Turnabout (game show)  Turnabout was a BBC Television daytime quiz programme that aired on BBC1 from 26 March 1990 until 7 October 1996. The programme was hosted by Rob Curling. Three contestants competed to solve word puzzles and play various games. Each was assigned a colour: red, green (orange in series 1), or blue. After the final game was complete, the contestant with the highest score was declared the day's winner. The winners and highest-scoring losers during a series were invited back at its end to compete in a tournament for prizes. This game was played with a 4-by-4 grid of 16 spheres. The host specified a sequence of three letters that had to appear in each correct word and asked a series of toss-ups on the buzzer. For each toss-up, a string of blanks was shown to indicate the number of letters in the word, with the three given ones already filled in. (E.g. LAB----- and a clue of "hired worker" would lead to LABOURER.) A correct buzz-in answer allowed the contestant to change the colour of one sphere, but a miss deducted 5 points from their score. Each player started the game with four spheres of their own colour already on the board, and the remaining four were grey. The rules on changing sphere colours varied. Originally, a contestant could choose any sphere after a correct answer; a grey one (in the centre of the board) would turn directly to their colour, while any other sphere would advance in a three-step cycle, from red to orange to blue and back to red. Later, the four grey spheres were moved to the corners and had to be changed before any others could be selected, and any chosen sphere would go directly to that contestant's colour. Contestants scored 5 points for making a horizontal/vertical/diagonal row of three spheres in their own colour, or 10 points for a line of four. The round ended after three minutes had elapsed, and a second round was immediately played with the three-letter sequence reversed (e.g. "LAB" becoming "BAL"). The grid was not reset between the two rounds. In the first series, the highest-scoring contestant at the end of both rounds advanced to play the Star Game, then played the same two opponents in another Sphere Game round with the scores reset to zero. The board was not reset, however, and the colour cycle ran in reverse order (blue to orange to red). If a game or episode ended in a tie for high score, the contestant with more spheres in their own colour was the winner.