Full Swing was a game show that combined general knowledge questions and the game of Golf which aired on BBC1 for one series from 25 May to 27 July 1996. The programme was hosted by Jimmy Tarbuck

Jimmy Tarbuck

Jimmy Tarbuck OBE or Tarby is an English comedian. Growing up he was a schoolmate of John Lennon.His first television show was It's Tarbuck 65! on ITV in 1964. He has also hosted numerous quiz shows, including Winner Takes All, Full Swing, and Tarby's Frame Game...

. The show was inspired by the BBC's popular Big Break

Big Break

Big Break is a British game show based around the game of snooker, mixed with traditional game show elements. It was broadcast on BBC1 between 30 April 1991 and 9 October 2002...

, which was based around snooker (and in turn, was influenced by 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...

's long-running darts quiz, Bullseye

Bullseye (UK game show)

Bullseye was a popular British television programme. It was first made for the ITV network by ATV in 1981 and Central from 1982 until 1995, and hosted by Jim Bowen. The show originally aired on Monday nights from 1981, it was then moved to Sunday nights from 1982 to 1993 where it was watched by...

). However, unlike the long-running Big Break, Full Swing did not catch on and only ran for one series.

Gameplay

Each week 3 contestants were paired up with celebrity guests for a chance to play for a major prize, there were 5 different rounds in total on the programme.

Three for the Tee

The first round was called 'Three for the Tee' this was played using a virtual reality golfing computer where the celebrity guests could play any hole from one of the major golf courses around the world, each celebrity would hit a sensor with the golf club and then the contestant would answer 2 questions to get the celebrity guest closer to the pin, at the end of the round, the team that are furthest away from the pin were eliminated from the programme at that point the losing contestant had a chance to win a consolation prize.

Crazy Consolation

This was the round were the losing contestant from the first round had a chance to win a £150 prize voucher for his or herself and also £150 for charity for the celebrity guest they played with in Round 1, the idea was that the contestant had to putt the ball into a hole which sent the ball around a mini assault course leading the ball to the pin.

Fairway or Foul?

In this round, the 2 remaining teams had 90 seconds to guide the ball to the hole on a course that was full of hazards including bunkers, ponds and a group of rabbits that sink into the ground, before the celebrity teed off the contestant had to answer a true or false question if they get it right, the celebrity hits the ball onto the green but if the ball lands in one of the hazards, then the contestant has to answer a 'hazard' question in which a question with one of three possible answers appears on the videowall and if the contestant gives the right answer then they continue trying to putt the ball into the hole but only when the hole is lighted up otherwise the ball shoots out of the hole, the team that putts the ball in the quickest time wins through to the final game.

Celebrity Consolation

This part of the programme is where the runners up has a chance to win up to £500 in prize vouchers for the contestant and £500 for the chosen charity of the celebrity guest, the celebrity putts the ball on a target putt which increases in value as it gets to the centre, the values are £100, £200, £250 and £500 if the ball goes into the hole.

The Final Green

The part of the show where the winning team had the chance to win the star prize for the contestant and up to £1,000, this round was in 2 parts, the first part had the contestant answering questions to win time for the celebrity guest to play on the course, each correct answer earned 10 seconds playing time for the celebrity but if the contestant answered all 4 questions correctly they had the chance to add extra time to the 40 seconds that had already been earned, the contestant put their hand into a ball machine called 'Archie' and had to pull 1 ball out of the machine which had numbers on them showing how many seconds the ball was worth from 10 seconds up to 60 seconds which meant the maxium time limit was 100 seconds if the contestant picked the 60 second ball, the second part was where the celebrity had the time earned by the contestant to putt 10 balls where the value increased from £100 up to £1,000 and if he putts all 10 balls within the time limit then not only would they win £1,000 for the winning celebrity's charity but also won the star prize for the winning contestant.

Ratings

The programme went out on Saturdays in an early evening slot (similar to the Big Break slot) but was axed after just one series due to poor ratings. A Christmas Special was recorded but never broadcast, due to the disappointing reception of the first series.