Midas Touch
Revision as of 03:12, 26 September 2004
Synopsis
A tough one, this - either you love it or you hate it. Each show was themed - Western, Space, Circus, that kind of thing. At the beginning of the show, there were five contestants, each one hoping to win the bar of gold at the top of the pyramid (pictured). It was supposedly a "real" bar of gold worth £5000.
The contestants started at the bottom of the pyramid where there were five screens, one for each contestant. They would be asked a daft "guestimation" question based around that show's theme, such as "How many lines of dialogue did John Wayne speak in True Grit?" Everybody would input their guesses on keypads, and the screens would show their answers. The two people who were furthest out would have to play a game to see who stayed in.
The Midas Touch pyramidThese games would usually involve daft knockabout games involving dressing up, a bit of gunge and possibly some skill. The games were loosely based on the show's theme. The winner would go through to the next round, the loser went home with nothing.
The remaining players were allowed to climb up to the next set of screens on the pyramid, and the process was repeated a further two times until there were only two people left.
Host Bradley Walsh (left) and his golden girlThey would play a final Bank Raid game for the gold. This was a rather ropey game: race up to the top of the pyramid but on the way, tap in random numbers on each level until you find the correct code number. On the fourth floor, they would input the three numbers they had just found to form a code. Whoever found the correct three-digit code first was the winner.
Key moments
When it looked like someone would win the end game, but they'd forget one of the numbers and would have to run back down to get it again.
The winners would invariably keep waving around the "heavy" gold bar like it was a Mars bar, proving that it must have been a prop.
Inventor
Devised by McLaren Entertainment and Carlton Television.
Trivia
Before the show began, they were calling it It's a Knockout for the 90's. It lasted two series.
