Take Your Pick was one of the earliest shows to be broadcast on the new ITV channel (Independent Television) in the 1950s. Take Your Pick first aired one week after the channel started broadcasting in 1955 and ran until 1968. Take Your Pick was produced by Arlington Television & Radio Limited for Associated-Rediffusion (from 1964 after a name change - Rediffusion, London). Take Your Pick is hosted by its deviser - Michael Miles who had already enjoyed an eight year run with the show on Radio Luxembourg.

Although mainly studio-bound, Take Your Pick occasionally went on-the-road and thousands of people wrote in to the show for tickets to be in the audience. On one occasion, the show was to be taken to a venue in the Midlands, and eight thousand people applied for tickets; although there was room for one thousand only. The contestants are selected from the audience and are called up individually on stage to take part in the one minute Yes / No interlude, which is a round of quick-fire personal questioning where they must not answer with a yes or a no.

Contestants answering with one of the taboo words are immediately eliminated from the competition, and return to their seat in the audience. The man responsible for listening-out for the offending words is Alec Dane. Dane stands next to the contestants with his gong poised ready to gong-out the offending competitor. The announcer on the show is Bob Danvers-Walker (the narrator of the Pathe News bulletins from 1940 until 1970). Harold Smart is the show's resident organist.

Contestants are asked three general knowledge questions and if they answer correctly, they can pick a key which opens one of the ten main prize boxes. Three of the boxes contain booby prizes, and the remainder are genuine prizes, including a treasure chest. There is also an additional box numbered 13, this may contain the star prize (usually a holiday), or a booby prize and the key for box 13 is located in one of the ten main boxes. Michael Miles - The Quiz Inquisitor attempts to buy back the keys with modestly increasing amounts of cash.

Eventually and after some lively audience participation, where Michael asks the audience what the contestant should do, take the money or open the box (they almost invariably urge the contestant to open the box), the successful contestant chooses one of the options. If the contestant opens the box containing the key for box 13, Michael Miles then tries to buy back both keys, but if the contestant choses not to sell, they are allowed to keep only one of the keys.

Michael Miles attributes the success of the series thus "I don't think it is simply the prizes and the way people go about winning them. Of course this has a lot to do with it, but I think the important thing is the contestants themselves. A good competitor is of more value to a quiz show than a good prize."