Take Your Pick
| Take Your Pick! | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Game show |
| Created by | Michael Miles |
| Presented by | Michael Miles (1955–68) Des O'Connor (1992–8) |
| Voices of |
Bob Danvers-Walker (1955–68) John Sachs (1992) Steve Jones (1994–8) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 13 (Associated-Rediffusion) 5 (Thames) |
| No. of episodes | 494 (Associated-Rediffusion) 72 (Thames) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company(s) |
Associated-Rediffusion (1955–68) Thames Television (1992–8) |
| Distributor | FremantleMedia |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original release | 23 September 1955 – 28 August 1998 |
Take Your Pick! was a United Kingdom game show originally broadcast by Radio Luxembourg in the early 1950s. The show was moved to television in 1955 with the launch of ITV, where it continued until 1968. As it was the first game show broadcast on commercial television in the UK (and the BBC), it did not offer monetary prizes on its game shows at that point. It was also by default the first British game show to offer cash prizes. The programme was later revived from 24 February 1992 to 28 August 1998.
The first version of the television show was produced by Associated-Rediffusion (later Rediffusion London), while the revival was made by Thames Television (whose arrival as the new London weekday ITV company had led to the original show's demise).
During gameplay, contestants would answer a series of questions without using the words 'yes' or 'no' in what was known as the "Yes-No Interlude". If they failed to answer all the questions, they would subsequently be gonged off the stage. If successful, however, contestants would answer more questions to win modest monetary prizes. At the climax of the show, contestants would be offered the choice of whether to "take the money" (take all money they had earned so far) or "open the box" (opening a box that could contain good prizes, such as a holiday or a washing machine, but could also contain booby prizes such as a mousetrap or a bag of sweets.
The first version was hosted by Michael Miles (after its demise, Miles hosted a similar show for Southern Television called Wheel of Fortune, not to be confused with the later Wheel of Fortune of the same title). Bob Danvers-Walker, the voice of Pathé News from 1940 until its demise in 1970, was the show's announcer, and Alec Dane was on hand to bang the gong. At the electronic organ was Harold Smart.
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