Blankety Blank (game show)

British adaptation of the American Game Show Match Game. The show aired on BBC1 in all but its last few years, when it Channel Hopped to ITV.

Much like its American counterpart, Blankety Blank used a six-celebrity panel and two contestants, who would compete with humorous fill-in-the-blank questions in hopes that the celebrity panel would match up to them.

The title comes from the standard used to describe missing entries. A single missing entry is "blank." An item with more than one missing entry has every one except the last called "blankety" and the last is "blank." So an item with three missing entry would be described as "blankety-blankety-blank."

Terry Wogan hosted the original version from 1979-83, followed by Les Dawson (1984-90) and Paul O'Grady (1997-2002 as his drag queen alter-ego Lily Savage). Vernon Kay hosted a one-off as part of Gameshow Marathon in 2007, and O'Grady himself did a one-off in 2011 for Comic Relief as part of 24-Hour Panel People.

The following Game Show tropes appear in Blankety Blank (game show):

• Bonus Round: Supermatch, played identically to the American counterpart: an Audience Match round and a Head-to-Head Match. Unlike the American version, however, it wasn't played for cash but for "Blanks", an in-game currency that could be traded for fantastic prizes!
• Consolation Prize: "A Blankety Blank chequebook and pen!" On the popularity scale, that and Dusty Bin are probably Britain's best answers to the ceramic Dalmatian.
• Home Game: One was released by Milton Bradley in 1983.
• Personnel:
  • The Announcer
  • Game Show Host: Terry Wogan, Les Dawson, Lily Savage, Vernon Kay, Paul O'Grady.
  • Studio Audience: Laugh, applause, laugh more at the lack of budget!
• Prize Letdown: The Supermatch prizes, which became one of the more memorable aspects of this show.

Other tropes include:

• Deadpan Snarker: Arguably all the hosts, but Wogan and Dawson especially; mainly as the series was produced by The BBC for most of its run, hosts and panelists regularly mocked the rather cheap prizes on offer.
• Freudian Slip: When reading a question, Lily said "Gary Lineker was a great footballer...I'll never forget when he tripped over his feces." She then realized her mistake and corrected it to "laces".
• Left It In: In one episode, a contestant was a taxi driver.

Les: Have you picked up many celebrities?
Contestant: Oh, I've picked up you.
Les: Did I pay you?
Contestant: You didn't tip me.
Les: ... (gestures off-screen) Out, edit, edit...

• Spoonerism: Dawson always referred to the consolation prize as "A Blankety-Blank chequepen and book!"