Play Your Cards Right was a British television game show based on the American show known as Card Sharks. The gameplay was basically the same.


Broadcast History
Play Your Cards Right aired on ITV from 1980 to 1987, produced by London Weekend Television. The host was Bruce Forsyth. A more modern version aired from 1994 to 1999, also produced by LWT, and Forsyth still hosted. In 2002 he hosted another revival, with slightly modified rules. This version was produced by Thames Television.


Differences from Card Sharks
Note: These differences draw from the 1994 revival - the 1980s version of Play Your Cards Right only gave away prizes, not cash.

Play Your Cards Right had its share of similarities and differences to its American counterpart. Instead of two single players competing, two (usually married or engaged) couples would compete.

Main Game The couples alternated who went first on each question. The questions were based on surveys of 100 people, and were (supposedly) genuine. The first couple would guess how many of the 100 people said yes to the question, and the second would guess whether the actual number was higher or lower. For example, the question could be "We asked 100 tattoo-artists - if somebody came in asking for a tattoo of Bruce Forsyth, would you try to talk them out of it?". The first couple would joke around with Brucie, and then decide on a sum of, say, 64. The second couple would say "higher" (and Brucie would pretend to be offended). It was revealed the answer was, say, 26, so they were wrong to go higher, so the first couple started with the cards. There were 5 cards for each team laid out, and they had to guess if the next card was higher or lower. The first card could be changed if they wished (but only if they got the question right), and when they wanted to, they could "freeze", which would protect their cards. If any card was guessed wrong, the other team got a free go, and often won this way. If anyone got a pair in the higher or lower part of the game, it was treated just like they had guessed wrong. You don't get anything for a pair, not in this game. If anyone guessed exactly the number of people, they would win a case of champagne. The winner of each of the two games in the first half would get a "Brucie Bonus". If at this point, one couple had won both games, the other couple would leave then. If both couples had won one game, there would be a tie-breaker after the break, with only 3 cards each.

The Cash Cards The winning couple got £200 to begin with. Brucie would then ask a question, if they got it right, they'd win an extra £50, if they got it wrong, they lost £50. There were two rows of three cards dealt out (going from left to right, and upwards), and one final card at the top. At the start of each row (i.e. at the start, after 3 cards and before the final card), they could change their card. At the start of the second row, they got an extra £200 for nothing. The rules are the same as in the previous game, but they had to bet money on their answer (minimum of £50). When they got to the final card, if they had £4,000 or more, they could play for the car. They were asked a simple question (usually to name 5 of something - no-one ever got this wrong), and then predicted higher or lower for the final card. If they were right, they would have all their money, plus the car. If they were wrong, they would just have the money. What was emphasised was that their money was safe. If the couple got to the final card with under £4,000, they could choose to take the money, or gamble all of it on the last card.

The modified rules from the 2002 revival All 13 cards from the suit of hearts from the '2' to the 'Ace' were put out face down. Four couples would then come on, and the two couples with the two highest cards would go through to the main game (the couple who picked the highest card was red team). This was just an opening game. After this, Brucie's gag was he would say "Well done you winners, and so sorry losers, we really are sorry to lose you so early in the show..tough." The rules of the main game were exactly the same as in the original version, except the "Brucie Bonus" was £1,000. If one couple won both the games, the losing couple would be sent home with a case of champagne before the break, but if they won a game each, the losing couple already had £1,000 (there was no money awarded for the tie-breaker) and were not given it.

In the Cash Cards, Bruce would first ask the winning couple a ridiculously hard, trivial or stupid question. They often pondered for a few seconds over this, then Bruce said "Aren't you glad you don't have to answer a question like that?", to which the audience would laugh. In the Cash Cards, this time, the couple were given £1,000 to start with and their minimum bet had to be £100, but they could bet the whole lot if they wanted to. If the couple turned the first three cards over correctly, another £500 would be added to the total. On the final card, there was a strict rule, where the couple had to bet at least half the amount they had at that time. Further rules were, if a couple bet on the whole lot the wrong way during the first three cards, the game wouldn't be over. That card would be put on the row above and the additional £500 would be added on. If there was a pair revealed in the Cash Cards, the couple didn't lose any money. They just moved on to the next card. If the last two cards on a row were a pair, the second card would be used as the base card for the row above.

The so-named Dolly Dealers for this revival were Annalise Braakensiek and Vicki-Lee Walberg.


A Bit About Brucie It is said that Bruce Forsyth has a lot of energy as a host. Among his other quips, he would, at the beginning of some shows, say, "What a lovely audience! You're so much better than last week." The joke was that the same audience was used for more than one show, therefore it was the same one. Bruce started each show with his trademark "It's nice to see you, to see you nice" (whereby the audience join in on the last "nice"). When a pair was revealed, he'd say "You don't get anything for a pair, not in this game", and the audience would join in with the "not in this game" part. On the 2002 series in particular, he would often start the show with a made-up, daft quote, which was often quite amusing (well the audience thought so!).