Secrets Out!!!

Contents

Host

Johnny Ball (1985)

Mike Smith (1986-87)

Co-hosts

The cast of Grange Hill

Broadcast

BBC 1, 1985-7

Synopsis

A panel consisting of four members of the cast from Grange Hill (a children's school-based soap opera) had to watch a guest or celebrity perform a mime of a particular hobby of theirs.

The panel had to ask the celebrity various questions to try and guess what he/she was miming, but beware... if the panel mentioned a particular word during the program, they were all gunged from above!

The answers to each secret was displayed on the screen for a few seconds before each round, and the viewers had the option to look away if they didn't want to know it.

In the lesser-recalled Johnny Ball era, the panellists were unknown stage school kids (some of whom were very irritating). Mentioning the secret word meant that the panellist concerned won a special prize - a Walkman or something like that, brought in by the show's robot, Malcolm.

Here's a sample Radio Times billing:

Friday 10th May 1985
BBC1

4.35 SECRETS OUT!!!
Chairman JOHNNY BALL

A duel to the death (or until someone loses!) between the panel CATHERINE ELCOMBE, ALISON BETTLES, STEPHEN MULLEN and DARREN TRAYNOR and this week's hobbyists.
Can you make heads for tails of these cryptic clues?
- quite clear to start, cloudy later
- all plain sailing in the end
- gives him a kick in his goodyear
- one foot above another

Designer ROCHELLE SELWYN
Producer IAN OLIVER

Key moments

Inevitable "host gets gunged on last show of the series" moment when the gunge word was "goodbye". Anne Robinson take note.

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