First watched : September 1976
I'd often heard about the show but this new series in 1976 was my first opportunity to watch the original TV prank show. Well, actually this wasn't the original as the first American series was broadcast in 1948 and even that was derived from a radio show The Candid Microphone. The first British version didn't air until 1960 and ran for seven years presented by David Nixon with radio actor Jonathan Routh and Arthur Arkins pulling the pranks. It was eventually yanked after a long running rights dispute with the original American series host Allen Funt. There was a brief revival in 1974 in which Routh was not involved but he was tempted back in 1976 by having his name out front.
The aim of course was to produce comedy by embarrassing members of the general public with practical jokes and getting them involved in fake scenarios. The set-ups were generally fairly benign compared to successors like Game For A Laugh and Balls of Steel but it was still pretty funny for its time. I remember taking part in a few crocodiles behind unsuspecting shoppers in Littleborough while the show was on air.
What was most surprising about the show was how ill-fitted Routh was for subterfuge. A tall, heavy-set man with eyebrows that looked like exotic caterpillars he was pretty distinctive and for every successful prank filmed there must have been hundreds that failed because he was recognised straight away.
That's perhaps why it only ran for one series. Routh turned to writing eccentric guide books and painting at his beach home in Jamaica which had no electricity. He died in 2008 aged 80.
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