Crackerjack!
GenreChildren's television
Created byJohnny Haddon Downes
Presented by
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series
  • 29 (original)
  • 2 (revival)
No. of episodes
  • 451 (original)[1]
  • 20 (revival)
Production
Production locationDock10 (revival)[2]
Running time40 minutes
Original release
Network
Release14 September 1955 (1955-09-14) 
21 December 1984 (1984-12-21)
NetworkCBBC
Release17 January 2020 (2020-01-17) 
5 March 2021 (2021-03-05)

Crackerjack is a British children's television series which was initially aired on the BBC Television Service between 14 September 1955 and 21 December 1984 (with no series in 1971).[3] The series was a variety show featuring comedy sketches, singers and quizzes, broadcast live with an audience.[4]

On 11 February 2019, it was announced that Crackerjack would return in 2020, 35 years after it was last aired. It was hosted by Sam & Mark, with an exclamation mark added to its original title, and aired on CBBC from 17 January 2020. The second revived Crackerjack! series was confirmed to start filming in October 2020.[5] In 2022, it was reported that the show had been cancelled.

Its initial long run featured Eamonn Andrews, Max Bygraves, Leslie Crowther, Ed "Stewpot" Stewart, Joe Baker, Jack Douglas, Stu Francis, Peter Glaze, Don Maclean, Michael Aspel, Christine Holmes, Jacqueline Clarke, Stuart Sherwin, Little and Large, Jan Hunt, The Krankies, Basil Brush, Geoffrey Durham, Bernie Clifton, Rod McLennan and Ronnie Corbett, amongst many others.

Performers who appeared as singers/dancers, assisting the host with games, included Sally Ann Triplett (Series 26; as a member of the duo Bardo, Triplett represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1982), Leigh Miles (Series 26–27; Miles was also a popular Hill's Angel in The Benny Hill Show), Julie Dorne-Brown (Series 27–28; later MTV VJ "Downtown" Julie Brown), Sara Hollamby (Series 28–29; now a television news and travel reporter), Ling Tai (Series 29), Jillian Comber and Pip Hinton.

Format

Prizegiving on Crackerjack with Eamonn Andrews c. 1958

The shows were frantic, being broadcast live in front of an audience largely of children, originally at the King's Theatre[6] on Hammersmith Road, London, used by the BBC as the King's Studio for live and recorded broadcasts until 1963, then at the BBC Television Theatre (later the Shepherd's Bush Empire). The format of the programme included competitive games for teams of children, a music spot, a comedy double act, and a finale in which the cast performs a short comic play, adapting popular songs of the day and incorporating them into the action.

One of the games was a quiz called Double or Drop, where each of three contestants was given a prize to hold for each question answered correctly, but given a cabbage if incorrect. They were out of the game if they dropped any of the items awarded or received a third cabbage. While the winner took his or her pick from a basket of toys, every runner-up won a much-envied marbled propelling pencil as a prize, which became so popular that in 1961 Queen Elizabeth II, who visited the programme, was presented with Crackerjack pencils for her children Prince Charles and Princess Anne.[3]

During the early 1970s, high-profile pop guests included The Sweet, Mud, Gary Glitter and, on more than one occasion, Slade.

In 1982, in a bid to boost flagging ratings, Crackerjack introduced gunge into its games and launched a new game called Take a Chance in which the celebrity guests – one female, one male – could score extra points for the contestant they teamed up with by competing against Stu Francis in a quickfire question tie. A wrong answer or the opponent answering first would lead to Francis or the celebrity guest being covered in gunge. The gunge was always given a name relating to a random theme or to the celebrity guest (Howling Wind for Ian McCaskill, for example).

Transmissions

Original

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
114 September 195528 March 195615
212 September 195620 March 195714
39 October 195719 March 195812
410 September 19584 March 195913
51 October 195931 March 196014
629 September 196027 April 196116
719 October 19613 May 196215
813 September 196225 April 196317
926 September 19637 May 196417
109 October 196426 March 196523
111 October 196525 March 196626
127 October 196631 March 196726
136 October 196716 February 196820
1413 September 196814 March 196926
1526 September 196913 February 197019
167 January 197231 March 197213
172 February 197320 April 197312
184 January 197429 March 197413
193 January 197531 March 197513
2024 December 197526 March 197614
217 January 19771 April 197713
226 January 19787 April 197814
2329 September 197815 December 197812
2428 September 197914 December 197913
2526 September 198019 December 198013
262 October 198118 December 198112
2722 October 198224 December 198210
2830 September 198323 December 198313
2928 September 198421 December 198413

Only 148 out of 451 episodes from the original 29 series of the show survive in the BBC archives. The earliest episode known to exist is Episode 12 of series 3 with Eamonn Andrews; of his tenure, Episode 16 of Series 6, Episode 2 of Series 7, Episode 3 of Series 8 and Episodes 1 and 17 of Series 9 also survive. None of the Leslie Crowther episodes are known to exist, and two episodes only (Episodes 12–13 of Series 18) of the Michael Aspel period survive. However, all of the Ed Stewart (Series 19–24) and Stu Francis (Series 25–29) periods remain.[1]

Revival

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
117 January 202020 March 202010
211 December 20205 March 202110

References

  1. 1 2 "TVBrain | Kaleidoscope | Lost shows | TV Archive | TV History". tvbrain.info.
  2. "Crackerjack is coming back with Sam and Mark presenting". Dock10. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  3. 1 2 "BBC – (none) – Factual – Crackerjack!". BBC.
  4. Sheridan, Simon (2004). The A-Z of Classic Children's Television: From Alberto Frog to Zebedee. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. pp. 89–93. ISBN 1903111277.
  5. "Crackerjack is coming back with Sam and Mark presenting". BBC News. 11 February 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  6. "Theatres and Halls in Hammersmith, London". arthurlloyd.co.uk.
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