Lucky Numbers (TV series)
| Lucky Numbers | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Game show |
| Presented by | Shane Richie |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 50 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company(s) | Granada Television |
| Distributor | ITV Studios |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original release | 9 January 1995 – 4 July 1997 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows |
Bob's Full House One to Win The Biggest Game in Town |
Lucky Numbers was a Bingo-based game show that aired on ITV for three series from 9 January 1995 to 4 July 1997. It was hosted by Shane Richie. It was produced by ITV's regional Granada Productions. The first series aired on Mondays and the two successive series aired on Fridays. Its logo and set design were inspired by the American googie architecture.
The show was one of the first UK game shows which allowed viewers to take part at home and win. The show was sponsored by The Sun newspaper, and each week the viewer was supplied with a game-card (to viewers that purchased a copy of the newspaper). They had to cross off numbers that appeared on that week's show and those that crossed off all their numbers by the time the 'big hooter' sounded on the show would win (or share if there was more than one winner) a prize of £20,000.
Nick Weir was the host of the show in an unbroadcast pilot recorded in 1994, predating his official game show career debut, On the Ball (1997) by three years, the latter show also being a Granada Productions series. Lucky Numbers has been seen as ITV's reply after they lost the bidding war to host The National Lottery Draws to BBC One.
ITV and Granada would later attempt a similar game show, The Biggest Game in Town, for a run of 90 episodes in the last third of 2001, which was another bingo-based game show with a home viewer interactive element where viewers play along with a game card. Promotional snippets where the show's host, Steve le Fevre, would tell viewers to "activate [their] cards now" aired during episodes of This Morning. It was unlike Lucky Numbers in its rules though, and also aired live during lunchtime rather than pre-recorded for primetime weekly TV. Both series, as well as BBC One's One to Win (1991), have been compared to BBC's long-running bingo-based Bob's Full House.
...
Wikipedia