This is a list of episodes from the satirical sport-based panel game They Think It's All Over.
From series 1 until series 5 the show was chaired by Nick Hancock, with team captains David Gower (and regular panellist Lee Hurst) and Gary Lineker (and regular panellist Rory McGrath) and a guest on each team. For series 6 and 7, Lee Hurst's position was switched with various celebrity guests such as Phill Jupitus and Alan Davies. From series 8 onwards Jonathan Ross replaced Lee Hurst permanently. From series 16 onwards David Gower and Gary Lineker were replaced as team captains by Phil Tufnell and David Seaman. From series 18, Ian Wright replaced David Seaman as captain. From series 19, Lee Mack became the new host and Boris Becker replaced Phil Tufnell as team captain, while Jonathan Ross was replaced by Sean Lock as the regular panellist on Boris' team for the 2006 specials.
The show was cancelled following series 19, although there were two specials in the summer of 2006 and a special episode aired live as part of 24 Hour Panel People in 2011, for which Hancock, Tufnell and Hurst returned (in spite of the fact that Tufnell and Hurst had been regulars at different points in the show).
Episode list Over the 19 series, 154 episodes were broadcast. There have also been two exclusive-to-video editions and a live webcast version for Comic Relief.
The coloured backgrounds denote the result of each of the shows: – indicates David (Gower)'s/Phil's/Boris' team won – indicates Gary's/David (Seaman)'s/Ian's team won – indicates the game ended in a draw
Series 1 IndexAir dateDavid & Lee's guestGary & Rory's guestScore 01x01 14 September 1995 Rory Bremner Roger Black 17–23 01x02 21 September 1995 Clive Anderson Tessa Sanderson 21–18 01x03 28 September 1995 John Barnes Jo Brand 25–17 01x04 5 October 1995 Fred MacAulay Barry McGuigan TBC 01x05 12 October 1995 John MotsonWas also in the Feel The Sportsman round Alistair McGowan 25–26 01x06 19 October 1995 Ally McCoist Hugh Dennis 18–18In the Christmas special, the series was retroactively awarded to David's team after it was revealed that Gary and Rory had cheated in this episode's Feel The Sportsman round by poking holes in their blindfolds with needles. 01x07 28 December 1995 Mel Smith Allan Lamb 15–16
Series 2 IndexAir dateDavid & Lee's guestGary & Rory's guestScore 02x01 12 March 1996 Neil Morrissey Ian Wright 15–16The final score was 15–15, so Nick Hancock played an excerpt from an interview with Arsenal's Ray Parlour before the 1993 FA Cup Final, and the teams had to guess how many times he said the word "obviously". Gary's team guessed 6, while David's team guessed 5; the correct answer was 7, making Gary's team the winners. 02x02 19 March 1996 Bob Mills Sharron Davies 17–15 02x03 26 March 1996 Steve Cram Craig Charles 18–17The final score was 17–17, so Nick Hancock asked Gary a question from Gary Lineker's Soccer Quiz Book, which Gary was unable to answer, making David's team the winners. 02x04 2 April 1996 John Gordon Sinclair Kriss Akabusi 12–19 02x05 9 April 1996 Steve Davis Gaby Roslin 19–18 02x06 16 April 1996 Teddy Sheringham Frank Skinner 20–21The final score was 20–20, so Nick Hancock asked David for the name of the author of David Gower's Cricket Quiz Book. David failed to give the correct answer of Patrick Allen, so Gary's team were declared the winners. 02x07 23 April 1996 Tony Hawks Rob WainwrightReplaced Will Carling, who "...had decided to pull out at the last minute." 20–19The final score was 19–19, and as both teams had won three of the previous six episodes, a tiebreaker of Rock-paper-scissors was played, with David's scissors beating Gary's paper.
Series 3 IndexAir dateDavid & Lee's guestGary & Rory's guestScore 03x01 12 September 1996 Ian Walker Gordon Kennedy 17–22 03x02 19 September 1996 Alistair McGowan Jimmy 'Five Bellies' Gardner 21–23 03x03 26 September 1996 Kelly Holmes Curtis Walker 17–18 03x04 3 October 1996 Mark Little Brian Moore 23–20 03x05 10 October 1996 Chris Waddle Jo Brand 19–15 03x06 17 October 1996 Dermot Reeve Mark Hurst 15–17 03x07 24 October 1996 Nick Owen Phill Jupitus 18–20 03x08 23 December 1996 Steve Backley David Baddiel 20–25
No Holds Barred IndexAir dateDavid & Lee's guestGary & Rory's guestScore Video 4 November 1996 Roger Black Neil Morrissey 21–20
Series 4 IndexAir dateDavid & Lee's guestGary & Rory's guestScore 04x01 9 April 1997 Phil Tufnell Alan Davies 24–20 04x02 16 April 1997 Steve Collins Tony Hawks 11–18 04x03 23 April 1997 Dave Bassett Mark Little 15–17 04x04 30 April 1997 Brough Scott Stephen Fry 18–19 04x05 7 May 1997 Denise Lewis Jeff Green 14–20 04x06 14 May 1997 Matthew Pinsent Julian Clary 19–16 04x07 21 May 1997 Ron Atkinson Zoe Ball 20–17
Full Throttle IndexAir dateDavid & Lee's guestGary & Rory's guestScore Video 3 November 1997 John Motson Fred MacAulay 29–30
Series 5 IndexAir dateDavid & Lee's guestGary & Rory's guestScore 05x01 6 November 1997 Ainsley Harriott Steve Davis 17–16 05x02 13 November 1997 Tony Banks MP John Moloney 21–20 05x03 20 November 1997 Frankie Dettori Alistair McGowan 15–16 05x04 27 November 1997 Suzanne Dando Stuart Hall 18–17The episode finished 17–17. Lee suggested that if Suzanne could do the splits, their team should be declared the winners; Nick instead suggested that Lee and Rory should attempt the splits. Lee went first, but Rory forfeited his turn, making David's team the winners. 05x05 4 December 1997 Sharron Davies Phill Jupitus 19–16 05x06 11 December 1997 Chris Eubank Arthur Smith 15–20 05x07 18 December 1997 Phill Jupitus,Jupitus stood in for Hurst. Iwan Thomas Jeff Green 11–17 05x08 25 December 1997 Matthew Corbett with Sooty Graeme Le Saux 18–17Gary's team had actually won 22–17, but while everyone else in the studio wore their chosen Christmas outfits, Gary refused to wear his Little Bo Peep costume, so Nick penalised him 5 points, unless he wore it, which he declined, so as a tie-breaker, the teams were shown some footage of hamster drag racing, and had to guess which of the blue and red racer won. David's team correctly chose the red racer, giving them the win, despite Gary then desperately trying to put on the Little Bo Peep costume after the clip
Series 6 IndexAir dateDavid's guestsGary & Rory's guestScoreViewing figures 06x01 12 November 1998 Alan Davies, Frank Leboeuf Arthur Smith 22–21 9.65m 06x02 19 November 1998 Phill Jupitus, Roger Black Annabel Croft 18–17 12.02m 06x03 26 November 1998 Jonathan Ross, Jeffrey Archer Vic Henley 14–17 8.34m 06x04 3 December 1998 Jo Brand, Gabby Yorath Pauline McLynn 18–17The game originally finished 18–17 to Gary's team, but Nick Hancock announced that Gary had sweet talked the answer to a question from two weeks earlier from the autocue girl and docked them a point. They lost in a "What happened next?" tiebreaker. 8.39m 06x05 10 December 1998 Jo Brand, Greg Rusedski Fred MacAulay 20–17 8.26m 06x06 17 December 1998 Julian Clary, Jeff Green Jonathan Pearce 18–20The Christmas and New Year's specials were not considered part of Series 6, so David's team were declared the series winners by four games to two. 8.17m 06x07 25 December 1998 Jonathan Ross, Phil Cornwell Colin Montgomerie 10–17 12.31m 06x08 31 December 1998 Phill Jupitus, Vinnie Jones Iain Lee 12–20 n/a
Series 7 IndexAir dateDavid's guestsGary & Rory's guestScore 07x01 15 April 1999 Jo Brand, Steve Davis Clive Anderson 18–20 07x02 22 April 1999 Jonathan Ross, Eddie Irvine Bradley Walsh 18–17 07x03 29 April 1999 Jonathan Ross, Lee Mack Clare Balding 15–18 07x04 6 May 1999 Jo Brand, Sanjeev Bhaskar Phil Tufnell 17–19 07x05 13 May 1999 Jonathan Ross, Curtis Walker Steve Cram 19–18The episode finished 18–18, so David and Gary arm-wrestled each other as a tiebreaker, with David winning. 07x06 20 May 1999 Jo Brand, Fred MacAulay David Coulthard 16–13 07x07 27 May 1999 Jonathan Ross, Jeff Green Gary McAllister 17–20
Series 8 IndexAir dateDavid & Jonathan's guestGary & Rory's guestScore 08x01 11 November 1999 David Campese Junior Simpson 1–15 08x02 18 November 1999 Vic Henley Geoffrey Boycott 22–15 08x03 25 November 1999 Frankie Dettori Sean Meo 20–18 08x04 2 December 1999 Steve Davis,Guest captain in this episode Arthur Smith Paula Radcliffe 10–17 08x05 9 December 1999 Sam Torrance Sean Lock 19–18 08x06 16 December 1999 Steve Davis, Ron Atkinson Jo Brand 14–18 08x07 23 December 1999 Helen Chamberlain Keith Allen 20–19 08x08 25 December 1999Christmas Special David Baddiel Clare Balding 15–22Gary's team won a tiebreaker for the series by guessing closer to the price of a VHS copy of Rory McGrath's Commercial Breakdown than David's team.
Series 9 IndexAir dateDavid & Jonathan's guestGary & Rory's guestScore 09x01 20 April 2000 James Hewitt Nasser Hussain 16–17 09x02 27 April 2000 Shane Howarth Rich Hall 12–14Gary's team had won the episode, but during the show, guest Rich Hall looked at one of the answer cards during The Name Game round, which originally saw Gary's team docked 3 points, but at the start of the following show, it was revealed that following more complaints, Gary's team were disqualified and the win was given to David's team. 09x03 4 May 2000 Gabby Yorath Jo Brand 14–12 09x04Following the "debacle" involving the incident 2 shows previously, Gary was dropped as team captain for this episode for "bringing the show into disrepute". 11 May 2000 John Toshack Mark Lawrenson, Neil Morrissey 17–16The episode finished 16–16, so the team captains were asked to guess what percentage of refereeing decisions, according to a five-year study of refereeing decisions in over 40,000 football matches by sociology teacher Alan Briscoe, favoured Manchester United. Mark guessed 55%, while David guessed 56%; the correct answer was 87%, making David's team the winners. 09x05 18 May 2000 Clive Lloyd Rory Bremner 14–18 09x06 25 May 2000 Shane Warne Iain Lee 11–17 09x07 1 June 2000 Paul Kaye Mark Richardson 14–17 09x08 8 June 2000 Linford Christie Mark Little 16–14For a series tiebreaker, Nick Hancock asked Gary to name the title of any story in Gary Lineker's Favourite Football Stories. As he was unable to do so, the series was awarded to David's team.
Series 10 IndexAir dateDavid & Jonathan's guestGary & Rory's guestScore 10x01 24 November 2000 Steve Davis, Matthew Pinsent Arthur Smith 14–19 10x02 1 December 2000 Patrick Kielty Frankie Dettori 17–13 10x03 8 December 2000 Junior Simpson Kirsty Gallacher 18–19 10x04 15 December 2000 Ian Wright, Gordon Ramsay Dave Gorman 16–17The game originally ended 16–16, so for a tiebreaker Jonathan and Rory took turns on a mechanical bull. Rory lasted longer with 20 seconds to Jonathan's 15 so Gary's team were declared the winners. 10x05 22 December 2000 Jason Queally Johnny Vegas 12–18After it was revealed that Rory had bribed the autocue writer with champagne for the answers to several previous questions, Nick disqualified Gary's team and awarded the episode to David's team. 10x06 24 December 2000All the panellists are dressed as pantomime characters. Gail Porter also appears as a Christmas fairy in-between rounds. Frank Bruno Omid Djalili 16–17The episode finished 16–16, so David and Gary engaged in a bout of mashed potato wrestling as a tiebreaker, with the audience declaring Gary the winner. 10x07 5 January 2001 Ashley Giles Audley Harrison 12–17Gary and Rory's team were disqualified as it was revealed that before Christmas Rory had tried to bribe the show's new guest booker. 10x08 12 January 2001 Steve Davis, Clare Balding Steve Backley, Andy Parsons 18–13 10x09 19 January 2001 Linda Smith Darren Campbell 16–17 10x10 30 March 2001
Series 11