Jacpot

A mainstay of S4C's weekday teatimes in the 90s with varying cash prizes of up to £10,000 on offer.

Each week featured a group of 16 players (11 from series 5-7), involved with five 30 minute programmes shown at the same time each weekday, making 150 minutes of total gameplay.

One of the contestants was selected at random to stand on a podium as a ‘banker’. The others would sit on a tiered set opposite, each was numbered. A board behind the players had lights which were all lit at the start of a game and each light would go out when its question was asked.

The banker would start with an amount of between £200 and £400. Then they called a number. The person would open their pouch, say "Dim Jacpot" (the reason for this will become clear later), then ask the question inside. Host Kevin would repeat the question, then the banker would answer it. A correct answer added £50 to the bank, while an incorrect answer led to the two players swapping places (the asker became the new banker, the previous banker was out of the game.)

A contestant reads a riddle

Certain questions offered spot prizes, short holiday, a cutlery set, that sort of thing, though the most popular such prizes were branded clothing (the bomber jacket in the last series being the most sought after.)

The excitement comes when the key question is found: the number is called and the person with that number discovers a card with the show’s logo alongside their question, leading to that person shouting "Jacpot!", usually accompanied by one arm in the air. The question would only be offered if five or more of the other questions were taken. Less then five, or the banker wanted to "carry on", and the key question (un-asked) was sat down. Between the key question being found and the banker at the time wanting to answer it, the remaining questions were worth £100 each.

Once the banker accepted the key question, the player holding it would ask the question, Kevin repeated it, and the banker had five seconds to answer it. An incorrect answer meant the two players swapped places (as normal), the bank rolled over to a new game and a reset occurred, meaning a new set of questions were issued. A correct answer here, however, meant the banker and the key question holder came together to play a bonus game.

The bonus game involved guessing six phrases in sixty seconds. Each phrase was in two single word halves and a clue to each half was shown. In early shows, one player had to solve the first part, and their partner the second part, but this changed in later runs so that either player could offer either part, with their partner was stuck with the remaining part. There was no conferring allowed. Each correct answer was worth £100, with five right worth £500 and the sixth correct answer increasing this to £1,000. This was added to the bank, which was then split 50-50 between the two players. There was then a ‘reset’ of the questions.

At the end of the week, the players’ winnings (cash and spot prizes) were announced, with the player winning the most money standing on the podium, and their cash total appeared in the space where the bank appeared during the games.

Following a prolonged repeat run during an archive season in 2010, S4C announced its revival after a 13-year absence, as a segment during the Friday night magazine show Pen8Nos where shows were one hour long and players appeared in one show only. Although in the second series, it was its own show again and back to its 30 minute slot, but players still remained for just one edition.

The show was a Welsh version of the popular 1980s US game show Jackpot, created by Bob Stewart Productions.

A regular phrase used was Kevin describing that each riddle lit up a letter of the show's title: 'J-A-C-P-O-T... Dyma fe, mil o bin'he' (which meant 'There it is, a thousand pounds.')

Jacpot!

The title translates as - yep - Jackpot.

The first series went out as light summer filler from Mondays to Fridays at 7pm, series two went out at the start of 1994 and went out thrice a week on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7.30pm, the third and fourth series went out during the summers of 1994 and 1995 where they returned in the 7pm slot from Mondays to Fridays, the runtime was shortened to 25 minutes for series five and six with a new timeslot of 6.35pm but soon returned to its 30 minute length for the final series but in a later time of 8pm and went out three times a week again but this time on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Recorded at Enfys Studios, Cardiff during its original run. Moved to Tinopolis's Llanelli studios for the revival.

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Weaver's Week review (2012)