| Get Your Own Back | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Children's game show |
| Created by | Brian Marshall |
| Presented by | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 14 |
| No. of episodes | 190 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 15 minutes (1991–93) 25 minutes (1994–2003) |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC One (1991–2001) CBBC Channel (2002–03) |
| Release | 26 September 1991 – 31 March 2003 |
Get Your Own Back is a British children's television game show created by Brian Marshall. Each episode staged a contest between teams of children – attempting to score as many points as possible – and their respective adults – attempting to make tasks as difficult as possible for their child contestants – playing a variety of games. The winning child earns a right to get revenge on the adult by ejecting them into a tank of gunge; adult contestants in the show are somewhat embarrassing, for a variety of reasons, to their child counterparts. It ran from 26 September 1991 to 31 March 2003, and was hosted by Dave Benson Phillips. Peter Simon served the role of voice over in 1995.
The show consisted of two teams (the first series had three), each comprising one child contestant and a parent/relative/older sibling/teacher/celebrity (aged 16 to around 70) who in the child's eyes had committed a crime of some sort, for which they sought revenge. The 'crimes' in question were usually trivial, such as singing badly or asking the child to tidy their room. Dave and the audience always showed bias against the adults by booing them as much as possible, and from series 7 till series 10 the adult would come on inside a cage.
Throughout the show, the teams must compete in several games. The exact nature varied over time. It is best remembered that the adults would try to hinder their child to score while wearing inflatable or otherwise comical costumes. However in the first few series it was actually the adults playing for points with the children stopping them (usually by throwing custard pies / gunge at them). A list of games include:
Throughout every series the final round was called the "Gunk Dunk", where the losing adult was always thrown into a pool of colourful, messy gunge. Series 5 introduced a 'forfeit' whereby the losing child had to place their favourite toy in an incinerator; although the toy was not actually destroyed, the concept was later dropped.
The adult has to answer five questions correctly within 45 seconds beginning with a specific letter, but the catch it they are not allowed to give the answers that start with that letter. If they fail to get five within the time, they get gunged, but if they succeed, the child gets gunged and loses the prize however the rule states that all children must be accompanied by an adult, so the adult gets gunged anyway.
The adult has to answer three questions correctly that contain two multiple choice answers, but there are three types of gunge above them if they get a question wrong, they are snot, yellow school custard and R.A.W. (Really Awful Waste). After answering the three question, the child pulls the gold lever, which drops the adult in gunge.
The adult sits above a pool of gunge and has to answer three questions correctly, but if they get it wrong they get dragged up and away from the gunge so it's the case of you're going down and the child pulls the lever, or presses the button in later series, which will result in them getting dropped into the pool. In series 11, before the adult got gunged, the child got a chance to win a prize by guessing which lever prize hides behind if they get it right they win it but if not they get covered in gunge. Series 7 featured Craig Wilson, a Leeds United supporter from Newcastle and his father. He coined the catchphrase, "marvellous" when he described winning the episode to the delight of his friends and future colleagues.
Both adults sit above a pool of gunge the children have to answer a load of questions correctly, for each question they get right they crank up their adult one level, with the child that scored the most points in the preceding games getting a one level head start for their adult. The first child to get their adult right up to the top that sets off the alarm wins and they get to pull the lever and throw their adult into the gunge.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (August 2022) |
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26 September 1991 | 19 December 1991 | 13 |
| 2 | 24 September 1992 | 17 December 1992 | 13 |
| 3 | 30 September 1993 | 23 December 1993 | 13 |
| 4 | 30 September 1994 | 23 December 1994 | 13 |
| 5 | 27 September 1995 | 20 December 1995 | 13 |
| 6 | 11 September 1996 | 18 December 1996 | 15 |
| 7 | 10 September 1997 | 17 December 1997 | 15 |
| 8 | 7 January 1998 | 1 April 1998 | 13 |
| 9 | 16 September 1998 | 23 December 1998 | 15 |
| 10 | 9 April 1999 | 10 September 1999 | 13 |
| 23 August 2000 | |||
| 11 | 5 April 2000 | 28 June 2000 | 13 |
| 12 | 29 June 2001 | 21 September 2001 | 13 |
| 13 | 11 February 2002 | 25 March 2002 | 13 |
| 14 | 11 March 2003 | 31 March 2003 | 15 |