
Vernon Kay's Gameshow Marathon
On September 17, 2005, the ITV network celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a season of ITV 50 programming that aired. One of them was a seven-week special celebrating classic UK TV game shows, it was called Gameshow Marathon presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, better known as Ant & Dec. A second special was instituted in 2007 but with a new host, Vernon Kay. Like its American counterpart, both series had The Price is Right be the first game to be played.
Ant & Dec's Show[]
Games[]
The show used the half-hour format that night (though the contestant's row prop, the music, the logo & the intro came from the Crowther version), so three pricing games were played that night. The three games played that night were:
- Cliffhangers - Carol Vorderman of Countdown fame won the right to play the game. Carol won the game with a combined total difference of £10. Supposedly she won a choice of two prizes to win, but instead, both prizes were won.
- Plinko - Vernon Kay (the man who would go on to host the next Gameshow Marathon and All-Star Family Fortunes) played that game and got two of the three small prizes right, earning him two more chips to go with his free one for a total of three. Using the three disks earned, he won £1000 for a home viewer. He then won a car for a home viewer.
- Race Game - The last of the three games was played by TV presenter & comedienne Ruby Wax. She matched one of the four prices and won the attached prize which was a cuckoo clock.
Showcase Showdown[]
Carol Vorderman won the Showcase Showdown and made it to the Showcase Final, with a score of 85. Both her opponents went over.
Showcase Final[]
At the Range Finder board, Carol hit £3000 meaning she had to come within that amount without going over. Carol managed to win the Showcase for a home viewer with a bid of £29,000; the actual retail total was £29,503. She was only off by £503.