5.4 /10 1 Votes
Also known as Poparound (1985-6) Original language(s) English Final episode date 1986 | 5.4/10 IMDb Country of origin United Kingdom First episode date 2 September 1975 Genre Game show | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Created by Merrill Heatter & Bob Quigley No. of series 12 (Runaround)
2 (Poparound) No. of episodes 100 (inc. 3 specials) (Runaround)
12 (Poparound) Program creator Heatter-Quigley Productions Presented by Mike Reid (1975–1976, 1978–1981) Nominations British Academy Television Rediffusion Star Awards: Harlequin - Drama/Light Entertainment Similar Game show, The Metal Mickey TV Show, Saturday Banana, Crackerjack, I Remember Nelson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Runaround was produced by Southern Television for the ITV network between 2 September 1975 and 7 September 1981. It was much more successful than the original American version. The original host was comedian Mike Reid. In 1977 his place was taken by Leslie Crowther and Stan Boardman, before Reid returned in 1978. The ball in tube scoring was copied from the US version but with two colours; yellow worth one point for a correct answer and red worth two points for being the only contestant to choose the right answer. Metal Mickey made his screen debut on the British version of the show after being discovered by the show's in-vision researcher, Tim Edmunds. The series ended when Southern Television's franchise ended at the end of 1981.
A spin-off entitled Poparound was produced by Central and aired between 19 June 1985 and 4 June 1986 with Gary Crowley as the host.
Christmas Specials
Out of 103 episodes from 12 series that were made during its 6-year run, 32 survived from the archives, which included Episode 4 of Series 8, Episodes 5 & 9 of Series 9, The 1979 Christmas Special, Episodes 1, 3-5, 7-8 & 10-13 of Series 10, Episodes 1-7, 9 & 11-14 of Series 11 and all 6 episodes of Series 12.