Quiz machines in film and television

foxy · Post by **foxy** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:02 pm

Just wondering if anyone else is as sad as me in getting excited at seeing a machine on the telly.
Come on be honest.
Anyway a few that spring to mind are the previously referred to Skillcash in the Eastenders caff.It was there seemingly forever and no-one ever played it so it couldn't really have been much of a money-spinner for Ian Beale or whoever.
More excitingly was the weird location of an original Crystal Maze in Brookside for it was to be found in the chippy.Brilliant-no 1/2 pint to buy and your fish supper paid for.
Apparently my mate saw a film 'starring' Les Battersby recently where the denoument of said piece involves the lead character getting out of some financial scrape or other by winning £400 out of a millionaire.That's right, a £20 jackpot millionaire. I was going to get indignant at the very thought of it (I mean think about the hopper!!! etc.) but the more I think about it the more I want to see this film.Les Battersby tanning a quiz machine-aye right!
Any other sightings or is it just me.

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:14 pm

There was a film called 'ID' a few years ago about undercover cops investigating football hooligans. The cops win the hooligans' trust by winning a £10 out of the 'Give Us a Break' in the local.

About half an hour later though, they get the shit kicked out of them...........

Ernest W. Quality · Post by **Ernest W. Quality** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:18 pm

I think the film was called "Bob's Weekend". I remember that because it was on telly when we'd just come back from a weekend bobbing outing. I only saw the last 20 mins or so, but this depressed guy has been learning things from an encyclopaedia because he's bored, and at the end he plays a stand-alone Monopoly quizzer and gets everything right, emptying it of several hundred quid.

Scottish comedy show Chewin the Fat also did a sketch about people playing the machines.

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:28 pm

There was an episode of Coogan's Run a few years back which involved a pair of twins who appeared on 'Ask the Family'. One scene had them playing two Give Us a Breaks side by side and emptying them.

WaterGate · Post by **WaterGate** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 3:43 pm

Yeah, it appeared in all the episode titles of Coogan's Run. The episode was called 'Natural Born Quizzers'. Blimey, that's going back a bit mate! :P

foxy · Post by **foxy** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:06 am

That's a pretty scary bit of info Mr.Quality.
I used to do stuff for a student magazine in Glasgow and one of my star interviews was with a Mr.Kiernan and a Mr.Hemphill a.k.a. Chewin the Fat.
I went round to Ford's house and spent a couple of hours there talking about all sorts of things but mainly about quiz machines(yes I know the interview was MEANT to be about them!).
I thought I'd seen most of their shows(you should check out still game-do you get it down south?) but now I'm wondering where the seeds for this particular sketch were sown.

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:48 am

something wrong with you lot.

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:56 am

I thought I'd seen all the episodes of Chewing the Fat and Still Game, but I don't remember anything about quiz machines or puggies?

... and just to make sure this thread goes completely off-topic, anyone ever seen the stage version of Still Game? It was made a few years ago now, and filmed in The King's Theatre. Try and buy it you can, it's priceless.

Ernest W. Quality · Post by **Ernest W. Quality** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 1:11 pm

The quizzer sketch was on the radio series, before they got on TV.
The TV series had a short sketch about James Bond (having gambled his money away in one game of roulette) trying to tell someone what to do on the fruit machines.
In Still Game I don't remember anything about quizzers being in it, but there is a fruitie and a quizzie in the Clansman pub so you sometimes see people playing them, but nothing plot related.

What info did you get out of Ford then?

thebigchap · Post by **thebigchap** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:44 pm

I have a short 10 minute programme about two blokes playing, of all things, "Bar Quest". It was on BBC2 in 1989 presented by Stuart Cosgrove and has the two blokes with hats and dark glasses chatting about their exploits.

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:39 pm

I remember those guys! They always wore hats and shades and from memory one was noticeably taller than the other. They were based somewhere in Yorkshire I believe.

I first saw an article about them in The Independent in about 1990, which I remember as being just about the first public reference I'd seen to quiz machines and how lucrative they could be.

I then met them in a pub in York in about 1991 - they watched me playing an old bingo-based game (the one where you were shown the next few balls that you were going to get - someone might remember the name) and presumably recognised a 'fellow traveller'. I asked them if they were the guys in the paper and they confirmed that it was them.

I don't suppose they are still out there now in quiz land, lurking under one of the pseudonymns on here perhaps...?

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 3:14 pm

It was 'Eyes Down' you were referring to, and not the shitty Bell Fruit one that appeared on itBox recently

cool · Post by **cool** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 12:10 pm

I REMEMBER AN OLD EDITION OF CASUALTY WHERE IT STARTED WITH A QUIZ MACHINE PLAYER BEING WARNED BY A PUBLICAN TO STOP PLAYING THE MACHINE AND LEAVE THE PUB. HE RETURNED LEADING TO THE PUBLICAN THROWING THE CUSTOMER OUT THROUGH A WINDOW OF A PUB (NO IT WASNT OPEN ).THE REST OF THE EPISODE WAS ABOUT RECONSTRUCTING HIM.HE THEN REAPPEARED AS A GUEST STAR ON THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (I MADE THAT BIT UP ).SEEMS APPROPRIATE THAT I SHOULD REMEMBER THIS!

David Healy · Post by **David Healy** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 9:12 pm

QuizMaster wrote:There was a film called 'ID' a few years ago about undercover cops investigating football hooligans. The cops win the hooligans' trust by winning a £10 out of the 'Give Us a Break' in the local.

About half an hour later though, they get the shit kicked out of them...........

That's not quite what happened, but why let the facts get in the way of a good story, eh QuizMaster?

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 10:35 pm

OK ya got me. I think the plot line involved the main copper (Reece Dinsdale in pre Thief Takers mode) claming he couldn't spell, so this ingratiated him with said football hooligans.

I'd have won 'em the tenner though..................

Think it was edition 25