Crosswits is a British TV quiz show, originally hosted by Barry Cryer

Barry Cryer

Barry Charles Cryer OBE is a British writer and comedian. Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie...

, then comedian Tom O'Connor took over until the show ended in 1998.

Produced by Tyne Tees Television

Tyne Tees Television

Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...

 from their City Road studios in Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

, Series 1 was only broadcast on Tyne Tees Television

Tyne Tees Television

Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...

, series 2 onwards it was networked on the ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

. The show could most usually be found in the 9.25am slot just after TV-am

TV-am

TV-am was a breakfast television station that broadcast to the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 to 31 December 1992. It made history by being the first national operator of a commercial television franchise at breakfast-time , and broadcast every day of the week for most or all of the period...

/GMTV

GMTV

GMTV was the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc. in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end...

 had finished, although in later years it was shown in the early afternoons, at around 1.30pm and, in some regions, the evening. The show consisted of two members of the public competing against each other to solve simple crossword puzzles. Each member of the public was helped out by a "celebrity" partner. The announcers for the show were generally Tyne Tees continuity announcers such as Bill Steel

Bill Steel

Bill Steel is a television and radio broadcaster from North East England. He has also acted, briefly appearing in Coronation Street.He began his working life at the General Electric as a trainee accountant, and moved into television in the 1960s, first working in the Tyne Tees Television...

, Judi Lines and Jonathan Morrell.

Gameplay

Basically the game was the same as its American counterpart

The Cross-Wits

The Cross-Wits is an American syndicated game show which premiered on December 15, 1975 and lasted for five seasons until its cancellation on September 12, 1980. The show was hosted by Jack Clark, with Jerri Fiala as hostess. Announcing duties were handled by John Harlan, Jay Stewart, and Jerry...

, except that there were two players (one celebrity and one contestant) on each team instead of three. As in the American version, teams took turns solving words in a crossword puzzle

Crossword Puzzle

For the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums. It was released in 1973 and did not produce a U.S. single. This album was finally released on CD in 2003 on Arista's BMG Heritage label...

(by virtue of clues), all of them are clues to a master puzzle. Each correct answer keeps control and earns one point per letter in the answer plus a chance to solve the master puzzle for 10 bonus points. Later in the run, teams always took turns whether they were right or wrong.

There were also special rounds in the game:

• Song Round - all clues were lyrics to a well-known song.
• Anagram Round - the first letter of every clue word make a clue word.
• Mystery Round - finding a keyword after one clue without assistance from a clue word wins the contestant a cordless phone.

The team with the most points when time runs out, wins the game & plays the same Crossfire round as the American version.

Crossfire round

The winning team was shown one last crossword puzzle, with 10 words none of which are clues to a master puzzle. The host reads rapid-fire clues to each of the 10 words. Each correct words brings the winning team extra closer to a holiday for the contestant, and if they can solve all ten in 60 seconds or less, they win the holiday, otherwise the winning player wins consolation prizes.

Transmissions

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	27 April 1985	??	??
2	6 January 1987	3 March 1987	8
3	27 October 1987	15 December 1987	8
4	25 April 1988	17 June 1988	40
5	15 May 1989	14 July 1989	45
6	9 April 1990	25 May 1990	35
7	29 April 1991	21 June 1991	40
8	13 April 1992	26 June 1992	55
9	17 May 1993	18 June 1993	25
10	4 April 1994	8 July 1994	70
11	21 October 1996	13 December 1996	40
12	6 January 1998	23 December 1998	35