would be hurled at them every time one was recalled. In the Davidson run, if contestants correctly recalled 15 of the 20 prizes in 45 (later 60) seconds, they won everything and a bonus prize, usually a holiday. In series 6, each point scored by the winning team became one second. History 1971–1977: Origins and first Bruce Forsyth era The show is based on the Dutch TV show Één van de acht ("One of the Eight"), the format devised in 1969 by Theo Uittenbogaard for VARA Television. Mies Bouwman, a Dutch talk show host and presenter of the show, came up with the idea of the conveyor belt. She had seen it on a German programme and wanted to incorporate it into the show. Another antecedent for the game show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium on ATV, which had a game called Beat the Clock, taken from an American game show of the same name. It featured married couples playing silly games within a certain time to win prize money. This was hosted by Bruce Forsyth from 1958, and he took the idea with him when he went over to the BBC. During the 1970s, game shows became more popular and started to replace expensive variety shows. Creating new studio shows was cheaper than hiring a theatre and paying for long rehearsals and a large orchestra, and could secure a similar number of viewers. With less money for their own productions, a game show seemed the obvious idea for ITV. As a result, many variety performers were recruited for game shows. The BBC, suffering poor ratings, decided to make its own game show. Bill Cotton, the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment, believed that Forsyth was best for the job. For years, The Generation Game was one of the strongest shows in the BBC's Saturday night line-up, and became the number-one game show on British television during the 1970s, regularly gaining over 21 million viewers. Its theme song "Life Is The Name Of The Game" was written and sung by Forsyth, and later released on record. 1978–1982: Larry Grayson era By the mid-1970s, desperate to end the BBC's long-running ratings success on a Saturday night, London Weekend Television offered Forsyth a chance to change channel to host The Big Night. Alan Boyd, producer of The Generation Game at the time, remembers that there were many proposals as to who