Treasure Hunt (UK game show) on:
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's 2002–2003 version, newsreader
''Treasure Hunt'' is a UK
In the original version, the presenter was former
newsreader game show
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, ...
, based on the format of the French show ''La Chasse au Trésor'', created by Jacques Antoine
Jacques Antoine (14 March 1924 – 14 September 2012) was a French creator and producer of game shows. His most famous creations include ''Treasure Hunt (UK game show), Treasure Hunt'', ''Interceptor (game show), Interceptor'', ''Fort Boyard (ga ...
. It appeared on Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
between 28 December 1982 and 18 May 1989 and was revived by BBC Two between 16 December 2002 and 2 August 2003.
The game
A team of two contestants in the studio had to use a library of maps and reference materials to solve up to five clues, and communicate instructions via a radio link to a ''skyrunner'' who had the use of ahelicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
. Although viewers could see the skyrunner, the contestants could not, and all communication between them was by sound only. The contestants were given the first clue for free, the solving of which would lead to the location of the second clue and so on until a trinket or other significant object was found by solving the final clue.
The contestants won a higher cash prize each time they solved a clue correctly. This was all done against the clock. Even once the contestants had solved the final clue, the skyrunner still had to confirm they were correct, by reaching the final target. On a few occasions, the contestants solved all five clues with time to spare, in which case, a bonus clue was given to the contestants. This typically resulted in their winning a bottle of champagne.
The skyrunner and helicopter did not have freedom to fly and land anywhere they wished. Although the pilot could to an extent request permission from airspace authorities to fly off-course, as happened on occasions, landings needed to be agreed in advance with landowners of a suitable location near the clue. On occasions the helicopter would land in a clearly marked out area, especially at public places. Kenneth Kendall always stressed that he did not know the clues and locations in advance, and any help that he gave the contestants was from his own knowledge.
According to a "making of ''Treasure Hunt''" programme, Anneka Rice was confined to the hotel on the day that the camera operator, video and sound recordist; and helicopter pilot undertook a rehearsal (typically the day before the programme was recorded), so she had no advance knowledge of the locations. This did not stop her carrying out research about the general area in order to have a stock of facts to fill in any silences that might arise while the contestants were thinking.
Presenters and crew
In the original version, the presenter was former BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...Kenneth Kendall
Kenneth Kendall (7 August 1924 – 14 December 2012) was a British broadcaster. He worked for many years as a newsreader for the BBC, where he was a contemporary of fellow newsreaders Richard Baker and Robert Dougall. He is also remembered as ...
and the "skyrunner" was broadcaster Anneka Rice
Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a Welsh-born television and radio presenter, broadcaster, journalist and painter.
Early life and education
Rice was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wale ...
. In the first series, Kendall was joined briefly in the studio for the handover of the first clue by the original clue-setter, Ann Meo. She would later rejoin the contestants if they had been successful in finding the treasure to offer her congratulations. If they had been unsuccessful, she would be heard as a voiceover explaining where they had gone wrong.
From the second series onwards, this role was expanded, another studio-based person acted as adjudicator, giving the contestants tips on how they were doing against the scheduled time, and providing additional information about the locations visited. In series 2, this was Annette Lynton ("Nettie") and from series 3 onwards, TV-am
TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchis ...
weather girl
''Weather Girl'' is a 2009 comedy film written and directed by Blayne Weaver and starring Tricia O'Kelley, Mark Harmon, Jon Cryer, and Enrico Colantoni.
After a morning show personality discovers her boyfriend's infidelity, she loses it on-air, c ...
Wincey Willis
1948 births
Living people
British infotainers
Weather presenters
Wincey Willis (born Florence Winsome Leighton; 8 August 1948) is a British television and radio broadcaster who was most active in the 1980s. She is perhaps best known for bein ...
.
In 1988, Rice left to have a baby, and her place was taken by tennis player Annabel Croft
Annabel Nicola Croft (born 12 July 1966) is a former professional British female tennis player and current radio and television presenter. As a tennis player she won the WTA Tour event Virginia Slims of San Diego and represented Great Britain i ...
. In this series, the set was revamped due to a move to Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992.
Thames Television broa ...
's facilities (the original studios were at Trilion in Soho, London, and then Limehouse Studios on Canary Wharf in Docklands, East London which was later earmarked for demolition to make way for One Canada Square), and Willis was promoted to sharing main billing with Kendall. Croft was billed as "Guest Skyrunner" for the first episode of the series, and it was stated at the time that Rice would return after giving birth, but it turned out to be the show's final series and the "Guest Skyrunner" credit was dropped.
In the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...Dermot Murnaghan
Dermot John Murnaghan (; born 26 December 1957) is a British broadcaster. A presenter for Sky News, he was a news presenter at CNBC Europe, Independent Television News and BBC News. He has presented news programmes in a variety of time slots ...
presented, the "skyrunner" was Suzi Perry, and there was no adjudicator. Advances in broadcasting technology meant that this new version could come from a much greater range of locations; however, the new version was short-lived.
Keith Thompson of Castle Air Charters was the usual helicopter pilot in both versions, though for overseas editions a local pilot was often used. There was always a "chase" helicopter which relayed radio signals back to London and, although this could never be used tactically by the contestants, it was not hidden from the viewers. This communications helicopter had dark green with gold stripe livery, registration G-SPEY. The two crews would sometimes fly in formation to generate exciting footage. During one episode, G-SPEY was utilised to film pictures instead of Graham in G-BHXU; Thompson was required to land on a submarine in Plymouth Sound, and footage from a second cameraman in G-SPEY was used to show his landing.
Both helicopters were usually Bell 206 JetRangers; the helicopter usually used by the skyrunner was registration G-BHXU (which crash landed at sea in 1995 due to engine/gearbox failure).
A feature was made of the camaraderie between the female presenter and the male recording and flight crews. Shots from the rear as the presenter ran from clue to clue in a jump-suit were satirised on ''Spitting Image
''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ...
''.
In 1985, the cameraman, Graham Berry, was awarded a BAFTA for his contribution to the series.
The contestants would win a cash prize of £1,000 (£2,000 in the revived version).
Broadcasts
When first shown on Channel 4 on 28 December 1982, ''Treasure Hunt'' was one of the earliest major series on the then-new channel. The unusual format earned extra publicity for both the programme and the channel, which was striving to justify itself with new and different programming. The 1982–1989 series were repeated onterrestrial television
Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an ante ...
several times, and during the 1990s appeared on the Challenge satellite and cable channel, as well as Sky Travel
Sky Travel was first launched on 3 October 1994 (and later in 2003 relaunched as Sky Travel Shop) and showed extensive programmes about travel, adverts for travel agencies, and documentaries, with Sky Travel Shop being the adverts for travel ag ...
. The first episode was repeated on 30 October 2007 on the digital channel More4
More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas.
Content
When ...
as part of Channel 4's 25th anniversary celebrations. This was a one-off and there are no current plans to repeat the TV show.
On 21 November 2013, Challenge announced that they re-acquired the first two series. The first episode was repeated again on 28 December 2013 as part of Challenge's First Ever Episodes weekend. Challenge confirmed that the re-run of series 1 and 2 would air on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 February 2014. The Saturday episode was screened at 6pm and the Sunday episode aired at 5pm (times varied afterwards).
The original run of the first series was watched by up to 900,000 viewers; however, by the mid-1980s, ratings were some of the highest for Channel 4 at around seven million.
Two charity editions of the show were produced, one locally in the London area for the Thames Television telethon in 1985 and another broadcast across the UK as part of the ITV network's '' Telethon '88''. The show was also featured in an edition of the BBC children's aspiration show ''Jim'll Fix It
''Jim'll Fix It'' is a British television series broadcast by the BBC between May 1975 and July 1994 and was devised and presented by Jimmy Savile and produced by Roger Ordish. The show encouraged children to write in a letter to Savile with ...
'', in which a young viewer joined Anneka Rice in the famous helicopter over the county of Surrey for a scaled down version of the show, in '' The Paul Daniels Magic Show'' (BBC) and in '' The Krypton Factor'' (Granada for ITV).
For all the UK series, the programme was a Chatsworth Television independent production in association with Tele Union Paris.
Spin-offs
An eponymous board game based on the show was published in the UK. It involved moving pieces around a map of England and Wales. There was also a computer game released for some home computer formats in 1986, including for theBBC Micro
The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...
, published by Macsen Software. This game featured very basic graphic layout and was text-driven, and had the options of four locations to find clues in.
A one-off Welsh language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...
version, ' (Welsh for "Treasure Hunt"), was produced for S4C in 1985.
BBC Three Counties Radio
BBC Three Counties Radio is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Grove Park in Dunstable.
According t ...
aired ''Treasure Quest'' each Sunday from 9am to 12 noon. Andy Gelder was in the studio and varying assistants in the radio car help two contestants to solve clues over the three-hour period. This format has now changed to Saturday mornings and now hosted by Jonathan Vernon-Smith, sharing with BBC Radio Northampton
BBC Radio Northampton is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Northamptonshire.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Abington Street in Northampton.
According to RAJAR, the station has a ...
, with two runners running simultaneously in the two radio areas during the same programme. It currently airs from 10am to 12pm.
BBC Radio Norfolk
BBC Radio Norfolk is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Norfolk.
It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Forum in Norwich.
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...
began their own version of ''Treasure Quest'' in 2008, on Sunday mornings from 9am to 12 noon. David Whiteley presents in the studio, with Sophie Little in the radio car. On 6 September 2009, Wincey Willis stood in for the then clue hunter Becky Betts, and on 14 February 2010, Anneka Rice took part in the programme, appearing at the fifth clue location, Norwich Castle
Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. William the Conqueror (1066–1087) ordered its construction in the aftermath of the Norman conquest of England. The castle was used as a ...
, and then teaming up with Betts to find the treasure.
On London's talk station LBC
LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...
, presenter James O'Brien hosted ''The Treasure Hunt'' on Wednesday lunchtimes as part of his weekday show. In this format, callers rang in and requested things they had been trying to get hold of, hoping that other listeners had the required items. Although otherwise unrelated to the original concept, the programme opened with the ''Treasure Hunt'' television series theme tune, and in August 2007, Anneka Rice recorded a voice-over lead-in for it.
BBC Radio Shropshire present their own version of Treasure Hunt on Sunday mornings with presenter Ryan Kennedy reading out a set of clues to various locations. Prior to the first COVID-19 lockdown, the answers gave directions with a colleague driving to that location in the county. Currently the quiz operates as a virtual tour with the answers providing locations both in the county and worldwide.
Transmissions
Original
Specials
Revival
List of episodes
1982–1989 version
2002–2003 version
References
External links
Anneka Rice
— with exhaustive location, clue and crew listings plus helicopter registration letters *{{UKGameshow, Treasure_Hunt_%282%29
1982 British television series debuts 2003 British television series endings Aviation television series BBC television game shows 1980s British game shows 2000s British game shows Channel 4 game shows English-language television shows British television series revived after cancellation