Weaver's Week 2009-11-29

The title for this part comes from Raven (CBBC and BBC1, 2002 – present). Over its span – now twelve broadcast series, with another waiting for transmission – Raven has challenged and inspired a generation of children to push themselves a little bit further, to do a little bit more. The contestants are taken away from their regular lives, transformed (by the magic of television) into warriors, and given license to transcend the limits imposed by their usual life. It's a chance for children to test themselves, it's a chance for children to change themselves. Both of the finalists in the most recent series said that merely appearing on Raven had been their ambition from a very young age, proof that Raven has inspired its own generation of viewers.

There have been other chances for children to move away from their everyday life have been few and far between – Starfinder (ITV, 2003-4) took youngsters into space, and Hard Spell Abbey (BBC1, 2004) had primary-school children learning about spelling in a real abbey, with a real spelling guru, and a real Trevor out of Trevor and Simon for the parents. More recently, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (BBC1 and BBC2, 2007 – present) has tried very hard not to be mistaken for a H***y P****r rip-off, Election (BBC1, 2008) sought an inspirational leader amongst the young, and Escape from Scorpion Island (BBC1 and BBC2, 2007 – present) asked children to perform demanding physical trials while many thousands of miles away from home, and while in the company of JK and Joel.

Some people don't need to step so far out of their lives to reinvent themselves, they only need to go as far as the kitchen. Competitive cookery shows burst onto television in the mid-90s, and have retained their popularity ever since. Ready Steady Cook (1994 – present) has continued in production. Masterchef (1990-2001) was reborn in a "Goes Large" format (2005 – present), whatever that meant, and has gained spin-off series for professional cooks and for celebrities, though not yet for celebrity professional cooks. It was almost inevitable that the eating would become competitive, and Come Dine with Me (2005 – present) looked at all aspects of a dinner party – the food, the ambience, the company. It's proven a substantial hit, enough to inspire copycat shows on ITV (House Guest, 2008) and Living (Four Weddings, 2009). Neither is a patch on the original.

Earlier in the decade, the BBC made a few evenings out of play-along-at-home tests, where the viewer could match their wits against experts, or find out something about themselves, or preferably both. There was very little on Test the Nation (BBC1, 2002-7) that hadn't been done on So You Think...? (BBC1, 1965-84), apart from Phillip Schofield's ability to find meaning in the random noise of responses. People could play along on SMS widgets, by using internet flash doohickerys, by paging the oracle on Super Ceefax, or using a pen and a piece of paper. Everyone could play along, gently cajoled by Anne Robinson and her studio full of guests, and it made for a fun evening's viewing and participating. Again, ITV had a copycat show, The Great British Test (2004-5), which added Pop Idol's Dr. "Neil" Fox and lost both an opportunity to gently educate and any fun there might have been in the format.

Should Countdown continue? Within weeks, it was clear that it should, and it would. Months of speculation ended when television's smoothie Des Lynam came to Leeds, but he never quite settled into the chairman's role, and left after fourteen months. Another round of speculation produced singer Des O'Connor, and just when he was getting into the swing of his job, budget cuts meant that he could no longer agree a fee, and he quietly exited after two years. The same budget cuts meant that Carol Vorderman was unable to agree a fee for her services, and she did her best to ensure the show could not survive without her.

But this is Countdown, the show is bigger than any one person. Another search for a new presenter was combined with a hunt for a new numbers wizard, the latter was open for any Tom, Dick, or Sally to apply. In the event, television newcomer Rachael Riley took the numbers job, and the host's role went to sports reporter Jeff Stelling. They only started at the beginning of this year; by Easter, it was hard to remember that there had ever been any other presenters. Even the guest celebrities have changed – Simon Hoggart and Ingrid Tarrant were both booked in 2002, but it was Phil Hammond, Paul Zenon, John Inverdale, and Tim Vine who now feel most at home in the Countdown club. We're sure they'll be back for more.

There were many more attempts at making serious quizzes during the 2000s. Some of them worked, some were one-season wonders. 19 Keys (C5, 2003) was a very simple general knowledge quiz, with the first person to give eighteen correct answers winning, and the amount of their win increased the closer to 15 minutes they completed the test. For whatever reason, and in spite of Richard Bacon explaining the rules every time, the show confused the viewers, and wasn't renewed. The same fate befell Grand Slam (C4, 2003), a head-to-head contest on broad subjects with a chess-clock motif. It appealed to this column, but Channel 4 found better uses for the time.

More recently, Get 100 (BBC2 and BBC1, 2007-8) combined a quiz with education so subtle that the audience could easily have missed it. Battle of the Brains (BBC2, 2008 – present) overtly prizes trivia for trivia's sake, and The Chase (ITV, 2009 – present) challenges teams of strangers to pit their wits against a well-known quiz champion.

Mastermind looked like it wouldn't claim this title after disappearing from television screens in 1997. That was to ignore the format's utter simplicity – four contestants, two minutes of questions on a specialist subject, two minutes on general knowledge, highest score wins. Anyone could understand it, even Radio 4 controller James Boyle. He made many errors in his reform of Radio 4's schedule in 1998, but keeping Mastermind alive wasn't one of them. In this decade, Mastermind has been everywhere: Radio 4 1998-2001, a series on the Discovery channel 2001-2, regular series on BBC2 since 2003, celebrity and junior editions on BBC1 since 2003, and versions in Welsh on S4C since 2007. There's no escape from Mastermind, there's an edition on some channel almost every week.

On Radio 4, Monday lunchtime has become the intelligent quiz zone. Mastermind begat Masterteam (2001-5), a competition that almost won its place in the network's history, but has been relegated to a footnote. A similar fate befell X Marks the Spot (1998-2006) and Puzzle Panel (1998-2005); both could have had longer runs, but were eventually replaced by Quote... Unquote. Brain of Britain (AD 47 – present) continues to entertain and confound, as a handful of bad questions can cause a very good quizzer to fall to the foot of the table, but the winners are always worthy. Robert Robinson's deft touch has been missing for a quarter of the decade, with Russell Davies settling into the great man's chair with almost as much ease as Jeff Stelling. Counterpoint (1986 – present) also lost its host, Ned Sherrin was replaced by Paul Gambaccini, another obvious fit.

And then there's University Challenge (BBC2, 1994 – present), another show that's had its ups and downs. There has always been something to say about this programme, whether it be the perpetual claim that the questions are easier than before (not true, they're different) or that students these days are lazy (not true, it never was). There has been suspicion that some universities are discouraged from applying, and that others receive suspiciously easy draws allowing them to make progress beyond their abilities. The nadir was reached in the 2003-4 series, when almost every question contained a wild and unpredictable swerve, deliberately designed to mislead and penalise the players. University Challenge became tedious and dull and almost unwatchable.

And then it got better again. Manchester and UMIST merged, and the new institution could almost be seeded into the quarter-finals without leaving second gear. Sides began to show something of themselves on screen. Did the questions become easier? No, they became more honest: swerve questions were kept few and far between. Even the transmission schedule helped: start the contest after Wimbledon, bury the first-round matches in the summer, so that every game counts in the new year. And then came Gail Trimble, who answered fifteen starters correctly in one match this year, rescued her team from a heavy deficit in the final, and then found that the BBC wouldn't recognise her achievement for some off-screen transgression. Not that this has stopped us from watching the programme, because something interesting happens every week. Here's an example...

We've touched in the past on the culture of celebrity, and there's been a slew of entertainments predicated on minor celebs taking a fall. In the case of Russian Roulette (ITV, 2002-3) and Drop the Celebrity (ITV, 2003), it was literally a minor celeb taking a fall, from a greater or lesser height. Beat the Star With Vernon Kay (ITV, 2008-9) challenged sportspeople to take on other members of the public at entertaining little tasks. Channel 4 presented the topical Chris Moyles' Quiz Night (2009 – present) and the television criticism show You Have Been Watching (2009 – present), and the BBC's recent contribution to the genre is Hole in the Wall (BBC1, 2008 – present), in which celebs are asked to pass through a titular hole in a titular wall, while wearing wetsuits covered in silver. Ooh look, they fell in the water.

A Question of Sport (BBC1, 1970 – present) posed questions about sport to sportspeople, and extended its tentacles into A Question of Pop (BBC1, 2000-1), and A Question of EastEnders (BBC1, 2000). We must also mention Radio 4's very long-running panel games Just a Minute (1554 – present), I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (1972 – present), and The News Quiz (1977 – present). Just a Minute has gently evolved into a different show, with Paul Merton as the driving force, Graham Norton or Kit Hesketh-Harvey following in the footsteps of Kenneth Williams, and the likes of Charles Collingwood and Sue Perkins giving the casual listener a reason to tune in. ISIHAC lost its perpetual chairman Humphrey Lyttelton in 2008, and took a little while to find its feet. Sandi Toksvig took over in The News Quiz's chair, and the show has evolved from a straight quiz into an opportunity to crack moderately topical jokes. Have I Got News for You (BBC2 and BBC1, 1990 – present) has also evolved, turning the drama of Angus Deayton's forced resignation into an opportunity for all sorts of comedians and politicians and celebrities to host the programme. Boris Johnson built his career on the show, and look what happened to him.

Athletic pursuits remain popular, though most of the attention seems to go to people playing various codes of football. Still, members of the public do get a chance to show their proficiency, most notably on Total Wipeout (BBC1, 2009 – present). Here, people are asked to complete a demanding assault course, where failure means they'll fall into a pool of water. These courses are so difficult that almost no-one completes any element correctly, so you're never more than 20 seconds away from someone falling into the water. Does the one joke wear a bit thin? We think it does, but the public disagrees. International King of Sports (C5, 2002-4) made up its own events, in a spirit that simultaneously laughed with and laughed at the professional sportspeople. Banzai (E4, 2001-4) pretended to be a betting show, but it was really a welcome excuse to show silly things. See also: Takeshi's Castle (Challenge, 2002-present).

No review of the decade could be complete without Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow (CBBC, BBC1, BBC2, 2002-6), a slice of anarchy, bogies, and entertainment for entertainment's sake, served with lashings of creamy muck-muck. But that's only the surface appeal: beneath it was a team that clearly cared to make outstanding television every single week, constantly re-inventing itself, running jokes that sailed miles over the heads of the target audience (re-enacting The Crystal Maze, a show that hadn't been on terrestrial telly for a decade, on a show aimed at eight-year-olds), and perhaps only flagged with the bizarre decision to allow celebrities (and Rachel Stevens) into the house for its final series. There's already been a clip show of the best of the Bungalow, and surely more will follow.