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There
can be no denying that the 1970s were undoubtedly the halcyon days of It's
A Knockout - the years where the series forced itself into the British
consciousness; where frankly, you just couldn't move for Knockout
programmes. More and more countries became involved in the European
competitions, meaning more domestic heats to select teams to represent Great
Britain in the expanded Jeux Sans Frontières. Still the viewing public
wanted more... and so, to spice up the show, It's A Knockout expanded
its annual portfolio.
 On
Boxing Day 1970, the first of many Christmas editions of It's A Knockout
was transmitted. The initial It's A Christmas Knockout was held in
Leiden, Netherlands and was a straighforward competition between Great Yarmouth,
representing Great Britain, and Alphen du Rhin, from Netherlands. Running to a
festive theme, these special programmes would become regular entries in the
BBC Christmas television schedules. All British-based Christmas editions were
broadcast from the Aviemore Centre in Scotland, where, if there wasn't real
snow, the BBC would happily arrange for 'snow substitute' - more commonly
known as foam! It's A Christmas Knockout actually outlived the series
itself, running every Christmas from 1970-1984, before returning for a one-off
in 1988 in the somewhat incongruous setting of Walt Disney World, Orlando,
Florida in the United States of America.
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 It's
A Cup Final Knockout!
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A
year after the Christmas editions started, another annual offshoot of It's
A Knockout was added to the schedules. From May 1971, FA Cup Final day
would be graced with a special Cup Final Knockout competition between
supporters of the two football teams competing in the final. I remember this
becoming an essential part of the build up to the FA Cup Final, and even, to
my young mind, a pointer to the result later in the day! The teams would
comprise members of the supporters' clubs and often included footballers both
current and past from each club. Sometimes, celebrity supporters were also
involved.
These competitions were often passionate affairs - rivalry between
fans of football teams running much deeper than the feelings of one town
against another - Knockout's traditional territory. It's A Cup Final
Knockout formed part of FA Cup Final Grandstand, and featured in
the BBC's Cup Final build up between 1971 and 1977. Details on these
competitions are in Miscellaneous
Broadcasts.
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And
it didn't stop there. In the early days of the series, the Knockout Trophy
would be awarded to the team with the highest haul of points from their
domestic heat. This was all very well, but it wasn't much of a spectacle for
the viewers, seeing Stuart Hall tot up the points in the final heat of the
series and announce "Ely are the 1973 Knockout Champions, with 19
points!"... So in 1976, it was decided to try an ambitious grand final,
or, as they called it, It's A Championship Knockout, where all the
winning teams from the It's A Knockout heats would fight it out for the
trophy in a massive head to head featuring six or more teams. Considering that
the domestic heats were usually just between two teams, this was not only a
logistical challenge for the production team (by this time, headed by new
producer, Cecil Korer), but also excellent practice for the teams, all of whom
who would be competing against a similar number of teams in European
competition. It's A Championship Knockout continued until the end of It's
A Knockout in 1982.
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Also introduced in 1976 was It's A Celebrity
Knockout which - you guessed it - became an annual feature on the Knockout
calendar.
The competitor lists tend to read like a roll of honour from the
Golden Era of British television and film and included such luminaries as Eric Morecambe, Liz
Fraser, The Goodies, Nicholas Parsons, Jenny Hanley, Michael Aspel, Sheila Steafel, Ian
Carmichael, Anita Harris, Bernard Cribbins, Susan Hampshire, Willie Rushton,
Anna Dawson, Patrick Moore, Catherine Schell, Raymond Baxter, Pan's People,
Legs and Co., Bob Grant, Richard O'Sullivan, Robin Askwith, Norman Wisdom and even Rod Hull and Emu!
Also participating on
one or more occasions were original It's A Knockout host, McDonald
Hobley and future Knockout
man, Keith Chegwin. These proved very popular indeed and ran each summer from
1976 to 1981.
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 Nicholas
Parsons of Sale of the Century and Bob Grant from On the Buses
enjoy a bit of Knockout fun
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And,
as if all that wasn't enough for you, 1978 saw possibly the oddest
spin-off special programme: It's A Miners' Knockout, where miners
from England, Scotland and Wales battled it out for a trophy which was
presented by Keith Chegwin... He keeps getting in there, doesn't he? All
this and Jeux Sans Frontières conspired to keep It's A Knockout
on British TV screens for about twenty weeks each year in the Seventies.
But surely the bubble would burst?
by
Alan Hayes
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