My vote goes to Blankety Blank with Peter Serafinowicz. The only truly funny thing on this year's Comic Relief.

I hope everyone has noted the somewhat aged presence of Lorraine in Emmerdale of late, anyway. She's quite good, actually.

Oh, Les Dawson anyway.

I always thought Blankety Blank with Lily Savage worked pretty well.

I have never watched Blankety Blank. I have to get my producer to explain it to me.

do you remember how when Dave Lee Travis was on they avoided the dilemma of whether to call him DAVE or DAVE LEE by opting for DLT on his namecard?

Oh, possibly only thing that was better abt Wogan era BB, "Ready" signs on sticks! With added tinsel if it was Christmas!

did anyone see the Blankety Blank spoof for Comic Relief this year? it was actually quite good - the guy who plays Duane in Spaced was a remarkably accurate Terry Wogan. likewise Nick Frost's Willie Rushton was bang on, as was Tim from The Office's Johnny Rotten! Sarah Alexander made a predictably spot on Liza Goddard. Simon Pegg was questionable as Freddie Starr but i am not a Pegg-hata like some people. Kevin Eldon was best as the nerdy contestant.

Blankety Blank is TV dynamite and must return - even with Lily Savage if it has to.

does anyone *know* a former BB contestant?

How many members of the Avengers cast did they get on there anyway? I remember Patrick Macnee one or twice... I'm sure Gareth Hunt is inevitable, and Honor Blackman a good bet... any others?

No, really, this is serious research. Er, for a book.

a book that will not be available in the shops but merely in your MIND?

there were at least 2 instances of ventroliquists with dummies on the panel (ie Keith Harris & Orville, Ray Allan & Lord Charles).

Lumley was definately on it - which ought to complete your New Avengers line up. I'd be surprised if Serious Actress Rigg or no mark Thorston rocked up.

It could be a book. The Definitive Avengers Companion, inc. notable TV appearances index.

Or I might be lying.

human culture is over - you had yr warning

Not sure about the UK version but the Oz show (late 70s) was pretty dire. That pic of the appalling Wendy Craig as a panellist in the UK show surprises me not one iota, the only thing that does shock me is that Benny Hill (apparently) wasn't on it. I vaguely remember Les Dawson from a joke-telling game show with Michael Bentine from the very early 70s and don't recall finding him all that hilarious.

Opinion of BB was split along gender lines, of course, my brothers and my boyfriend would cack themselves laughing but all the girls thought it was crap.

Not quite all boys cacked themselves laughing, Karen. Once the novelty and the shock-and-outrage factor wore off (and we're talking 1977 not 1953 so that didn't lake as long as it once did) it just became boring and predictable 99% of the time, although the 1% (a gem from Graham Kennedy) was worth sitting through all the ancient snicker-snicker-smirk-smirk antics of Ugly Dave and friends for... just. That was pretty much a standard position for all of us.

best version ever was "Oo-er, sounds a bit rude" on Filthy, Rich and Catflap with host Ivor Biggun. Richie is asked "I never impress the girls at parties because I've only got a tiny *blank*" and rushes to yell "penis". oo my sides. this along with the camp character's line "I'm a homosexual isn't it hilarious" = cleverest parody ever.

Alan reliving past glories shocker!

I'd have to vote for Les Dawson. He didn't have to be smarter than everyone, like Wogan, he just had to be smart enough to see that this was all a bit pathetic.

Lorraine Chase used to live on Camberwell Grove, as I recall - she was one of our local(ish) celebrities.

Les Dawson.

Are people only interested in this topic towards the end of each March?

i r fule. mods, please delete me

Spring's springing, innit. Maybe people unconsciously need something to deflate their mood a bit. 'Those were the days, eh, EH?'

No, perhaps not.

maybe television gets spectacularly crap at the end of march and ilXors start hankering after Quality Television Like We Had In The Old Days?

Blankety Blank is online

http://www.uproar.co.uk/go.asp?game=blb&channel=gameshows

try it hehe