‘Top Trumps’ adapted for TV format with Gary Pudney’s O4 selling globally

Gary Pudney

Gary Pudney’s O4 Media has partnered with London-based Boxatricks Television Entertainment to produce a TV version of hit card game Top Trumps.

The new quiz format was created and developed by Boxatricks, which is led by MD Steve Springford and was launched in 2013 by Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? co-creators Michael Whitehill, David Briggs and Colman Hutchinson.

Details of the newly developed TV show are scant but it will be based on the card game that was first published in 1978 and is owned by UK-based Winning Moves.

The company, which commissioned Boxatricks to create a TV version, is also behind Pass The Pigs and is the biggest licensee of Monopoly and Cluedo owner, Hasbro. The latter company, which owns Entertainment One, has already started adapting its own TV adaptations of games such as a dramatised version of Risk and a Play-Doh format for Amazon’s IMDb TV.

Each version of Top Trumps focuses on a specific subject, with each pack of cards containing a variety of number scores across specific areas. The aim of the game is to compare these values to try to trump and win an opponent’s card.

Hong Kong-based O4, which was set up by former Keshet International exec Pudney last year, is the sole international distributor of the Top Trumps format.

Pudney said: “Having grown up playing and collecting Top Trumps, this project is personally exciting for me. I’m looking forward to seeing the migration from card-based to the TV screen and taking this exciting quiz show format worldwide.”

Springford added: “We were delighted when Winning Moves asked us to create a new TV quiz version of this iconic family card game, and we feel that we have developed something that offers a whole new way of asking and answering questions whilst providing fun for viewers and players alike.”

Tom Liddell, MD of Winning Moves UK, continued: “Top Trumps has been an iconic card game for almost 50 years and is loved by people across the world, so to be able to bring the game to families at home is fantastic. We are extremely passionate about our brand and look forward to what we will create together with Boxatricks and O4 Media.