One of the biggest TV hits of the 1960s was Double Your Money, a kind of low-fi precursor to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Its presenter, Hughie Green, was a titan of family entertainment who drew audiences of more than 8 million to the ITV gameshow, in which contestants chose whether to double their prize pot between questions.
It was, of course, all about the cash, even if TV-rich in those days involved maximum winnings of £1,000 (about £18,000 in today’s money). The show’s baked-in avarice made the entry in the TV Times for 7pm on 8 November 1966 surprising: “Double Your Money visits Moscow with People to People … the first ever western quiz game in the Soviet Union.”
