Ask the Family

Ask the Family is a British game show that was first broadcast on BBC1 from 12 July 1967 to 22 October 1984 hosted by Robert Robinson and then on UK Gold from 6 June to 10 October 1999 hosted by Alan Titchmarsh and from 4 April to 5 May 2005 hosted by Dick & Dom on BBC Two.

Ask the Family
Also known as	Dick & Dom's Ask the Family (2005)
Genre	Game show
Created by	Patricia Owtram
Presented by	Robert Robinson (1967–1984) Alan Titchmarsh (1999) Dick and Dom (2005)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	18
No. of episodes	275
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	12 July 1967 (1967-07-12) – 22 October 1984 (1984-10-22)
Network	UK Gold
Release	6 June (1999-06-06) – 10 October 1999 (1999-10-10)
Network	BBC Two
Release	4 April (2005-04-04) – 5 May 2005 (2005-05-05)

Format

The show took the form of a quiz contest between two teams, with each team consisting of four members of a single family – two parents and two teenage children. Over the course of the thirty-minute show the teams were asked a variety of general knowledge questions and mental puzzles, with the winner advancing to later rounds, culminating in a grand final between the two families that had been unbeaten in the series.

The teams were asked questions, with certain questions directed at only certain members of the family – such as "children only", or "father and elder child only".

Transmissions

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes	Presenter
1	12 July 1967[1]	23 August 1967[2]	7	Robert Robinson
2	9 September 1968[3]	23 December 1968[4]	15
3	8 September 1969[5]	29 December 1969[6]	17
4	14 September 1970[7]	28 December 1970[8]	16
5	13 September 1971[9]	27 December 1971[10]	16
6	24 January 1973[11]	9 May 1973[12]	16
7	10 September 1974[13]	7 January 1975[14]	15
8	5 January 1976[15]	19 April 1976[16]	15
9	3 January 1977[17]	8 April 1977[18]	15
10	9 January 1978[19]	24 April 1978[20]	15
11	23 April 1979[21]	20 August 1979[22]	15
12	21 April 1980[23]	18 August 1980[24]	15
13	6 April 1981[25]	10 August 1981[26]	15
14	2 November 1982[27]	14 December 1982[28]	7
15	21 September 1983[29]	16 November 1983[30]	8
16	3 September 1984[31]	22 October 1984[32]	8
17	6 June 1999	10 October 1999	31	Alan Titchmarsh
18	4 April 2005[33]	5 May 2005[34]	23	Dick and Dom

In popular culture

The show was parodied in contemporary comedy TV shows during the 1970s and 1980s, notably in Not the Nine O'Clock News in which both families were introduced as being almost identical save for surname, with all being quantity surveyors by profession (including the children). A spoof edition on The Kenny Everett Television Show featured Everett as Robert Robinson and as the (female) heads of the respective Windsor and Thatcher families. An episode of the radio sketch show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again opened with a parody where "Robin Robertson", played by John Cleese, poured scorn on the families and abandoned them in disgust. One episode of The Burkiss Way likewise parodied it as Ask the Cleverdicks.

At one point tabloid newspapers made much of an occasion where the father of one family correctly answered the question "What is the sum of all the numbers from 1 to 100?" in a few seconds. However, there is a quick formula for the answer, as demonstrated by Carl Friedrich Gauss, and the answer may have been known to the person in question.