This edition received a somewhat derisive review from Peter Ackroyd in The Times (12th March 1984) who observed:
"[...] this is the programme in which various television "personalities" prove that there is a real person struggling beneath the make-up and the fixed smile. This anthology of "out-takes" (an ugly word which only putative experts could employ) is now so popular that television studios must deliberately manufacture verbal mistakes, prat-falls and collapsing props in order to appear on it; certainly the catastrophes tend to be the most interesting parts of their programmes.
Those who live by the camera are no doubt destined to die in front of it but, despite Denis Norden's gleeful suggestion that actors and newscasters are covered with rage and embarrassment at their mistakes, it was clear that everyone concerned enjoyed the experience. And why not? Anyone who appears on a news programme or serious television drama must feel an urgent need to laugh."
"[...] this is the programme in which various television "personalities" prove that there is a real person struggling beneath the make-up and the fixed smile. This anthology of "out-takes" (an ugly word which only putative experts could employ) is now so popular that television studios must deliberately manufacture verbal mistakes, prat-falls and collapsing props in order to appear on it; certainly the catastrophes tend to be the most interesting parts of their programmes.
Those who live by the camera are no doubt destined to die in front of it but, despite Denis Norden's gleeful suggestion that actors and newscasters are covered with rage and embarrassment at their mistakes, it was clear that everyone concerned enjoyed the experience. And why not? Anyone who appears on a news programme or serious television drama must feel an urgent need to laugh."
This edition topped the charts with 16.9 million viewers.