Big Break

Big Break was a British game show that aired on BBC1. It aired from 30 April 1991 and 10 August 2002. It was hosted by Jim Davidson and John Virgo. The show surrounded the game of snooker. It had people paired with professional snooker players. The person would answer general knowledge questions which gave more time for the players to score snooker points.

Big Break
Genre	Sports game show
Created by	Roger Medcalf Mike Kemp Terry Mardell
Directed by	Nick Hurran (Series 1–2) Charles Garland (Series 3–5) Babara Jones (Series 6) Phil Chilvers (Series 7) Richard Valentine (Series 7–8) Duncan Cooper (Series 9) Sue McMahon (Series 10)
Presented by	Jim Davidson
Starring	John Virgo
Voices of	Colin Ward Lewis (Series 1–7) Zora Suleman (Series 8) Charles Nove (Series 9–10)
Theme music composer	"The Snooker Song" by Captain Sensible
Composer(s)	Mike Batt
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	10
No. of episodes	213 (inc. 17 specials)
Production
Producer(s)	John Burrowes (Series 1–7) Geoff Miles (Series 8 & 10) David G. Taylor (Series 9)
Production location(s)	BBC Elstree Centre (Series 1–4) BBC Television Centre (Series 5–10)
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	30 April 1991 (1991-04-30) – 10 August 2002 (2002-08-10)

Format

In Big Break there were three teams of two. Each contestant is joined by a professional snooker player. There were three rounds: red hot, pocket money, and make or break. These names were puns from the snooker terms "red", "pocket", and "break".

In red hot contestants are asked three questions. They are given 10 seconds of time to begin. Each right answer is worth another 10 seconds. On the snooker table, there are ten red snooker balls. The players have as much time as they are given to pot as many balls as possible. The two teams that pot the most red balls move onto the next round.

The losing contestant in the first round is given a secondary task, a trick shot. Called Virgo's Trick Shot, the contestant would need to recreate the shot being played. When successful, the contestant won a prize.

The second round was called pocket money. On a timer, contestants must answer questions based on the coloured snooker balls. On a correct answer, the snooker player scored points for each ball potted. There were double points for potting balls in certain pockets. When missing a ball, the contestant would answer another question. The pair with the most points reach the final round.

The final round, called make or break had the contestant answer five questions. Each correct answer removed a red ball from the table. There was two minutes to pot all of the balls on the table. This included the time given to answer the questions. More prizes would be given to players who were closest to potting all of the balls. The grand prize was usually a holiday.