Guess What?

Barry Took presents this revised radio version of the popular parlour game 'Twenty Questions'

Hosted by veteran humorist Barry Took, presenter of Points of View and former chair of The News Quiz, this entertaining guessing game sees a panel of intellectually acute guests attempting to determine a mystery object in 20 tries. Their only clue is the category it falls into: animal, vegetable, mineral, abstract, or a combination of all four.

For most rounds, the studio audience know the answer and cheer on the contestants with promising guesses—but sometimes, both they and the listeners are kept in the dark, giving them an opportunity to play along too.

Pitting their wits against Barry Took are panellists Geoffrey Durham, Jeremy Hanley, Helen Atkinson Wood, Hattie Hayridge, Dick Vosburgh, Neil Innes, Jan Ravens, Nigel Dempster, Frances Edmonds, Chris Serle and Clare Francis, as they play their hunches and attempt to identify everything from a supermodel to a Page 3 girl, the Channel Tunnel to the shipping forecast, and a minicab driver to man's best friend. Using their best deductive reasoning, will they figure it out—or will they get stumped?

Production credits:

Chaired by Barry Took

Written and compiled by Michael Dines

Voice provided by Peter Donaldson

Produced by Andy Aliffe

With: Geoffrey Durham, Jeremy Hanley, Helen Atkinson Wood, Hattie Hayridge, Dick Vosburgh, Neil Innes, Jan Ravens, Nigel Dempster, Frances Edmonds, Chris Serle, Clare Francis

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 8 April-10 June 1998