TV classics - You Bet!

By Jason Wright (Entertainment Expert)

YOU Bet was a TV gameshow that was out of the ordinary.  It came around at a critical point where ITV needed a show that could hold well against the BBC growing popularity in Saturday night television.

     Launched in 1988, and originally hosted by Bruce Forsyth, the show saw everyday members of the public claim they could challenge themselves to do something that would be impossible in real life. Against a set time limit, these challenges could range between smashing 50 concrete blocks in three minutes or identify ten types of fruit by smell alone.

     A panel of three different celebrities each week were invited to predict the outcome of these challenges as was the studio audience.  At the end of the show, the combined totals of the studio audience and the celebrities would create a hefty amount of money to donate to charity, nominated by the celebrity that won the game.  Every contestant that participates in a challenge would earn someone commemorative such as a trophy, a medal or a scroll, depending on which series it was in.  The most unique aspect was the end music played at the end of each challenge, one for a successful challenge and another for an unsuccessful challenge, or a fan gameshow page UKGameshows calls them, the “happy happy” theme and “oh dear, it’s all gone pear-shaped” theme.

     However, the twist in the show came that each celebrity had to back one of the challenges and if it failed, they had to pay with a forfeit that they arranged.  Not even the host was safe, as Forsyth also had to sponsor a challenge, with the same consequence if it failed.

     After three solid years, Forsyth went back to the BBC and Matthew Kelly took over as host.  An extra challenge was added into the programme which meant co-host Ellis Ward (who had been with the show since the start) now supported a challenge along with the celebrities and Kelly.  It was perhaps the Kelly-era of the show that was the most watched and remembered as his witty remarks were taken by warmth to the viewing public.  The forfeits rule was changed in Kelly’s first series with a list of six to choose from instead of suggestions.

SET: You Bet! had some glory days, but faded in later years

     Ward left the show in mysterious circumstances in 1992 and the celebrity panel was increased to four people.  Yet another change in the forfeits saw it become a case of pot luck with the six forfeits hidden in envelopes.  Following a brief switch to Friday nights in 1991 to 1993, it returned to the usual Saturday slot in early 1994, with the remaining episodes of the series carried over from the previous year.

     A change of direction came in 1995 with a new set and the axing of forfeits and celebrities backing challenges.  Instead, the celebrity that came last was punished with having to do a challenge of their own.  By this time, the show had become too much for Matthew Kelly, and he left at the end of the series to focus on the more successful Stars In Their Eyes.

     Actor Darren Day and Diane Youdale, better known as Jet from Gladiators, took over for the 1996 series.  This though didn’t appeal to the viewers and a last-ditch revamp the following year saw too many changes which led to its ultimate demise.  The changes were; a terrible new music sequence, another new set, a new Bonus Card rule for celebrities to double their points on a challenge and another new co-presenter in Sarah Matravers.  Matravers replaced Youdale is better known for playing feisty Victoria Baptiste in Sky One’s football drama Dream Team.  All the changes backfired and despite Day promising viewers at the end of the series of returning again soon, it didn’t happen.  The show was axed and replaced in 1998 by the more extreme Don’t Try This At Home!  Shame but that’s what happens when you make too much change at one period of time.

     You Bet! is one of the plethoras of classic shows that regularly appear on digital channel Challenge.  Currently, they are airing episodes from the Matthew Kelly period of the show.  In truth, You Bet! has a format that actually can still air today but in today’s advancing growth of bigger and better shows, it may not stand a chance of a revival.