Bob Holness – 1928-2012

It has been reported today, with sad news that the game show presenter, Bob Holness has passed away at the age of 83. Bob is well known for hosting the Mark Goodson format, Blockbusters between 1983 and 1994 on ITV in the UK, as well as various other game shows on other networks throughout his life.

Bob Holness, originally born in South Africa in 1928 moved to the UK in the early years of his life. Throughout three decades he worked on BBC Radio, working alongside Terry Wogan and Michael Parkinson. Whilst working certain shifts on the two main radio networks. He moved to the BBC World Service, where his voice would be heard all around the world. He also became one of the first people to portray Ian Flemming’s famous spy, James Bond in a radio play. Many years before Sean Connery portrayed Bond on the big screen .

In 1982, he was selected to host the daytime quiz show, Blockbusters. Based on the original US version, it sees a single player going against a duo answering questions across an hexagonal game board. Unlike the US version, which used adults. The UK version had school and college students. Whilst they were earning £5 per correct answer and winning trips abroad on the Gold Run, they were winning prizes for their school/college. The show became a smash hit for ITV and became the first UK game show to be aired six days a week. The network version was axed in 1993, while a final series in 1994 was aired on satellite channel Sky One and some regions on ITV. It was well known for creating the catchphrase “Can I have a P please, Bob”.

Although Bob Holness was well known for hosting Blockbusters. He went on to host the 1990s revival of the BBC One panel show, Call My Bluff. He also guest starred in the 1988 Christmas special of Bullseye. Where he was playing on the show against Catchphrase’s Roy Walker and Family Fortunes new host at the time, Les Dennis. One of his final on-screen appearances was on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway in 2004. It featured a member of the audience having a second crack on Blockbusters. Holness made a surprise appearance to read out the Gold Run clues.

It has been reported Bob passed away in his sleep at his home. He leaves his wife Mary, three childen and seven grandchildren.

As a special tribute we could’ve shown a clip of Blockbusters, but as many clips exist on YouTube, we are going to do something different. In 1995, ITV commissioned a Saturday night game show to go up against BBC One’s Noel’s House Party and the newly launched National Lottery Live. Raise the Roof featured six contestants going head to head over a quiz to win a brand new house in Europe. This was a big thing in the 1990s as the houses were valued in the excess of £90,000 and no other game show offered prizes like that. Unfortunately a flawed format in one of the rounds and heavy beatings from the BBC in the ratings saw the show axed after one series. This was one of the final UK shows of it’s kind to feature sound proof booths but it was the first show for the host to use a computer tablet to read out the questions. The clip we have is a complete episode from the only series. Please note that due to quality of the clip, the audio is quite low, so you might want to turn up your speakers.

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