3–2–1 is a British game show that was made by Yorkshire Television for ITV. It ran for ten years, from 29 July 1978 to 24 December 1988, with Ted Rogers as the host.
It was based on a Spanish game show called Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez and was a trio of three shows in one: a quiz, variety and a game show.
The show was a huge success, consistently pulling in large ratings. The first series, though intended as a summer filler, attracted up to 16.5 million viewers and subsequent years never peaked below 12 million. The show occupied a Saturday early evening slot for most of its run.
The final Christmas special, broadcast on 24 December 1988, attracted 12.5 million viewers, but an eleventh series was not commissioned. Ted Rogers said in an April 1996 interview that "The Oxbridge lot got control of TV and they didn't really want it. It was too downmarket for them. We were still getting 12 million viewers when they took it off after ten years. These days if a show gets nine million everyone does a lap of honour."Sunday Mirror, 7 April 1996.
The format The overall objective of the game was to survive elimination through to part three of the show, and try to unravel a series of cryptic clues to win the star prize. However, one of the clues referred to "Dusty Bin", the show's booby prize; any contestants who wound up with Dusty at the end of the show received only a new dustbin. Each show had a theme, such as "Sea cruise" or the "Swinging Sixties". All of the variety acts, quiz questions, stage sets and clues subsequently followed this theme. In later series, Dusty would appear at the start of the show dressed in a costume relating to that week's theme. The changing themes were dropped for the final series where a more generic stage set was re-used each week.
Part 1: The 1,000-to-1 quiz
In part one of the show, three couples had the chance to win up to £1,000 in the "1,000 to 1 quiz". The first round consisted of a maximum of 10 questions in 30 seconds, each correct answer being worth £10 in the first round (or in the first series £1, but with three rounds available). Passes were permitted but there was no opportunity to return to the question. Each member of the couple answered in turn with the woman answering first and the first answer was given to her to avoid the possibility of a zero score. An incorrect answer, or the time limit, would immediately end the round. Each correct answer in the second round was worth the total amount scored in the first, hence the need to avoid a zero score which would have meant a couple were playing for nothing.
The questions were usually of the same 'word association' format. Ted Rogers would say, for example, an island and the contestants would have to name the country to which it belonged (e.g. Ted: "Gozo", Contestant: "Malta"). Another example would be songs and the artist or group who made it (e.g. Ted: "Never Say Die", Contestant: Cliff Richard).
In the first series, the winners of the quiz would return the following week to compete again, while the other two couples would progress to part two, but from the second series, this changed to the worst-performing couple being eliminated, taking home the money they won in the quiz and a ceramic model of Dusty Bin.
Dusty Bin was conceived as the booby prize by the show's producer Derek Burrell-Davis and created as a cartoon character by the designer and animator John Sunderland, who also designed the opening and end titles and the themed 'costumes' for Dusty Bin.
In the final series (1987–1988), the 1,000-to-1 quiz was replaced by a general-knowledge, fingers-on-buzzers quiz. As before, three couples participated, in just two rounds of questions. Each couple began with £10 and could earn another £10 for each correct answer in the first round. The first round required ten correct answers (in other words, the round would not end if ten questions had been read out and not all answered correctly). As soon as Rogers started to ask the question, the couple who hit the buzzer first, after Rogers had said their name, had three seconds to answer the question, and if they failed to answer the question in three seconds, or answered the question wrong, Rogers would say "On Offer" and the other two couples would have a chance to answer the question. Again, the couple who hit the buzzer first, after Rogers had said their name, had three seconds to answer, and if they failed to answer the question in three seconds, or answer the question wrong, that question would go into the bin.
Following the first round, Rogers would give the couples a break during which he introduced a "newcomer" to 3–2–1 (another addition to the final series). This was a chance for an act to perform, much like the later rounds as normal, though, the "newcomer" had never appeared on 3–2–1 before. Following the newcomer act, round two of the quiz would be played, with only fifteen questions been asked. As with previous series, whatever money the couples had after the first round would be the value of the question to them in the second round, and it was the same format for answering the questions. The maximum a couple could win in this round was £1,650 (as in the starting £10, ten first-round questions answered correctly plus all fifteen in the second round), however, this was never achieved. At the end of the two rounds of questions, the couple with the least money would leave with the money they had won and their ceramic Dusty Bin, before a commercial break. On the 1987 and 1988 Christmas specials, the quiz only consisted of 20 questions worth £100.
Part 2: The elimination The elimination mechanism for reducing the remaining couples down to one changed over the course of the show. In the first two series, it was a physical game to fit in with the show's theme. This changed in 1981 to the contestants competing head to head in a computer game (such as Breakout), and was finally amended in 1982 to an elimination question which the last two couples would answer after seeing the first three variety acts in part two of the show. The commercial break followed the question, and in 1986 and 1987, a viewers' question was posed to win a colour television, with three runners up getting a ceramic Dusty Bin. The entry form for that was in that week's edition of TV Times.
Part 3: The acts and prize clues
In the early years, the third round was referred to as Take it or Leave it?. The final version of the show's format was amended in 1982 so that from the beginning of part two of the show, the two remaining couples from the quiz watched the first three variety acts together. At the end of each act, one of the performers would come over to the table and give Rogers a clue object (or MacGuffin as Rogers sometimes called them) and read a corresponding rhyme to provide clues for that particular prize.
After three acts, the couples would decide on which object they would like to reject in the hope that it was Dusty Bin, after hearing the first two rhymes again and then take part in the final elimination question. The losers would leave with the money they had won in part one, their ceramic Dusty Bin and a consolation prize (such as a twelve-piece dinner service) and the winners would go through to part three of the show.
In the first series there were six items brought to the table however this was revised down to five from the second series.
At the beginning of part three, Rogers would decode the clue and reveal the prize which the final couple rejected before the end of part two. Another act would then perform and leave another clue, leaving three on the table. Rogers would then re-read one of the earlier two clues, before the couple chose their second item to reject before that prize was then revealed to them. The final variety act would perform and leave a last clue. Rogers would then re-read one of the previous clues and the couple would reject their third item, and another prize was then revealed. Rogers would then re-read the remaining two clues and the couple would be faced with their final decision leaving them with the prize they have chosen and ultimately won, after seeing what the other prize they had rejected was, and also with the prize they had won, they had the money they won in part one of the show. Unlike the eliminated couples, the winning couple did not receive a ceramic Dusty Bin, unless they had Dusty at the end of the show, all they got was a brand new dustbin, the money they won in part one and a ceramic Dusty Bin. As well as Dusty Bin, which was always one of the five prizes, the other four prizes normally included a car and a holiday. Later series sometimes featured two cars as prizes.
The clues became notorious for being very difficult and obscure, having only a remote connection to the prizes, which contestants sometimes did not appear to grasp even after Rogers had revealed it to them. It has often been suggested that the clues had more than one possible explanation, allowing the producers to control which prize the contestants received. Indeed, in one episode, Rogers jokingly said to confused contestants, attempting to make a decision: "well, the rhymes could mean anything, as you know."
Acts who appeared on the show The early series of the programme featured a regular cast of comedy performers including Chris Emmett, Mike Newman, Felix Bowness, Debbie Arnold and Duggie Brown. This format was changed for later series when each show featured a number of variety acts of the day as well as a house dance troupe such as the Brian Rogers Connection who would perform solos for the first act. They would later often dance behind the acts who would invariably top the bill. Previous dance/hostess troupes who appeared include Lipstick (choreographed by hostess Libby Roberts) and the Gentle Secs.
Other hostesses who appeared on the show include: Mireille Allonville, Jenny Layland, Patsy Ann Scott, Annie St John, Karen Palmer, Gail Playfair, Tula, Alison Temple-Savage, Libby Roberts, Fiona Curzon, Karan David, Wei Wei Wong, Caroline Munro and Lynda Lee Lewis.
Acts who appeared included: Gloria Gaynor, George Roper, Ken Dodd, Charlie Williams, Bonnie Langford, Duncan Norvelle, Black Lace, Bernie Winters, Wall Street Crash, Kiki Dee, Michael Ball, 'Nasty Nigel' Lythgoe, Fay Presto, Pete Price, Manhattan Transfer, Shane Richie, Stan Boardman, Fascinating Aida, Showaddywaddy, Kajagoogoo, Frankie Howerd, Colm Wilkinson, Wilfrid Brambell from Steptoe and Son, Sinitta, Five Star, Cheryl Baker, Phil Cornwell, Jaki Graham, Nana Mouskouri, the Chuckle Brothers, Brian Conley, Roy Walker, the Drifters, John Sparkes, Wayne Sleep, Andrew O'Connor, Gareth Hunt, Peter Beckett, Syd Lawrence (with his orchestra), Humphrey Lyttelton, Frankie Vaughan, Jessica Martin, Mud, Keith Harris and Orville, Mick Miller, Diane Solomon, Tony Christie, Cover Girls, Lyn Paul, the Searchers, the Rockin' Berries, Stephanie Lawrence, Don Lusher (with his band), Madeline Bell, Georgie Fame, Wayne Dobson, the Real Thing, Rebecca Storm, Richard Digance, Anna Dawson, Marion Montgomery, Bill Maynard, the Krankies, Terry Scott, Carmel McSharry, Bob Carolgees, Diana Dors, Lionel Blair, Alvin Stardust, Phil Cool, Vince Eager, Mike Reid, Nicholas Parsons, Sheila Steafel, Danny La Rue, Les Dennis, The Wurzels, Joan Benham, Ken Colyer (with his jazzmen), Frazer Hines, Charlie Williams, Pan's People (as Dee Dee Wilde's Pan's People), Rita Webb, The Great Soprendo, Bernard Bresslaw, Charlie Drake, Aimi MacDonald, Mark Heap (the Two Marks), Vince Hill and Paul Da Vinci.