About Strike It Rich

Strike It Rich, also previously known as Strike It Lucky was a popular British television game show presented by comedian Michael Barrymore.

In its formative years, it became well known for the outlandish and often highly eccentric contestants it featured - Barrymore would often spend over 5 minutes talking to them.

The Main Game
Three teams of two competed to win cash and prizes by going across an archway of TV monitors on stage. On a team's turn, one member of that team was given a category with six possible answers. That player then must decide how many answers he/she must give (either two, three, or four) for two, three or four moves on their respective 10 monitored archway.

If the player can complete the contract, their partner gets to move across their archway, otherwise the opposing team gets to complete the contract.

Each monitor, bar the last, hides a prize or a "Hot Spot". There was always between five to eight Hot Spots hidden between all three teams' monitors, but by later series there was normally two per team. Each time the team in control reveals a prize, they win that prize and can decide to either bank the prize(s) and pass control to their opposing team or reveal another monitor.

Deciding to keep playing is a risk because if at anytime they reveal the Hot Spot, they lose all the prizes earned at that point and control goes the opponents. But, if they can make their required number of moves without hitting the Hot Spot, not only they bank their prizes but they also keep their turn and answering another question.

The last monitor of the ten for each team is a question. The team can decide to answer it then or bank their prizes. The monitor before the question normally hides a holiday. A wrong answer forfeits the prizes not banked and the game continues, while a right answer wins the game. The question normally begins with 'Who struck it lucky/rich...?' or 'You would strike it lucky/rich if...".

Before playing the bonus game with the winning couple, Barrymore would run through the prizes won by the other two couples before bidding them farewell. Occasionally, if a couple won very little, Barrymore would give them something anyway. These varied from hitting the couple's last two screens himself to claim prizes for them (the final two screens were usually valuable prizes, such as a holiday) or, if a couple had prizes and lost them as a result of a Hot Spot, Barrymore would reinstate those prizes for the couple.

The Bonus Game
The game begins by having the winning couple bidding on how few Hot Spots they will hit with a bid of fewer Hot Spots earning more money if completed, but being more difficult to achieve.
Instead of playing the game across the board they now play top, middle or bottom, choosing one of the three monitors in each row to play.

Hidden throughout the 30 monitors are 10 arrows signifying a free move, another 10 are Hot Spots and the final 10 are true or false questions earning a move on a correct answer or a Hot Spot on an incorrect one. These are randomly allocated throughout the board.

On each column of monitors, the winning couple elects to hit the top, middle or bottom one. The aim of the game is for the couple to get from one side to the other without hitting more Hot Spots than they bid.

If they get to the other side the board without hitting more Hot Spots than they bid, they win £3,000 if they bid two, £2,000 for three and £1,000 for four. In later series if they failed to match or beat their bid they won 10% of the cash prize they were aiming for.

In later series, the cash prizes increased to £10,000 / £7,000 / £5,000, with consolation prizes increased to £500 / £350 / £250.

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