Blankety Blank

- Season 3

(1980)

Terry Wogan returns with a third series of the quiz show, trying to keep control while Kenny Everett decorates the set with answer cards and broken nuts, and Lorraine Chase tries to enlist the studio audience to help her to cheat.

John Junkin makes his debut on what he calls "the Paul Daniels Show", and asks Terry's permission to hit his fellow panellist. While Terry doesn't say no, he does warn Junkin that he'll "have to join a queue".

Terry struggles to control a particularly raucous panel, as Lennie Bennett not only wants to show Wogan how the show should be hosted, but decides he has no need to wear clothes.

Ray Alan and Lord Charles make their sole appearance on the show, while Beryl Reid wants to "add more sex", and Tom O'Connor is just looking for a fight. Meanwhile, Terry is enjoying the company of a contestant a little too much.

A musical episode, as Arthur Askey encourages Terry and the panel to break into song. Diana Dors and Norman Collier, new to the panel, are only too happy to join in with the fun.

Tim Brooke-Taylor and Carol Drinkwater make their debut on the show, while Terry contends with a contestant who's a Sergeant Major, and a selection of prizes no one cares about winning.

Annie Ross and Molly Weir make their sole appearances on the panel, but the show is dominated by a returning Norman Collier and his bag of props.

Terry comes on to applause from the studio audience, but it's all downhill from there. Not only is he heckled by the panel, but a contestant tells him that his children would be too "ashamed" to watch the programme.

Patti Boulaye makes her sole appearance on the show, while Peter Jones appears for the first and final time since series one. Also on the panel is the disruptive Paul Daniels - "It's almost painful, isn't it?", observes Terry.

Rula Lenska and Bernard Cribbins make their debut on the panel, while Jack Douglas shares some philosophy with Terry: "It was Confucius who said 'all men are dominoes', which makes you the double blank."

Terry introduces two celebrities new to the show: Isla Blair and future host Les Dawson. In a boisterous edition, four people threaten to leave the programme and go home - including Terry himself.

The programme gets off to a troubled start as one of the celebrity panellists hasn't turned up, and the name card is empty. Stepping in to save the show is a young schoolboy by the name of Jimmy Krankie.

Willie Rushton claims he's "given up personal charm", while David Jacobs insists that Beryl Reid has "six pussies". Meanwhile, Terry's discussion of crabs at a nudist beach raises some eyebrows, while Roy Hudd's desk falls to pieces.

Kenny Everett and Sylvia Syms are bored, Patrick Moore and Maureen Lipman struggle to get a question right, and Tony Selby and Pearly Gates don't understand them. Plus, Terry has to deal with one of the show's most eccentric contestants.

Terry is having so many problems with both panellists and contestants that he decides to walk off and start the show again. Meanwhile, Paul Daniels threatens to leave, but is he just getting up Terry's hopes?

Terry is in a party mood for this extra-length Christmas Special, bringing wine, dance, and two sets of celebrity panellists. But who is really Santa Claus, and who is in the pantomime horse?