The show was created by Steve Ryan and Mark Goodson and was first broadcast on ITV in 1983. It ran For a total of ten series and one thousand two hundred and four episodes on ITV until its final in 1993. Other television channels also broadcast the game show and in fact the last was broadcast by Thames Television Productions in 2012.
Presented by Bob Holness from 1983 the contestants had to answer trivia questions to complete a joined up path across or down a game board of twenty interlocking hexagons arranged in five columns of four. Each hexagon contained a letter of the alphabet (apart from X and Z). One contestant competed against two others in a bid to prove whether the old adage of two heads are better than one was true.
Each contestant would pick a letter strategically and a question would be asked where the answer to it would begin with the corresponding letter chosen Give me a ‘P’ please Bob became a ridiculous school playground catchphrase and pun.
The solo player had to connect four white hexagons vertically and the two player team had to connect five blue hexagons horizontally. The board was designed in such a way that there had to be a winner, there could not be a tie. For every correct answer five pounds was awarded if the team or player got a question right then they continued to have control of the board. if the answer was incorrect then the opposing team got a chance to answer the question. If both sides got it wrong then Bob would ask another question based on the same letter of the alphabet. The first side to make the complete link of hexagons won the game. The first side to win two games won the match.
Everyone won a 'Blockbusters' Concise Oxford Dictionary and a sweatshirt in the original series.
The winner of the match went on to do the ‘Gold Run’. If the two player team had won, only one of them could play this. Similar to the hexagon pattern of the main game board, the player had to get answers correct to horizontally connect and they had sixty seconds to do it. If, however, they got an answer wrong that hexagon turned black not gold and would block their intended path. The hexagons for the Gold Run also had two to four letters on instead of one. For example, if EE was shown the question might be, what chocolate gift is given at the end of Lent in the Christian calendar; answer Easter Egg.
The game show actually originated from the American game show of the same name, although it was much more popular in the United Kingdom. The format for the game show was so very popular that it was also replicated in Australia, Germany, France, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.