The reason 'Game For A Laugh' wasn't called 'Candid Camera' was that someone else owned the title. Otherwise it was the same show, consisting of pranks played on unsuspecting members of the general public. The main difference were the 'look at me, aren't I funny' presenters - Jeremy Beadle, Henry Kelly, Sarah Kennedy and Matthew Kelly. Celebrities were occasionally roped in, such as Duncan Goodhew, Kenny Everett, and Windsor Davies. Personally, I could have done without the annoying presenters and over-the-top laughter track. Some of the pranks were very funny, though, such as the man in the nightclub unexpectedly watching his wife doing a sexy cabaret number. The close-ups of his astonished face had me in hysterics.
'Game For A Laugh' was so popular it wiped the floor with its B.B.C.-1 rival - 'Larry Grayson's Generation Game'. It was the creation of Alan Boyd, an ex-B.B.C. producer who'd defected to L.W.T. where he'd, somewhat ironically, produced 'The Generation Game'.
'Not The Nine O'Clock News' did a funny take-off of 'Laugh' featuring an audience shrieking as though in pain and a prank in which a man comes home from work to find his wife decapitated.
Matthew Kelly, Henry Kelly and Sarah Kennedy left at about the same time and were replaced by Debbie Rix ( later Rusty Lee ), Martin P.Daniels and Lee Peck, and the revamped show was moved from Saturday nights to Sundays. But viewers were not happy, and it was eventually cancelled. However, it was reincarnated as 'Beadle's About'.
