''Ask Pickles'' was a board game made in the United Kingdom from 1948 by
Tower Press
Tower Press was a British jigsaw puzzle and games manufacturer, most active from the 1930s until 1969 when they were bought by Waddingtons. By the early 1960s, they were the largest jigsaw puzzle maker in the world.
History
The company had its or ...
, and popular in the 1950s. It consisted of two card games, "Ask Pickles", a quiz card game featuring film, television and radio trivia for 2-4 players, and "
Happy Families
Happy Families is a traditional British card game usually with a specially made set of picture cards, featuring illustrations of fictional families of four, most often based on occupation types. The object of the game is to collect complete famil ...
". Named after radio performer
Wilfred Pickles
Wilfred Pickles, OBE (13 October 1904 – 27 March 1978) was an English actor and radio presenter.
Early life and personal life
Pickles was born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He moved to Southport, Lancashire, with his family i ...
(1900-1978), the game had 29 cards with varying scores of 5 points (yellow), 10 points (red) or 20 points (blue).
TV show
''Ask Pickles'' became a
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
show from 1954 to 1956, hosted by Pickles, similar to a later ''
Jim'll Fix It
''Jim'll Fix It'' is a British television series broadcast by the BBC between May 1975 and July 1994 and was devised and presented by Jimmy Savile and produced by Roger Ordish. The show encouraged children to write in a letter to Savile with a ...
''. BBC publicity said of the show "It doesn't matter how old you are, you can still make your own special dream come true if you get in touch with Wilfred Pickles. Maybe you want to feed a lion or pat a giraffe on the tiny top of his head; or perhaps you'd rather see the lovely lights of London reflected on the Thames, or ride pillion on a motor bike. Maybe you want to meet a film star or you might even want to have a fight-all right! Just ask Wilfred Pickles. He'll try to fix it for you."
References
Quiz games
BBC Television shows
1950s British television series
1954 British television series debuts
1956 British television series endings
1950s British game shows
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