Who Dares Wins (TV Series 1983–1988) Poster

(1983–1988)

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9/10
breakthrough comedy
lregan702 April 2009
Unfairly forgotten comedy classic which launched the careers of its cast. Its topical, satirical and cutting edge. Starting the careers of all the stars of the show although the female comedienne disappeared almost immediately when the series finished.

The show started during the Thatcher era shortly before the Miner's Strike. The show struck a chord with the feeling of anger and resentment in the country and took steps forward with regard to taboos on swearing. Tony Robinson went on to be a leading figure in Labour politics and the most famous creation is the show were the swearing pandas.
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10/10
A forgotten classic
richardjp-1722511 February 2018
This was sheer brilliance. Writers from "Not the Nine O'Clock News" and "Alas Smith & Jones" were involved in writing for this one. One of my favourite sketches was the guys in the Indian restaurant trying to impress the girl by eating the hottest curry. Favourite song was Pope's "Humans are stupid" sung by dolphins.
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3/10
Mostly just filler
Rabical-9125 June 2018
Warning: Spoilers
'Who Dares Wins', a largely forgotten show now, was popular at the time when it debuted on Channel 4 in 1983. It seemed to be Channel 4's answer to 'Not The Nine O'Clock News', with scathing satirical sketches, songs and chat-show spoofs. Many of the sketches tackled issues of the day, meaning Thatcher unsurprisingly got a bashing.

In the cast were Phillip Pope, Jimmy Mulville, Rory McGrath, Tony Robinson and Julia Hills. One item had a pig going to the door of a family who are about to tuck into a joint of pork to ask them for directions to the market. Another sketch was entitled 'The Some People Will Do Anything To Get On TV Show' which had people eating live frogs, cutting their own legs off and shooting each other etc.

Most of the sketches however were far too overlong and sadly overshadowed what few amusing sketches there were. One got the impression that most of the items were thrown in just to make up the minutes.

Many of the cast went on to other things. McGrath went on to do 'Chelmsford 123' with Mulville and Pope, Robinson went on to play Baldrick in 'Blackadder' whilst Hills became well known as Rona from '2 Point 4 Children'.
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