Look At What You Could Have Won

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BBC Radio 4 - Look At What You Could Have Won

A reappraisal of the 80s TV quiz Bullseye, asking what we've lost and what we've become.

What can the 80s TV quiz show Bullseye tell us about what we’ve lost as a society and what we’ve become? James McMahon reappraises the darts-based series.

Bullseye, the darts-based TV quiz show which started in 1981, regularly attracted 20 million Sunday teatime viewers.

Watching re-runs today – as many thousands still do – some may groan at the host Jim Bowen’s jokes, and chuckle as contestants gamble for the Star Prize, which might be a speedboat, a kitchen or a caravan “hiding behind Bully”, the show’s cartoon mascot. Those who lost were famously invited to “look at what you could have won”.

But for the writer and journalist James McMahon, who grew up watching Bullseye, the show has come to represent empathy, community, and kindness. Despite having had nothing to do with it, the connection he feels is deeply personal.

James looks back at those original episodes with people who went on it, people behind the scenes, people who loved it, and people who’ve never seen it.

What can Bullseye tell us about what we’ve lost, and what we’ve become? Do we laugh at who we were - or reflect on what we could have been?


Photo; Steve Urquhart

Archive courtesy of ITV


Presenter: James McMahon
Producer: Steve Urquhart
A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 4

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