All New Blockbusters - TV review

Fingers on your buzzers. What 'B' have Michael Aspel, Liza Tarbuck and now, Radio 2 DJ Simon Mayo, got in common?

No? What if I added Bob Holness to the list? Yes, that's right, they've all hosted the popular quiz show Blockbusters, which has returned to our screens this week.

The original ITV series ran from 1983 to 1994, challenging students to see whether two brains were better than one in a basic, but compelling, game.

Back in the day, Blockbusters was as much a part of my Monday-Friday routine as going to school. I seem to remember applying to go on the programme, but alas, never heard back from the production team.

Sadly, Bob Holness is no more. The gent of 80s and 90s teatime TV died earlier this year after battling a long illness.

As mentioned previously, the show has been revived before – albeit briefly – with Aspel, and more recently the daughter of Jimmy Tarbuck taking turns asking the questions. So, will Mr Mayo have more success in breathing new life into the classic format?

Well, it's early days, but the former Top of the Pops presenter certainly seems comfortable in the role. He's even beginning to morph into Bob, with a craggier look than I remember and spectacles.

Mayo even makes occasional gentle nods to the shows heritage – obviously a fan of old.

Each question is still worth £5 for a correct answer – unchanged since 1983. In fact, little else has changed. The same old tune, very similar opening credits and still sniggering and giggles from the crowd when a player asks: "Can I have a 'P' please?".

One thing that has changed, and quite rightly so, is that Blockbusters is no longer solely the playground of the student. Contestants of any age are welcome to play the familiar board, with its yellow lettered hexagons transforming to blue for the couple moving left to right, or white for the solo player, from top to bottom.

And even if you lose, the consolation prize is niftier than in the times of Bob – an e-book. A bit better than the multi-coloured rugby shirt and a dictionary, as was previously the norm.

If contestants do win two games, it's the same old format – gold run time, and a chance to win a special prize before proceeding onto the next victim, er, contestant(s).

I remember the wide-eyed, jaw-dropping moments in the 1980s, when students would discover they had won a dream trip to a far flung destination – pretty impressive when you're a student living off pot noodles and the bank of mum and dad.

And even those contestants who do stay the course, battling through to three gold runs, will probably only amass a fortune in the low hundreds – hardly a retirement fund.

No one is ever going to win a fortune on this show – it's certainly not Who Wants to be a Millionaire. But, it is good old-fashioned telly that the whole family can shout at.

Talking of good old-fashioned TV, midway through the show, during the ad-break, the channel plugged its range of classic gameshows. These include re-runs of Big Break, Play Your Cards Right, Catchphrase and Bullseye. Super, smashing, great nostalgic fun.

So, if you are bored with the soap operas, fed-up with cop shows or yawning at the prospect of another reality-TV, series take a flick over to Freeview channel Challenge, home to gameshows of yesteryear.

It was nice to see "In memory of Bob Holness, 1928-2012" at the end of the other night's credits. Quite right too. Regardless of how well Simon does in the job, Blockbusters will always be synonymous with Bob.

Blockbusters runs from Monday to Fridays at 8pm.

Paul Naylor