This is the only complete episode available to view from the BBC's hit series that began in 1951, without going into the Corporation's archive.
It evokes a more innocent televisual era - more deferential, perhaps - when celebrities donned evening-dress and happily puffed away on their cigarettes while trying to guess the contestants' professions or identify the mystery guests.
The episode offers the chance to understand why the four panel members worked so well together. David Nixon oozed charm; Isobel Barnett possessed aristocratic grace as well as a keenly analytical intelligence; Barbara Kelly came across as the panelist most likely to get the answers right; while Gilbert Harding lived up to his public reputation as an old curmudgeon, even though in truth he was not that old. Years later Kenneth Williams took on a similar persona in the equally evergreen radio panel-game JUST A MINUTE.
As the host Eamonn Andrews proved beyond doubt why he was such a celebrity throughout his lengthy broadcasting career. He had an ability to put the often nervous contestants at their ease while keeping the often over-zealous panelists under control. At no point did we feel that Andrews would ever lose charge of the proceedings, even when it came to hurrying people up at the end of the live broadcast.
The mystery guest for this show, the recently retired cricketer Denis Compton, did his best; but he was too much of a celebrity at that time not to be recognized (he advertised Brylcreem as well as playing sport). In light of his often reactionary views expressed during later life, when he became a BBC summarizer, it was interesting to hear him saying how much he resented similar comments made by older cricketers. But that, I suppose, is the advantage of history; we can make judgments on different times during the past.