As has been mentioned before, the BBC continued It's A Knockout in fits and starts after the cancellation of the series proper. However, their plans were thwarted at the first attempt to revive the show with the Trio competition planned for 30th December 1982.

Trio was planned as (unsurprisingly) a competition between three teams, hailing from Great Britain, Portugal and Netherlands. The event was staged on the beach at Carvoeiro in the Algarve region of Portugal in December 1982 by RTP television of Portugal in association with the NCRV of Netherlands and Britain's BBC North West. Commentaries were recorded by JSF veterans, Dick Passchier for the Dutch and Elàdio Clímaco (with Yvonne Ferreira) for the Portuguese, while Britain's broadcast was to feature voiceover by entertainer Vince Hill, a Knockout newcomer (pictured, right).

Unfortunately, even though listings for the transmission had been included in the Christmas 1982 edition of Radio Times magazine, the programme was ultimately never shown. The BBC put this down to quality issues with the recording - by which we can take it that the master recording made was damaged in some way. It is also possible that the event itself fell victim to severe weather conditions. Sadly, no visual record of the event has been retained by the BBC. Trio's alloted broadcast slot was subsequently taken up with a hastily produced retrospective about It's A Knockout, hosted by Stuart Hall. Due to time restrictions, this was simply a quick re-edit of 1979's Look Back and Laugh, replacing Hall's and Eddie Waring's links from the programme with new Stuart Hall links, recorded in the environs of BBC Manchester. Trio was reportedly not shown in Portugal or Netherlands, either, so this programme is now one of the real mysteries of the series history.

The remainder of the Eighties did, however, see four more BBC It's A Knockout broadcasts that actually made the screen! After the blip that was Trio, 1983 and 1984 saw the continuation of the BBC's traditional Christmas editions, with both events being staged at home - at the Aviemore Centre in Scotland and at Blackpool in England. In a twist on previous events, both these festive frolics were staged on ice. Against the run of history, British teams won both these events.

Highest profile of the BBC's 1980s "one-off Knockouts" was undoubtedly The Grand Knockout Tournament, staged in aid of several charities in June 1987. Bursting at the seams with celebrities such as John Travolta, Kiri Te Kanawa, Christopher Reeve, Jenny Agutter, Michael Palin, John Cleese and Meatloaf, plus a host of sports stars including Tessa Sanderson, Gary Lineker and Nigel Mansell (the latter two are pictured, left), this also had the additional vindication of being a Royal Knockout, with four members of the British Royal Family appearing as non-competing Team Captains - namely Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson. Much was made of the event, which was marked by It's A Knockout's first Radio Times cover since May 1972 and a hardcover souvenir book issued for Christmas 1987, Knockout: The Grand Charity Tournament from the Collins publishing house which was superbly illustrated with images from the event. The BBC even did a live radio broadcast from the recording, one of their sadly missed Radio 1 Roadshows, this one fronted by the popular disc-jockey, Steve Wright. The television programme itself was a delayed broadcast, airing four days later, on Friday 19th June 1987 to a very respectable audience and positive reviews.

The BBC's final dip into Knockout waters was also probably their most ambitious. Held at the famous Walt Disney World in Florida and again with teams from a celebrity/sports background, the wordily monickered It's A Charity Knockout from Walt Disney World was broadcast in the UK on Christmas Day 1988. British celebs and sportspeople faced others from the USA and Australia. Australia, of course, had been running their own version of It's A Knockout on Channel 10 for several years. But did the Americans really know what Knockout was all about? In the end, it was a very close run competition, with the British and Australian teams tying on 18 points and the Americans trailing by just two in third. Again, celebrities abounded and acquitted themselves well, with some who had appeared in The Grand Knockout Tournament, such as Meatloaf, Toyah Willcox and George Lazenby, returning for another bite of the cherry. Amidst the day visitors to Walt Disney World and under the hot Florida sun, a series of events took place, sponsored for charity by a variety of American companies. Musical interludes were provided by Toyah, The Fat Boys and barbershop quartet, The Dapper Dans. Referee for the event was Curley Neal from the world famous Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.

It was a fun way for Knockout to make its final bow at the BBC, though from a personal point of view, I almost have the feeling that the BBC produced these last two Knockout programmes simply to spite me... I have little time for the monarchy and I find Disney films too sugary sweet to take - and yet the BBC made me sit through both to indulge my two last chances to see new Knockout. If I wasn't so mild-mannered, I'd sue!  :)

And that was it. The story of It's A Knockout over at the BBC. But a decade or so later, there was another British broadcaster willing to take up the mantle of Knockout producer... For more detail, see Back on the Road Again.

by Alan Hayes