After the success of hosting the 1976 Jeux Sans Frontières Final in Blackpool, the BBC It's A Knockout team travelled across the Pennines for the launch pad of the 1977 domestic series at Wellesley Park, Halifax, for an all Yorkshire battle between Calderdale, Beverley and Wakefield. The series was sure to begin with a bang too - thanks to the Artillery gun of the Duke of Wellington Regiment. 1977 was of course the year of the Silver Jubilee and this year's Knockout series aimed to provide the colour, spectacle and imagination to match that of the celebrations. 1977 saw It's A Knockout at the height of its powers. The programme was a mainstay of BBC1's schedules and was regularly attracting audiences in their millions. It's not too fine a point to suggest that at this time, Knockout would continue to be on our television screens for a long time to come. 

For the sixth year running, the team of Stuart Hall and Eddie Waring were at the helm of affairs, both attuned to their familiar roles of the Bard of Barnoldswick come rabble rouser allied to the bluff, honest and genial approach of the un-crowned King of Dewsbury. They were not a double act in the comedic sense, but in the eyes of the British public they were as much of double act as Morecambe and Wise or Corbett and Barker. Knockout needed the duo, you could not have one without the other, they knew it and revelled in their domain. As usual for the first show of the series, introductions were made to the scoregirls and officials and that included international referee Arthur Ellis, who was on home ground in Halifax.

The eleventh series of Knockout saw changes and big changes at that. After ten years in charge, Barney Colehan stepped aside as executive producer to be replaced by Cecil Korer, who was based at the BBC in Leeds. Korer was involved with Knockout for three years until 1979, but he was brought in by Channel 5 as a consultant when Knockout returned to Britain in 1999. However, a more significant change was the introduction of continental ideas into domestic contests and that could only mean one thing - BIG FIGURES.

What better way to start than with the lumbering Giants - six of them in fact - two from each team, playing an elimination game of Musical Chairs, which set the whole series off in fine style with lots of mirth. The Tweedles also made their bow on the Knockout stage in a chaotic game of collecting quoits, made harder because the competitors had their ankles tied together, so they had to hop around. Certainly a game for huskies as Stuart would put it. 

However, there was plenty of contrast from the crazy antics of the characters. There were games that needed the traditional skills to be a Knockout competitor - strength and dexterity. They included the obligatory bungee rope game where two men from each team had to delicately deliver pints of water from one end of the course to the measuring cylinder and not over-stretch the elasticity of the rope. Any measuring game of course meant Arthur Ellis' dipstick was used to the fore. It was interesting to hear Arthur use metric totals on this game at a time when most Britons would still only be familiar with imperial measurements. Other games such as The Ski Race and Catching Bags of Flour while an adversary tries to stop them are derived from earlier days and such games are familiar and welcome.

Eddie's Marathon was traditional in its content. All three teams had two attempts to walk up a fairly steep slope on a barrel - as many times as possible, the competitors were given some help as they essayed their way to the top of the slope, by holding on to rope wires above their head. As usual, the Marathon was very difficult and Beverley deserved their double points for their success on making 18 good runs compared to 12 runs each for Calderdale and Wakefield.

The team from Humberside, Beverley were on the day the most consistent and were unassailable prior to the final game, a stilt walking race where more blocks were placed under the competitors feet, making it much harder to walk without the stilts collapsing. When you add in that each team had to climb over some steps, its comes as no surprise that no team completed the course. But Beverley prevailed as they had gone the furthest before the whistle was blown. Both Calderdale and Wakefield put up great team spirit and effort, but Beverley was the best all round team and not only deserved their victory but the chance to represent Great Britain in Marina Di Carrara, Rome.

Overall, it was terrific to reacquaint oneself with this splendid show and to acknowledge what I remember with fondness from over a quarter of a century ago, that competition mixed with fun and laughter provides television that gives the viewer great entertainment. Those who lived in the 1960s and 70s often reminisce that those times were better than today. I would suggest that Knockout being on the box in those times would be a factor in those nostalgic thoughts.

by Mike Peters