Crosswits

Synopsis

"We'll have 8 Across please."

"They're wits, and they're in the shape of a cross (9)."

"Erm..."

BEEBOOP!

The New York World has a lot to answer for.

Players have to solve cryptic clues in this comfortable weekday show. Two teams of two, an ordinary member of the public coupled with a celeb would compete for points. On the computer board was a giant crossword puzzle, all the clues hinting towards a common keyword.

Teams took it turns to choose a clue, a correct answer giving them one point for each letter in the word and the chance to solve the keyword for a bonus of ten. This carried on until the end.

Special rounds included the Song round, where all the clues were lyrics in the first line or two of a well-known song, the Anagram round where the first letter of each clue formed the clueword, and the Mystery round, where if you can find the keyword after one clue (with no clueword given) you won a cordless phone.

The team with the most points after the siren went through to the Crossfire round, a ten clue crossword and they had 60 seconds to finish it in. If they did they won a holiday, if they lost they won obscurity. They'd keep the same two celebs from day to day throughout the week so you could really see a slice of competitiveness.

Cheerfully hosted by Scouse ex-English teacher Tom O'Connor. The guests on the show included anyone they could get to make the journey to Newcastle, including Colin Baker, Kate Copstick, David "Kid" Jensen, Carol Vorderman and - the real master of the game - comedy writer John Junkin.

Key moments

Usually some close finishes in the end game.

Catchphrases

"And never a cross word... just for me, alright?"

"If there's a 'cross word' in your house, make sure it's written and not spoken."

Inventor

Devised by Jerry Payne.

Theme music

There were three different signature tunes. The first two incarnations were written by Graham Elliott and Mike Bersin.

Trivia

Patricia Walton writes:

From around 1989 puzzles were compiled mainly by two people: the late and marvellous cruciverbalist Bob Smithies aka "Bunthorne" to people who solved his puzzles in the broadsheets, and by me; Patricia Walton. In fact it was at my suggestion that the music round was introduced. Space Oddity was one of many puzzles I compiled during the seven years I worked on the show.

There were some earlier series of Crosswits hosted by Barry Cryer. It was then a weekly show, with the points being shown as an amount of money in pounds.

To give you an idea of the calibre of celebrity guests the show got on, here's the line-up for the summer 1989 series. If you don't know who these people are... well, there you go:

Week 1: Dinah Sheridan and Richard Whitmore
Week 2: John Junkin and Janice Long
Week 3: Leslie Crowther and Kathryn Apanowicz
Weeks 4 & 5: Chris Tarrant and Wincey Willis
Week 6: Gordon Honeycombe and Brigit Forsyth
Week 7: Jenny Hanley and Alfred Marks
Week 8: Pamela Power and Reginald Marsh
Week 9: Colin Baker and Carmen Silvera

Correspondent "Miss Emma" says: "We had a carpet right through the 80s that was exactly the same colour as the Crosswits board background" which was "brown, medium-dark". It's this kind of detail that makes UKGameshows.com the web's number one source for game show analysis and light entertainment-related retro furnishing gossip - remember, you don't get this anywhere else!

Merchandise

A Crosswits puzzle book was published by Boxtree.

(ISBN 1-85283-694-6)

Web links

Wikipedia entry

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