Treasure Hunt (British game show)

Presenters and crew

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 on terrestrial television several times, and during the 1990s appeared on the Challenge satellite and cable channel, as well as Sky Travel. The first episode was repeated on 30 October 2007 on the digital channel More4 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, 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 the BBC Micro, 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 version, Helfa Drysor (Welsh for "Treasure Hunt"), was produced for S4C in 1985.

BBC Three Counties Radio 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, with two runners running simultaneously in the two radio areas during the same programme. It aired from 9am until 12pm, and later 10am to 12pm. The show ended on 15 July 2023 after almost 10 years on air.

BBC Radio Norfolk 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, and then teaming up with Betts to find the treasure.

On London's talk station LBC, 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 presented 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. From the start of the first lockdown until Ryan's departure from the station in March 2023, the quiz operated as a virtual tour with the answers providing locations both in the county and worldwide.

Cambridge 105 Radio have also presented their own version called 'Where's Flossie Live!'. Flossie is name of the station's outside broadcast vehicle. This would air on a bank holiday weekend. Clues would be set around the city of Cambridge and a presenter, usually on a bike, accompanied by a sound/broadcast engineer would have to solve each clue at a different location to be able to move on to the next location. Flossie would be located at the final destination. The starting point was typically the station's studios on the Gwydir Street Enterprise Centre in Cambridge.

Transmissions

Original

Specials

Revival

List of episodes

1982–1989 version

2002–2003 version

International versions

References

References

1. "AAIB Bulletin No: 9/95". Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
2. [http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Helfa_Drysor UKGameshows.com] - Retrieved 1 March 2007.
3. (7 September 2009). "In pictures: Treasure Quest 06/09/2009". [[BBC Online]].
4. (15 February 2010). "In pictures: Treasure Quest 14/02/2010". [[BBC Online]].
5. (16 February 2010). "Anneka turns up in Treasure Hunt take-off". [[The Guardian]].