Get Your Own Back

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Get Your Own Back was a children's television gameshow produced by CBBC, which was broadcast between September 26, 1991 and March 31, 2003. Although there is the odd repeat from time to time, there are no plans to make new episodes. It has been presented throughout by Dave Benson-Phillips, with the addition of Lisa Brockwell as a co-host since 2001. The programme's most recent theme tune (by Richard Webb and Matt Katz) sounds rather like that of We'll Bring The House Down by Slade, although the original was more in keeping with the fairground-themed set. Get Your Own Back developed through various formats over the years, but has been based around team games - however the main principle of the show has remained throughout: revenge.

Usually two teams (the very first series had three) consisting of a child contestant and a parent/relative/teacher/celebrity who in the child's eyes has committed some sort of crime, that they would like to seek revenge for. These are usually novel, such as singing badly or asking their child to tidy their room. Despite the fact they were fighting for different causes the child and adult were on the same team.

Phillips and the audience always showed bias towards the child by booing the adult as much as possible. The games were always designed to make things difficult or unpleasant for the adult. They often had adults dressed in embarrassing costumes.

1 Original Series
2 Series 2 to 4
3 Series 5 - 10
4 2001-end
5 Celebrities
6 External link

[edit] Original Series

This is the only series with 3 teams (red, blue and green). In the series the adult's played the "mangle" game where they scored points by answering questions . To get bonus points for each question answered, the grown up did a chore they always got the kid to do (e.g. washing up) and take the item the chore was practiced on through mangle with the kid spraying them with gunge. The item must have got through in one piece or no points were awarded. The winning grown up left, with the losers facing another game (either a video game, an obstacle race with the kid, or a karaoke performance). The loser of this round (scores did not carry over from the first game) went to the gunk dunk. In the gunk dunk, the adult and child sat over a cauldron-like tank. The grown up would get the child dunked if they answered five correct answers in under 45 seconds without using answers beginning with a particular letter (which all questions had obvious answers to). Failure (or eventually otherwise, despite Dave's assurance winning would spare them) resulted in the grown up being dunked. If the child was dunked, the grown up took home a trophy; if not the child won it.

[edit] Series 2 to 4

In this series, the number of teams was reduced to two (red and yellow). The mangle game was played again first, with the second round always being an obstacle race. This time the adult's score in the rounds were added together. In series 4, a third puzzle round (either a maze or 3-d jigsaw) was played as well, where the adult and child in opposite colours played together to win points for the grown up. This series had 2 "knockdown bonus" rounds added, where the kids played games to deduct the grown up's scores.

The winning grown up got the "key to freedom" and left clean, with the loser being sent to the gunk dunk (via the ghost train). This gunk dunk was darker, and had the same game as the original , but the child got gunged in a tank rather the gunk dunk itself.

[edit] Series 5 - 10

A series of games take place. In this series, it still has two teams (yellow and blue). The child who scores the most points wins the show and is taken through, with their adult, to the final round - commonly known as the Gunk Dunk.

The adult is then sat on a seat attached to a mechanism, above a 2'6" deep pool of colourful gunge. They are then asked questions, and for each question they answer incorrectly - the mechanism winds the adults' chair up further, (and Dave shouts "Whatta we do?", To which the overenthusiastic audience reply "Crank him/her up!"), increasing the force and impact when they are thrown in to the gunge pool.

In the 1996 Christmas Special, the tables were turned as Dave Benson Phillips was chosen to be a contestant (he was up against Katy Hill), Peter Simon presented the show. It was fixed so that Dave went in the gunge. Another episode (December 23, 1998) had Kirsten O'Brien and Mr. Blobby joining forces to dunk Dave in blue gunge after both being previously dunked by him.

In series 5, the show attracted controversy for the (brief) addition of the forfeit furnace. This was the first series where the child played to score points rather than prevent the grown up from doing so, and whoever lost would supposedly have their prized possession burnt by the adult. However many parents wrote angry complaint letters to the BBC, and after a few episodes, the scenes of the forfeit furnace were cut, with Dave revealing on CBBC that the possessions were not really burnt.

[edit] 2001-end

From the 2001 series, the format was changed again so that both adults sat above the gunge tank with the winning child from the games being given a 1 notch head start or if the winning margin was 60 points or more, a 2 notch head start. Dave would ask the children some questions on the buzzer and every question that was answered correctly they could move their adult up one notch and it is the first child who got their adult to the fifth notch got the chance to gunge their adult.