From Jim Bowen's bumbling brilliance to the serial killer contestant: The secrets of Bullseye's incredible success as Freddie Flintoff revives iconic show with Luke Littler

As 18 million people can attest during its heyday, you can't beat a bit of Bully. 

The light-hearted, albeit bizarre, gameshow made for brilliant Sunday tea-time viewing, with amateur darts players competing for luxury prizes - which in most cases ended up being a speedboat. 

Led by the irrepressible Jim Bowen - whose gags were typically of an old school, clumsy nature -  the programme was widely loved, and deeply missed, when it came off air in 1995.

But Freddie Flintoff is bringing Bully back. Following a successful Christmas special last year, the cricket legend is teaming up with Luke Littler once again to put contestants through their paces.

Whether the revived Bullseye lives up to the adulation of the original series remains to be seen, but here Daily Mail Sport takes a look at some of the most memorable moments from its 14-year run. 

The eclectic host

'The working classes in particular took to Bullseye and I had great fun making the programme,' Bowen said via The Sun before his death in 2018. 'The show had a certain naivety.

'When I look back at one or two of the early contestants, they didn't know who came second in the last war.

'I was a worse darts player than I was a compere but that lack of sophistication was in my favour.

'Audiences realised I was fallible and it made the show accessible.'

Bowen acknowledged too how, in an age with no internet to threaten TV's dominance and a lack of Sky TV, Bullseye had a greater chance of attracting the masses. 

'I was on 26 weeks a year for 15 years with Bullseye, but for ten of them there were only four channels,' he said. 

'People had to watch me.'

But things didn't go completely smoothly for the bumbling Bowen, who was producers' fifth choice to host the cult hit show, and he recalled how his first efforts on camera didn't go according to plan. 

'I must have set light entertainment back 20 years I was that bad,' he joked.

'I was looking for lights on cameras like a demented shepherd but thank God they stuck with me and I got a little bit better.'

The early episodes of Bullseye were slap-dash, with a low budget meaning producers had to be creative with visualising the programme.

The production company could only afford three electronically displayed digits to sit atop each contestant's desks, meaning when somebody's total eclipsed £1,000, a handwritten number '1' was stuck in front of the digits on a card.

Another mistake included a spelling mistake. 

'We had a guy on who won the main prize by spelling 'gauge',' Bowen said.

'But after the show an audience member said the contestant has spelt 'guard' instead.

'Everyone had gone home and each show cost about £23,000 to make so there was no way we could burn it.

'So we had to go back to the tape, physically cut each letter out from the footage and sellotape it back together in the right order.

'It went out and I don't think anybody noticed.'

The initial recordings of Bullseye saw contestants from working men's club take part in the show, but the swearing and smoking meant bosses refused to put the show on the airwaves.

And of course, Bowen's clumsy gags often made for funny viewing - although Flintoff will certainly be sticking to the script this time around.

One female contestant revealed she had been on a sponsored slim, to which Bowen asked: 'How much do you owe them?'

In later life, Bullseye provided Bowen and his wife Phyllis with a good quality of life.

'The repeats of Bullseye keep us in the style we wish to aspire to,' he said. 'When it was first repeated, we used to get 17 per cent of the original fee.

'But little cheques still float through the door that bring a smile to our faces.' 

The funky prizes

Not only were contestants able to brag about appearing on Bullseye, they were also given the opportunity to throw arrows for an array of prizes.

Some offerings were fairly tame, including rollerskates and teasmaids, but Bully's Star Prize rarely disappointed - often ranging from a holiday to a car, caravan or speedboat.

Reflecting on how show director Peter Harris managed to afford top of the range speedboats as a prize, given Bullseye's limited budget, Bowen said: 'Harris scouted around to try to get the best possible deals he could for prizes.

'He found a speedboat manufacturer called Fletcher and managed to broker a deal where he could get them cheaper.

'It was a nice prize, though not very good if you lived in Wolverhampton.'

Bowen noted how there wasn't an even spread of luxury prizes, with most shows ending with a speedboat on offer.

'They gave away the odd car along with 500 speedboats,' Bowen joked.  

...and the serial killer contestant 

At its peak, over 12,000 people applied every year to compete on Bullseye.

But it was one contestant who lives long in the memory, and for the wrong reasons. 

John Cooper competed on the show on May 28, 1989, and insodoing helped the police identify him during their investigations of his horrific crimes - including two double murders.

Four years prior to his appearance on TV screens Cooper, a farm labourer, killed siblings Richard and Helen Thomas by shooting them during a burglary at their farmhouse in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire.

And just weeks after competing on the darts show, he killed Peter and Gwenda Dixon of Oxfordshire while they walked the Welsh Coastal Path during a holiday.

He also raped, assaulted and robbed a number of victims for nearly a decade, before police were able to cross reference witness accounts of his description with video footage from his appearance on the show. 

'I could not believe my eyes,' said Jonathan Hill, who discovered the throwback footage. 'There was John Cooper as bold as brass.

'He plays the game and they even bring him back at the end, where he gambles to win the star prize.

'Of course he was a gambler, it was in his nature but he lost everything on this occasion.

'Suddenly this recording was gold dust to the police as they had an image of him at the time of the murders, within a month of the murders.'

Cooper was finally brought to justice in May 2011, when he was given a whole life order for his crimes.  

Bullseye is back on ITV1 at 8pm on Sunday.