Following the news that Jeremy Beadle has just died from pneumonia at the age of 59, I thought it would be apt to mark his passing with the show that first brought him fame in the UK, Game For A Laugh, and paved the way for Beadle to become a household name when it came to anything to do with practical jokes.
Game For A Laugh first hit our screens in 1981, and was hosted by Jeremy Beadle, Sarah Kennedy, Henry Kelly and Matthew Kelly (the latter two of course not being related to each other). The show was a mixture of practical jokes, quizzes, games and stunts that involved members of the general public. As Beadle was always keen on reminding us it was the show where “The People Are The Stars” and the closing catchphrase of the show was “Watching Us Watching You, Watching Us Watching You” which was delivered by each member of the team saying a quarter of it each.
The featured practical jokes usually involved some hapless person had being set up by their spouse, family or work colleagues to be made a fool of, normally by having something nasty happen to them like their car being crushed in front of their eyes (of course, it wasn’t really their car). These were normally prefilmed segments where the person being humilated and the person who set them up were invited to sit and watch the mayhem commence.