Ted Rogers

Who & Why?

Ted Rogers is probably most famous for hosting the gameshow 3-2-1 in the 80's with his sidekick Dusty Bin.

The show's format was as follows: there would be a sketch or a dance routine or similar and then the actor/dancer/nobody from that segment would read out a riddle to couples. The objective was for those couples to decypher the riddles, which were clues to what the prize was, each riddle was different and related to a different prize, the couples would then get rid of clues/riddles in the hope that they would end up with a really superb prize at the end of it. (inhales deep breath - with me so far?)

The problem was that those riddles where ridiculously difficult and when the answer was explained you could see the look of bemusement on the faces of the contestants, a direct contrast to the 'ahhh I can see now' coming from their mouths.

The 'wooden spoon' or 'booby prize' was replaced by a mechanical plastic dustbin with a cheeky face stuck on the front and he was affectionately called Dusty Bin (oh how we laughed). It seems that Ted Rogers realised that the quirky chappy would probably upstage him and so decided on a party trick of his own - he developed a mind boggling finger breaking routine in which everytime he said the words 3-2-1 he would hold up 3 fingers then turn his hand round and hold up 2 and then spin it back and show 1, a very impressive thing to see when it's done properly and fast, and if you don't get out much.