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Lucky Numbers (game show)

television series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ6697977 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lucky Numbers is a weekly Bingo-based game show that aired on ITV from 9 January 1995 to 4 July 1997 and was hosted by Shane Richie.

The show was one of the first UK game shows which allowed viewers to take part at home and win. The show was sponsored by The Sun newspaper, and allowed viewers who bought a copy to play along using an enclosed game-card for a chance to win shares of a £20,000 cash prize.

Nick Weir was the host of the show in an unbroadcast pilot recorded in 1994, predating his official game show career debut, On the Ball (1997) by three years, the latter show also being a Granada Productions series.

This show had no relation to an American game show pilot of the same name, recorded in 1985 and hosted by Alex Trebek. It was similar in gameplay to the American game show Trump Card, which aired from 1990 to 1991 and was hosted by Jimmy Cefalo.

Main Game

Each audience member was assigned a different number from 1 to 200 (later 250), matching the balls in a giant onstage lottery machine called RANDI. Three balls were drawn at random and launched across the stage for the host to catch, and the audience members with those numbers became the contestants for that episode. Each contestant was given a Bingo card with three rows of five spaces each. Numbers on the top, middle and bottom rows respectively ranged from 1-15, 16-30 and 31-45, with every number appearing once among the three cards.

The main game was played over three rounds, with the host asking questions on the buzzer.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lucky Numbers (game show)” is television series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lucky, Numbers and game, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1995, 1997, 1994, 1985—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Lucky, Numbers and game is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “television series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6697977. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1995, 1997, 1994 and 1985.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lucky Numbers (game show)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lucky Numbers (game show) primary sources, Lucky Numbers (game show) archive and Lucky research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lucky Numbers (game show)”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lucky Numbers (game show)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.