Challenge Anneka

Synopsis

TV's Golden Girl Anneka Rice would be challenged to do random acts of kindness, such as build an orphanage in Kenya within 48 hours.

Opening part of programme sees Anneka in a huge articulated lorry searching for a particular place she had been previously been tipped-off about. Eventually they find the challenge written on a piece of card somewhere which details what they have to do - for example, "The child holding this card has a broken wrist and needs to go to a local hospital", usually with some snide "P.S." on the back like "...but first you've got to build the hospital!"

A stupidly small amount of time to complete the challenge, but peace and love will prevail because by phoning the right people up who are willing to give up their time and trouble for some product placement on the BBC they'd always muddle through to the end.

Later shows saw the somewhat random inclusion of Pedro the dog, who seemed to have no purpose other than adding an additional "Aaahh" factor. He certainly didn't do his share of the digging, or mixing the concrete.

Happy little show that breezily occupied BBC 1's Saturday night slot for five years.

In 2006 ITV decided to shoot a broadcast pilot for a possible revival, rebuilding some buildings within five days in Sri Lanka which had been destroyed by the 2004 tsunami. The theme tune and Dave the soundman were retained, but the logo, truck and jeep have all been updated and modernized. Lovely. Unfortunately, it lost out in the ratings to the premiere of Pirates of the Carribbean and Deal or No Deal, which is a pity.

Key moments

All too often, Pedro stole the show.

The moment when Anneka asked a man on the phone named Mark what P-L-Y stand for, only to have told it was all in one word ("PLY"), leaving Anneka in fits of laughter before cutting him off the line. When she tried to call Mark back, she was then put through by a man named Chris only for Anneka to ask "Is Mark there?" before realising she was put through to the wrong person.

Catchphrases

"(insert name of boss of large engineering company here), you are such a star!"

Inventor

Devised by Anneka herself, in conjunction with Malcolm Heyworth, her producer from her days with Treasure Hunt.

Theme music

Composed by David Mindel.

Trivia

The idea was first run as a one-off stunt for the BBC's Children in Need appeal, in 1987.

One of the most frequently asked questions was "Was it all a set up?" and one of the producers later admitted that yes, it was to an extent. Many of the engineering companies had been contacted in advance.

One of the projects, restoring a historic pier in Swansea, went somewhat pear-shaped when it was discovered the relevant planning permission hadn't been approved. Still, the council rubber-stamped it after the work had been done...

The show won a Bronze Rose of Montreux in 1991.

The format was successfully exported to the Netherlands, where their "Anneka" was Dutch pop star Angela Groothuizen, who went on to host the Dutch version of The Mole (Wie is... de Mol?) and is now a mentor/judge on the local version of The X Factor. Challenge Angela would have worked perfectly well as a title, but they just called it The Challenge instead.

Merchandise

Challenge Anneka: Get Well Soon

The production of this book was one of the challenges achieved on the programme. The idea was to create an activity book for children in hospital from scratch in about 48 hours.

Web links

Wikipedia entry

Pictures

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