Guest Panellists: Peter Goodwright, Mary Parkinson, Peter Powell, Karen Barber, Les Dennis and Lisa Maxwell.
This is a show of endings. It's the last appearance of Karen Barber, Mary Parkinson and Peter Powell on the show. Not only that, but it's the last appearance of Les Dennis in the original run, as he wouldn't come back until 1998, when it was resurrected with Lily Savage. Some signs of new blood come with impressionist Lisa Maxwell, and Peter Goodwright still had one more episode in him the following year.
Of note is that on a few occasions during this series Dawson will give the contestants chance to pick another answer if their first is so terrible. This happens here, where Les gives the first female contestant chance to go for a second choice, a second answer which gains her four correct matches. As her original pick would have got her just a single match, the opposing contestant could have rightly felt aggrieved, but ultimately it goes through to a tie-breaker which she loses.
This is also the episode where Les Dennis - presumably ill for the week - doesn't do an impression of Mavis Riley. He, does, however, do a James Stewart impression, saying "Well I - I remember Jimmy Stewart..." before Les Dawson comes back with: "So do I, he didn't sound like that."
Guest Panellists: Barry Cryer, Pat Coombs, Tom Pepper, Debbie Greenwood, Henry Cooper and Jenny Hanley.
One thing that really screams "It'd never happen today" about this run of Blankety Blank is Les physically assaulting the female contestants. In Episode 11.20 there's a contestant who has reached first Dan on her black belt in karate, and gets up to demonstrate. As she's taking her shoes off and not paying attention, Les uses her own balance against her by putting his forearm around her neck and pulling her backwards so she can barely stand.
Those who wish to psychoanalyse could perhaps assume that it's a symptom of Les no longer kissing them, as here a female contestant with a poor answer gets Les's hands around her throat. While meant in good spirit, it's not the kind of thing you could imagine any other quiz show host in history trying to get away with.
On a lighter note then there are several episodes, including this one, where Les puts on a somewhat "babyish" voice and describes himself as an elf. This is actually something that stemmed from his real life with his second-wife-to-be, Tracy. He recounted in No Tears For The Clown that: "Tracy and I had nicknames for each other; she was Poo and, of course, I was Lumpy... I know, I know, it's infantile, but when my children were small I used to tell them stories about Lump the Elf and his pretty wife Poo the Pixie. As I've mentioned before, Tracy had a simplicity that brought out the child in me that refused to go when I became a man... and thank God that child didn't go, because without the child within us we are forever lost."
Talking of No Tears For The Clown, then while Les didn't write about Henry Cooper in the main text of his autobiographies, he did include a photo of himself and Henry together, with the write-up: "I always concluded every pantomime by saying: 'You've been a great audience and would you please put your hands together for a visiting celebrity ... the one and only ... Henry Cooper.' Oh, sorry, missis! Without my knowing, Henry had crept into the theatre in Southampton for our final performance of the panto and blew the gag! It's a good job for him that I'd lost my shorts and gum shield."
In terms of trivia, then this edition was, along with Episode 11.11, the highest-charting of the eleventh series, as both reached 21st place on the charts. It was only the third highest-rated, however, with 10.7 million viewers.
Guest Panellists: DLT, Gloria Gaynor, Doc Cox, Maggie Moone, Bernie Clifton and Gillian Taylforth.
The set and logo for the eleventh series are completely different from the previous ones, with the set being a mock-painted pastel style that was kind of in at the time. There are notable small changes throughout the series, such as different lighting for the backgrounds on certain weeks, and, as usual, the Christmas edition has its own set overhaul.
Yet the most striking difference is in this and the first episode, both recorded on the 28th March 1987. Whereas the other non-Christmas episodes in the run have a medium blue for the panel and the back of the contestants, these two editions have dark blue, almost purple, behind the contestants, and also dark blue for the upper panel, but the medium for the bottom half. It's a somewhat strange look ("a psychedelic mess" Les has it) which they presumably didn't think was completely successful, as it was abandoned for the following 10 weeks of recording.
Of course, there's no confirmation of this, as in her autobiography I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor wrote about 1987 containing marriage problems, the discarding of pop in favour of religious music, personal discussions with God and a long existential crisis. You'd think she'd have time to dedicate a couple of chapters to the set design of Blankety Blank, or describe what it was like working with Bernie Clifton, but such important events are somehow overlooked. Despite this, Gaynor remains one of the strangest "I can't believe they were on Blankety Blank" guests of the entire run, probably the most unusual guest since series five had Vincent Price.
Guest Panellists: Harry Carpenter, Claire Rayner, Phillip Schofield, Suzy Aitchison, Frank Carson and Liz Robertson.
The panel debut of Phillip Schofield, along with the last appearances of Liz Robertson and Harry Carpenter. It's also the sole appearance of June Whitfield's actress daughter, Suzy Aitchison. Some might make a crass topical joke about Schofield pushing in front of Suzy to get to the panel first, but such things are not only "low hanging fruit" but might not make sense in a few months' time, so such remarks won't be mentioned here.
Schofield has, of course, attracted some negative attention over recent years, particularly in regards the suspicion of political bias when interviewing guests on This Morning. Yet while such accusations seem without foundation - if he shuts down a left-wing politician when they're trying to speak he's in the wrong, and if he poses for a selfie with his arm around a right-wing one that's also wrong, the poor guy can't win - such matters are still far, far into the future. Blankety Blank takes us back in time, further back even than Schofield's entirely forgettable adult shows like Talking Telephone Numbers (1994-1997), and into a time when he was an innocent, much-loved children's presenter. With black hair.
Phillip is a harmless presence on the panel, pleasant and perfectly inoffensive, giving little sign that in 25 years' time he'd evolve into the kind of man that would think handing a prime minister on live TV a list of suspected sex offenders he'd got off the internet was a professional thing to do. Instead, the show largely rises or falls on how funny you find Les making corny jokes and Frank Carson laughing like only Frank can. It went down well enough here at The Anorak Zone to see it comfortably reach a top ten placing.
Guest Panellists: Terry Marsh, Thora Hird, Steve Wright, Mo Moreland, Bernie Winters and Cynthia Payne.
Blankety Blank did get some guests that were a bit more "tabloid fodder" around this point in the series, with the likes of Joan Collins's boyfriend in 1988, and, here, Cynthia Payne. Cynthia first made the national news in 1980, where she was jailed for running a brothel, which had clientele reportedly including an MP and a member of the House of Lords. The Times report on April 22nd 1980 also stated that Payne had two previous convictions for running a brothel in 1965 and 1974.
By the time of this Blankety Blank appearance Cynthia had been arrested again, though this time acquitted, as the "special party" she was found holding during another raid in September 1986 was declared to be a party related to a film loosely based on her life story, Personal Services. Les actually sticks his neck out in this edition, telling her: "You did nothing wrong, in my view."
Perhaps the question to be asked, is: should someone wholly famous for running brothels be a contestant on a light entertainment show going out at 7:35pm? Cynthia's role isn't actually made explicit, instead just strongly alluded to by Les and Bernie Winters in a kind of very schoolboyish way, with Bernie asking Les to pass her a plate of sandwiches for the "party" later. (After receiving almost silence from the audience, Les jokes: "That really went well, Bernie.")
Making up the panel are DJ Steve Wright and Roly Poly Mo Moreland ("She used to be a decoy for a whaling fleet"), both making their first appearances, while boxer Terry Marsh makes, along with Cynthia, his sole showing. Marsh is there solely in the capacity as a sportsman, as his run-in with the tabloids wouldn't occur until two years after this episode aired; where boxing promoter Frank Warren was shot, and Marsh was held under suspicion before being eventually acquitted.
Les is in good form throughout, though does sound a little hoarse. And look out for an awkward conversation between Les and a female contestant:
"Your hobbies include horror stories."
"Yes."
"Do you like them?"
"Mmmmmmmmm."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Tell us something about it, Clair."
Guest Panellists: Frank Bough, Anne Gregg, Bill Buckley, Kathy Tayler, John Pitman and Gillian Reynolds.
Something of a series ten hangover, as the show has one more "special" episode to offer - this time all of the cast are presenters from Holiday '87. Unlike the three shows featured in Series 10, Holiday '87 was only moderately popular, not a giant in the ratings - the 17 episodes for the run averaged 10.77 million and 25th place in the charts. (Or, if you want to be entirely accurate, 24.5294th place.)
Holiday had run on the BBC since 1969, and the 1987 version of the show was the first without original presenter Cliff Michelmore. Instead what we have here is Frank Bough, Anne Gregg (credited as Ann, though her name is spelt correctly on her name display), Kathy Tayler, John Pitman, Gillian Reynolds, and - perhaps more known for That's Life! - Bill Buckley.
Buckley does mention Blankety Blank on his personal website, recalling: "Les Dawson referred to me as 'ballast' - undoubtedly a career highspot." Buckley's a good sort, and was making his second appearance after featuring in Series 9. Gregg and Tayler would both come back for an episode in the thirteenth series (Tayler again with Buckley) but the other three were just "one and done".
Of course, the most striking thing about the Holiday presenters is that when this programme aired Frank Bough was just nine months away from a career implosion when it was exposed in the tabloids that he was into cocaine and prostitutes. Later revelations followed, including photos of him dressed in lingerie in S & M parties, which perhaps wasn't the best look for a BBC presenter in his mid-50s - a sign, surely, of the innate ageism at the heart of society.
One of the contestants is a Bernadette MacDonald-Raggett, who is now a motivational speaker who has appeared on BBC discussion programmes, but was then a worker at Heathrow, and had been interviewed for the BBC's short-lived Just Another Day series - coincidentally by John Pitman. This is also the first episode broadcast where Les has a new running gag - pretending there's some kind of animal hiding behind the question board that won't stop passing wind. For some reason Les disappearing behind the board to blow raspberries while shouting "Get down!" is childishly amusing.
One last point of trivia is that Les, now 56, was rapidly turning grey. While he wouldn't be completely silver until the following series, it's very notable on this edition that the colour has almost completely gone from his hair. Such an occurrence is a testament to how late in the run it was made - although broadcast second, this one was actually the nineteenth to be recorded, being taped in the studio on May 30th 1987.