Now You See It is a British television game show produced by Scottish television

Scottish Television

Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...

 and based upon the U.S. version of the show created by Frank Wayne of Goodson-Todman enterprises. The programme originally ran between 5 January 1981 and 27 July 1986.

Gameplay

Four contestants competed in this game of wordsearch mixed with trivia. The host asked questions and contestants buzzed-in and searched for the answer on the board. They do that by guessing the line in which the correct answer appeared and then the position as well as the answer. Completing the answer successfully scored points based on the line number multiplied by the position number (Ex: Line 3 X Position 7 = 21 points).

When time was up, the players with the three highest score went on to player the "Cryptic" round in which the answers appear one letter at a time, and the contestants were given a clue to each word. The first two players to get four right went on to player round three which was played the same as round one.

History

During 1980 Scottish television

Scottish Television

Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...

 were looking for a new game-show for the Scottish market, and decide to go with Now You See It

Now You See It

Now You See It is an American television game show created by Frank Wayne for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. Two Now You See It series were produced, and both aired on CBS. The first series ran from April 1, 1974 until June 13, 1975, and was hosted by Jack Narz...

. Johnny Beattie

Johnny Beattie

Johnny Beattie MBE is a Scottish actor and comedian.He began his career in the music hall and variety show tradition, similar to Scottish figures such as Rikki Fulton, Jack Milroy and Stanley Baxter, all of whom knew each other and were of a similar age to each other.He has appeared in television...

 was dubious at first about becoming host, and even stated this fact, but the producer from the states told him “Listen Johnny this aints a Gag show..... give them your Personality.... keep things going... you’ll be OK” And Producer was right.

Series 1 was networked to the rest of 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...

 companies, 6 months later during July and August, subsequently following 9 series were only broadcast on Scottish television

Scottish Television

Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...

. The show continued to be very popular with high viewing figure for Scottish Television, which resulted in Series 11 and 12 show being moved to a Sunday teatime slot and was broadcast to the whole of the UK. Two Celebrity version were also produced for new year day of 1985 and 1986.

Kids version

The series was brought back during 1993, as a Celebrity version, which was broadcast as part of Weymyss Bay 902101 hosted by Grant Scott. The following year
in 1994 and 1995 it become a kids version hosted by Fred MacAulay, broadcast Monday-Friday during the summer holidays.

Prizes

For first two series the top prize was £100 which was given to the winner, with the 3 losing contestants went away with less cash and engraved crystal decanter and four glasses. From series 3 (1982) The top prizes was increased to £500, for the winner, with £100 to the runner up and £50 to the person in third place. For the Celebrity and children's version, no money was on offer just prizes.

Series

• Johnny Beattie (1981-4) 8 Series
• Jack McLaughlin (1985-6) 3 Series
• Grant Stott (celebrity version, 1993)
• Fred MacAulay (children's version, 1994-95)

Broadcasts

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	5 January 1981	30 March 1981	13
2	9 July 1981	24 September 1981	12
3	14 January 1982	1 April 1982	12
4	16 September 1982	30 December 1982	16
5	17 May 1983	9 August 1983	13
6	27 September 1983	20 December 1983	13
7	12 January 1984	19 April 1984	14
8	26 July 1984	11 October 1984	12
9	2 January 1985	12 April 1985	15
10	27 April 1985	20 July 1985
11	1 January 1986	6 March 1986	10
12	5 April 1986	27 July 1986

Kids Version

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
13	?? 1993	?? 1994
14	?? July 1994	?? August 1994
15	10 July 1995	11 August 1994	25