Blind Date contestant recalls 'magical' moment on show

A Welsh contestant who appeared on Blind Date in the early 1990s says appearing on it was "magical", as the show marks its 40th anniversary.

Howard Griffiths recalled the strict secrecy on set, being told to write his own questions, and his unexpected encounter with Cilla Black in the wings where he confused her for a TV researcher.

He said Black's parting piece of advice to him before walking on set was: "Don't say too much. Keep it spontaneous."

Years later, he and his blind date match had an extraordinary reunion when they bumped into each on the London Underground, 25 years after their episode aired.

Blind Date dominated Saturday night TV following its launch in 1985, with millions of viewers tuning in to watch one person pick a date from three suitors hidden behind a screen

Mr Griffiths, from Cardiff, told BBC Radio Wales he applied for the show in 1991 after seeing a newspaper advert for auditions at the city's Royal Hotel on St Mary's Street.

But the timing clashed with a holiday so he ended up appearing the following year.

Mr Griffiths said the production was far more serious than viewers realised and was "run like a military operation".

Contestants were brought in separately – "you never met" - and they all had to sign forms agreeing not to reveal "any of the secrets of the programme".

What surprised Mr Griffiths most was meeting Black just before filming. She started talking about where he'd lived and her son's age.

"It was in the wings in the dark, I thought she was a researcher," he admitted, before the penny dropped.

Mr Griffiths mistook presenter Black for a researcher

Mr Griffiths said he wrote his own questions for the contestants, including "I think stable relationships are for horses - how would you persuade me to take off my blinkers?"

He also asked the women what they could say to impress him after he proudly announced he could pronounce the longest Welsh place name.

The woman he eventually picked, Brigette Bard, answered in Italian, prompting Mr Griffiths to respond with a line he had learned at a restaurant.

"Cilla was weak [with laughter]," he said. "It was just magical."

'She hadn't changed'

At the time, Blind Date was at its peak and Mr Griffiths said the scale of it only hit home later.

"The producers told us we had 16 million viewers. When we went back, the second programme had 17 million viewers," he said.

The pair were sent to Germany for a holiday but during the trip Bridgette quietly confessed: "I've got a boyfriend." Mr Griffiths remembered replying, "you should have told the team that".

He later told producers, who were less than thrilled.

The pair went on their date in February 1993 in Germany

After the trip, the pair drifted apart. But in 2017, Mr Griffiths was travelling on the London Underground when Ms Bard approached him and asked if he was the man who had picked her on Blind Date.

He filmed the moment and the clip went viral, telling BBC News at the time, "she hadn't changed, she looked amazing".

He added at the time: "Thinking about it now, I don't know why I didn't stay on the Tube but it was my stop. It was like a scene from a film. Everyone on the Tube was saying 'don't go!'"

The two swapped numbers before he jumped off the train and later caught up properly – a quarter of a century after their TV date.

As Blind Date turns 40, Mr Griffiths said his nostalgia for the show remained strong.

"It was magical," he said. "The whole thing - it was just incredible."