Busman's Holiday

For the 1936 film, see Busman's Holiday (1936 film).

Busman's Holiday is a British television game show produced by Granada Television for the ITV network from 26 February 1985 to 28 June 1993. Its hosts over the years were Julian Pettifer (1985–88), Sarah Kennedy (1989–91) and Elton Welsby (1993). Charles Foster was the announcer.^[1]

Busman's Holiday
Presented by	Julian Pettifer (1985–88) Sarah Kennedy (1989–91) Elton Welsby (1993)
Voices of	Charles Foster
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	8
No. of episodes	103
Production
Running time	30 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company	Granada Television
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	26 February 1985 (1985-02-26) – 28 June 1993 (1993-06-28)

Title

The phrase "busman's holiday" is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as a period of holiday or leisure time spent doing something similar to one's normal occupation, first shown to be used in 1893.^[2]

Format

Contestants were divided into competing teams of three based upon career, at first three teams and later in the series just two teams. They were dressed in their regular work clothes. The winning team went on an exotic holiday where they had to work, to learn how their jobs were performed in other locations.^[3]

The format of the programme consisted of multiple rounds of quizzing: world geography, questions of the other's profession or brain teasers, questions of their own profession—sometimes quite embarrassing, and questions on a final destination—revealing which team had conducted the best research prior to the match. There was also a review of the prior week's winning contestants' holiday.

Transmissions

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	26 February 1985	21 May 1985	13
2	7 January 1986	1 April 1986	13
3	6 January 1987	24 March 1987	12
4	11 February 1988	5 May 1988	13
5	8 March 1989	31 May 1989	13
6	25 April 1990	18 July 1990	13
7	12 June 1991	28 August 1991	13
8	5 April 1993	28 June 1993	13