I remember watching this way back in 1988 when it seemed to be coming off the boom in Dungeons and Dragons (celebrating its 30th anniversary) and the plethora of supposed teenage millionaires who’d made their fortunes in games for the Spectrum and Amiga.
As it says in the packaging, The One Game was never repeated after a single outing over four consecutive weeks in the summer of 1988.
The plot revolves around Nick, the games millionaire, who’s company has just been robbed of £2.1m via a worryingly simple computer hack. Behind it all is Patrick Malahide’s Magnus – once the creator of many of Nick’s company’s games, but of late residing in a mental hospital after a collapse following his edging out of the company’s hierarchy.
So much for the back story. The fun begins when Nick is forced to play The One Game – billed by Magnus as the ultimate reality game. You have to play it whether you like it or not. Particularly when Nick’s ex-wife is kidnapped in front of him.
In many respects the series shares much with the 1997 David Fincher film, The Game. Comparisons are easily made, although if you’ve seen one, don’t think that you’ve automatically seen the other. I’d forgotten some of the plot twists, and it was fun to see this series again. (In the summer of 1988 I was worrying about A-level results and trying to work out where I was going to be going in the Autumn). Picked up cheaply in the “old” Virgin Megastore in Piccadilly incidentally.