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Runaround (British game show)

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Runaround
Also known asPoparound (1985–86)
GenreChildren's game show
Created byMerrill Heatter & Bob Quigley
Presented byMike Reid (1975-6, 1978–81)
Leslie Crowther (1977)
Stan Boardman (1977–78)
Gary Crowley (Poparound)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series12 (Runaround)
2 (Poparound)
No. of episodes100 (inc. 3 specials) (Runaround)
12 (Poparound)
Production
Running time30 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production companiesSouthern Television (Runaround)
Central (Poparound)
Original release
NetworkITV
Release2 September 1975 (1975-09-02) –
7 September 1981 (1981-09-07) (Runaround)
Release19 June 1985 (1985-06-19) –
4 June 1986 (1986-06-04) (Poparound)
Related
Runaround

Runaround was a children's game show produced by Southern Television for the ITV network between 2 September 1975 and 7 September 1981. It was much more successful than the original American version.

The original host was comedian Mike Reid. In 1977 his place was taken by Leslie Crowther and Stan Boardman, before Reid returned in 1978. The ball in tube scoring was copied from the US version but with two colours; red worth one point for a correct answer and yellow worth two points for being the only contestant to choose the right answer (this was reversed in later series). Metal Mickey made his screen debut on the British version of the show after being discovered by the show's in-vision researcher, Tim Edmunds.

The series ended when Southern Television's franchise ended at the end of 1981. The game was also incorporated into the two seasons of the short-lived ITV Saturday morning show Saturday Banana hosted by Bill Oddie from 1978.

A spin-off entitled Poparound was produced by Central and aired between 19 June 1985 and 4 June 1986 with Gary Crowley as the host.

Transmissions

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Runaround

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Series Start date End date Episodes
1 2 September 1975 7 October 1975 6
CS1 26 December 1975 1
2 13 January 1976 24 February 1976 7
3 31 March 1976 5 May 1976 6
4 18 August 1976 29 September 1976 7
CS2 27 December 1976 1
5 12 April 1977 12 July 1977 13
6 23 November 1977 4 January 1978 7
7 28 March 1978 2 May 1978 5
8 4 August 1978 8 September 1978 6
9 22 May 1979 31 July 1979 10
CS3 24 December 1979 1
10 13 June 1980 19 September 1980 13
11 25 December 1980 25 March 1981 14
12 27 July 1981 7 September 1981 6

Out of 103 episodes from 12 series that were made during its 6-year run, 33 survived from the archives, which included Episode 4 of Series 8, Episodes 5 & 9 of Series 9, The 1979 Christmas Special, Episodes 1, 3–5, 7–8 & 10–13 of Series 10, Episodes 1–7 & 9–14 of Series 11 and all 6 episodes of Series 12.[1]

Poparound

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Series Start date End date Episodes
1 19 June 1985 24 July 1985 6
2 30 April 1986 4 June 1986 6

References

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  1. ^ "TV Archive".
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