''Spook Squad'' is a British children's television

gameshow A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, sh ...

created by

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English Regions, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. I ...

. It ran on

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

's section

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

and

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

from 6 January 2004, to 30 March 2004. The gameshow featured three children contestants entering a

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castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

in Scotland to assist Professor MacAbre in hunting ghosts before they reach their "death day" and gain superpowers. The show was filmed in Fyvie Castle.

Format

Spook Squad follows a repetitive format with each of its episodes. The gameshow's plot involves three children visiting a haunted castle in Scotland to gain a place in the Spook Squad, a league of Ghostbusters-like ghost hunters. They are met by Professor MacAbre (Andrew Pepper), an eccentric and rather cowardly paranormalist, who acts as the gameshow's host and gives instructions to the children when they play the games. Each episode involves the contestants and Professor Rupert MacAbre preventing ghosts who died in the castle from obtaining a valuable item on their death anniversaries, otherwise the ghosts will gain supernatural powers and immortality (e.g. The "Devilish

Debutante A debutante, also spelled débutante, ( ; from french: débutante , "female beginner") or deb is a young woman of aristocratic or upper-class family background who has reached maturity and, as a new adult, is presented to society at a formal " ...

" seeks a

necklace A necklace is an article of jewellery that is worn around the neck. Necklaces may have been one of the earliest types of adornment worn by humans. They often serve Ceremony, ceremonial, Religion, religious, magic (illusion), magical, or Funerary ...

or "The Headless

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

" seeks a gauntlet). The antagonist to the contestants is the ghost of Lord MacAbre ( Ford Kiernan), Professor MacAbre's villainous

ancestor An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...

who sets up each game for the contestants. The contestants have until the last stroke of

midnight Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours. ...

to complete the task. The contestants' goal is to collect " ectoplasmic residue" of the ghosts in order to gain letters that will eventually spell out the item that the ghost is seeking. The contestants travel to two different rooms around the castle in search of the ectoplasm, but are placed into games by Lord MacAbre. There are at least three different games per episodes, including a memory game in which the contestants must match sound effects to their origins and then play them in a certain order; and a game where they have to play a

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game of sorts involving knocking down

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s using large rubber balls and mops to guide the balls. Other games include a maze or throwing hula-hoops over statuettes or memorising the features on different statues and placing them all on another statue. The third game involves a contestant going outside the castle, whether he or she enters the castle's dungeon or the graveyard to complete the third game. However, in the dungeon, they are locked in and must find a key to escape otherwise they remain in the dungeon, unless the other contestants forfeit some of the letters they have gained. In the final game, they enter the room the episode's ghost had died in. Professor MacAbre reveals the letters the contestants have gathered and asks them to spell out the correct item and then must locate it before midnight to win the game. If successful, the ghost will be banished from the castle and the contestants win medals and a "entry" into the Spook Squad, but if they fail then they are haunted by the evil ghost and run out of the castle .

References

{{Reflist British children's game shows British children's fantasy television series 2004 British television series debuts 2004 British television series endings 2000s British children's television series Television series about children