1980-1986: The Adventure Game - Patrick Dowling And "Alice In Wonderland Crossed With Hitchhiker's"

Welcome to Arg! Darong played Moira Stuart, Gandor played Christopher Leaver and Gnoard played Charmian Gradwell.

Ah, what a delight! Without further ado, let's say: "Nepo emases!" Maddie Smith pronounced it so beautifully! In fact, it seemed that Ms Smith might actually be called Ivy P Daid at one point. Christopher Leaver, played by Gandor, suggested the possibility, but, of course, Ivy was actually Chinese Detective actor David Yip - which is self explanatory if you think about it.

Anyway, back to the main story. In the early 1980s, the vast majority of us knew little or nothing of computers. The subject was a closed book to me and my mates down at the local comprehensive school, and my school didn't have a computer at all. Computers were for scientists, Dr Who, the gas and electricity boards, and posh, geeky, nerdy people most of us knew nothing of as the decade swung into action. But the BBC telly series The Adventure Game featured a computer - and the show is a testament to how computer visuals leapt on during the decade, with the boring green-on-black writing of 1980 looking extraordinarily dated alongside the colourful "virtual reality" mazes featured in later years.

Arg was a small planet of little consequence, often visited by time travellers. The Argonds were a race of shape-shifting dragon-like creatures, who often assumed human form so as not to alarm visitors from Earth.

Whilst being a polite race, the Argonds did get a little bit fed up with intrusions from time travelling Earth folk and, having a regrettable sense of humour, would "nick" the essential time lock crystal from space crafts and set travellers a series of puzzles to enable them to get it back. Whilst we're on that subject, how do you work out how many Argonds are round the pond? I used to know, but I've forgotten!

The ruler of Arg was the Rangdo - "Uncle" to some - who started out in human form but didn't like it so metamorphasised into first an aspidistra then a teapot. "Gronda Gronda, Rangdo!"

The Adventure Game was all so beautifully English! I've been evaporated? Oh, bother! I shall just have to walk home, and it's jolly cold tonight! As the '80s continued, the concept really caught on on Arg with the puzzle fests being broadcast to great acclaim on Argo-Vision, and also becoming cult viewing here on planet Earth via the miracle of intergalactic relays. The show's creator, Patrick Dowling, described it as: "Alice In Wonderland crossed with Hitchhiker's," - as in Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Dowling had previously been involved in great telly wonders like Vision On, but there is no doubt that The Adventure Game was his crowning glory. He wrote and produced the first two series in 1980 and 1981, and introduced several episodes of the '81 series. He retired in 1982.

The Rangdo's delight was the Vortex - which saw many Arg explorers from Earth evaporated - but devious use of green cheese rolls could thwart (and infuriate) his Highness.

Explorers included Paul Darrow of Blake's 7 fame, Noel Edmonds of Swap Shop, Barbara Lott - Timothy's dreadful mother from Sorry!, and Rubik's Cube adorer David Singmaster. Actress Elizabeth Estensen confounded the wily dragons by having a hand small enough to fit down a narrow glass tube and extract a helpful piece of equipment, Maddie Smith and David Yip came unstuck after the clock quacked, and Bonnie Langford called the Rangdo "Oh Gronda". She was later evaporated.

 Paul Darrow steps it out. Will he be evaporated?

Of course, as Arg-O-Vision became the most popular TV station on that side of the horse head nebular, the Argond presenters of its top-rated show began to show signs of "artistic temperament" in the studio: Charmain Gradwell, played by Gnoard, ordered Angord, played by Angord, very fetching in her 1980s high fashion ra ra skirt and deelyboppers, to keep out of camera range during a session of the Drogna Game in one episode (the Drogna was the Argonds' currency), and Christopher Leaver, played by Gandor, brought Sarah Lam, played by Dorgan, down a peg or too by evaporating her in the 1985-'86 series.

Former children's TV heroine Lesley Judd, obviously thoroughly bored with sticky back plastic on Blue Peter, turned to the bad in The Adventure Game. Having been a contestant in one show in 1980, she turned up as a "mole" in the 1981 series - posing as a prisoner of the Argonds, but actually out to deceive and delay her fellow Earth folk and, hopefully, evaporate them. She went up a lot in our estimation during her Adventure Game stint. We never could stick goody-goody, fuddy-duddy old Blue Peter.

 Lesley Judd and friend - "Mole, mole, go to your hole!"

Of course, as Rongad would say, things could seems rather sdrawkcab on Arg, but it was all doog yrev (pronounced "doogy rev"). Nodrap?

After Patrick Dowling retired in 1982, the show's director Ian Oliver took over as producer, and was joined for series four by Christopher Tandy. 

Some episodes of this groundbreaking series were, unbelievably, wiped by the BBC, and, also unbelievably, there has never been an official DVD release of the episodes which do remain. The Adventure Game truly was groundbreaking - being the precursor to such series as The Crystal Maze and Knightmare. The 1980 series somehow grabbed my attention ( I was then a hairy, disgruntled teen with absolutely no computer savvy), and the following three series were required viewing. In 1980, when The Adventure Game began, I believed that computers were for eggheads. By 1986, when The Adventure Game ended, I thought they were a passing fad. How wrong I was! But the series, a wonderful combination of wacky problems, sci-fi and whimsy, remains one of my favourites - not just of the 1980s, but of all time. 

Treasure Hunt

Skyrunning with Anneka Rice. Destination: a ship at sea? The top of a lighthouse? The narrow deck of a submarine freshly risen from the deep blue ocean? No problem for Anneka and her team or pilot Keith Thompson.

The intrepid Anneka with her intrepid sound and camera men, Graham Berry and Frank Meyburgh.

1982 brought us Channel 4, a new telly channel with lots of fresh goodies - including Treasure Hunt - the first series was filmed in '82 and the first programme on-screen in late December, with the rest being screened in early 1983.

The idea for Treasure Hunt came from France - the creative genius in this case was one Jacques Antoine. In 1980, he came up with the idea for a brand new series called La Chasse au trésor and filmed a pilot episode - which was not intended for broadcast. Much work on the concept was still needed - in the pilot episode there was just a single contestant and no helicopter, plus other differences to the format that would later captivate TV audiences. Refined and honed, La Chasse au trésor was first broadcast on 15 March 1981, and refined and honed further for its second season in 1982. Over here in the UK, with Channel 4 cranking up for its November 1982 debut, it wasn't long before the idea was spotted...

Of course, there were some differences between the French and British versions of the show, but basically all Treasure Hunt devotees owe Jacques Antoine a big "Thank You" for coming up with the basic idea in the first place.

Anneka Rice, she of the colourful lycra outfits, was quite sedate for the first Channel 4 series or so, as she sped around the British Isles - and occasionally further afield - in a helicopter, looking for clues so that studio bound contestants could win a cash prize. But it didn't take long for her lively personality to assert itself and soon she was shrieking her head off, chattering away ten-to-the-dozen via a radio link with former news reader Kenneth Kendall and the contestants in the studio or, face-to-face, with the general public, helicopter pilot Captain Keith Thompson, and camera and sound men Graham Berry and Frank Meyburgh.

She livened things up no end - a great 'people person' and just what the show needed.

Members of the "Treasure Hunt" team, including Anneka, Graham and Frank and pilot Captain Keith Thompson (far left).

In series one, clue and course setter Ann Meo popped in at the beginning of each show and exchanged some faintly astringent banter with Kenneth. Ann would later set questions for Blockbusters. In series two, Annette Lynton ("Nettie" to Kenneth) joined the show as on-screen adjudicator, plotting the helicopter's course on a large map and keeping contestants informed of the time remaining to complete the course. 

TV-am weather girl Wincey Willis arrived as adjudicator for the 1985 series and remained until the show ended. The show's final season in 1989 saw professional tennis player Annabel Croft taking over Anneka's role as "skyrunner" for some more highly enjoyable outings.


 Kenneth Kendall with two contestants and a floor manager at the Limehouse TV studios. The programme was made by Chatsworth Television.

Treasure Hunt is a show I remember very fondly.

Some fascinating facts about the series from the 1988 Look-In annual...

Each new series involves no less than 13 months of hectic organisation, and the process begins in November when ideas for new locations are considered. Local maps are checked, guide books are read and tourist offices are contacted about any special events which may be happening during filming. The following month, a list of 15 proposed locations is completed after confirmation that general flying conditions in each area are satisfactory.

In January, two of the team set out for an eight-week tour of the locations to see if they look good, to assess the interest of clue sites, and to establish a good route. Approaches are made to secure landing permissions, and the co-operation of site owners.Channel 4 broadcasts an announcement inviting hopeful contestants to write in, then application forms are sent out, and replies considered, in February.

In March, the best 15 courses are worked out and presented to the producer and director, and then the final 13 chosen. From the thousands who write in, 250 pairs of applicants are invited to attend an interview session.

By April, the task of obtaining permissions from all involved at locations is still under way. Captain Keith Thompson, the chief pilot, contacts local airfields to get the go-ahead for landing and flight paths from local air traffic controllers. Contestants’ interviews are held in various parts of the country.

The final selection of contestants is completed in May; one pair per programme plus one stand-by couple in case the first can’t take part. The producer, director, researcher and clue writer are flown to each location by Keith Thompson for a 10-day period to carefully test each idea. A communications expert organises the rental of special telephone lines from British Telecom and talks to the Independent Broadcasting Authority about the use of local broadcast frequencies. Both are crucial factors to the programme; without them Kenneth Kendall and company back in the TV studio would have no contact with the crew out on location.

During May and early June, dates and locations are confirmed with everyone involved, from the police and the Civil Aviation Authority to property owners. Work begins on clues and Chris Gage, the director, organises the Ordnance Survey maps to be used in the studio. Camera scripts are prepared.

The middle of June is crunch time: it’s when each series is recorded over five intense and hectic weeks during which the location crew work and live closely together. With the filming completed, the painstaking task of editing begins in August. And ends in November! By December, everyone breathes a sigh of relief when the finished programmes are presented to Channel 4 for transmission.

Although bad weather is a constant hazard, only rarely has a shoot had to be postponed. Such a time was when a sudden, heavy fog descended on the helicopter after a tricky landing made by Captain Keith Thompson in a car park. Anneka had to run into a nearby factory in search of a clue when Keith decided that further filming should be abandoned. Two days later, filming was resumed in bright sunshine, and as Anneka ran out of the factory she said: “My goodness, it’s cleared up a bit while I’ve been in there!”

Anneka has to be prepared for literally anything on the programme. “Malcolm [producer Malcolm “The Captain” Heyworth] often rings me up and makes a casual suggestion that I could learn some new energetic pastime which might be called for in one of the programmes,” she grins. “Last time it was scuba diving. I spent many weeks at the bottom of my local baths with tanks on my back for two hours at a stretch until I mastered it.”

The whereabouts of the “Treasure Hunt” clues are shrouded in such secrecy that Anneka is confined to her hotel until the day of the shoot. The only advance information she has then is the starting point of her take-off!

Anneka has nothing but admiration for Graham Berry and Frank Meyburgh, who never leave her side during recordings. “They have to stay with me every step of the way,” she says, “and theirs is a more strenuous job than mine because they have to carry all their equipment, whether it’s up a mountain or to a rock out to sea."

 
 The Treasure Hunt book, 1986. From Anneka's introduction: 

People seem to watch Treasure Hunt for different reasons. For some, it is the excitement of solving the clues before the contestants;  for others it is the glorious countryside, and the stunning aerial photography. For us the Treasure Hunt team, the most important part of the programme is you, the audience.

I am constantly amazed and touched by your letters - I've never worked on a series that inspires so much loyalty among its viewers: I recognise some of the names and handwriting from our first series. As long as you  keep watching, we'll keep rnning. Who knows, in 2010 Graham, Frankie and I may be charging around in motorised bathchairs.

Channel 4

The notion of a second commercial TV channel had been around for at least a couple of decades. Finally, the Broadcasting Act 1980 set the wheels in motion to make that notion a reality.

Looking tremendously cutting edge, Channel Four debuted on 2 November 1982 and it was a huge national event. We only had three telly channels back then, and BBC 2 was rarely watched in households round my way - we thought its content was far too highbrow about 99.9% of the time.

We feared Channel Four might be the same, but "gave it a go" anyway...

When I saw the colourful shapes whirling across the screen, I yelped: "Oh no - not another Rubik's puzzle!" I was just getting over being defeated by the Cube and bitten by the Snake...

Thankfully, the shapes simply assembled themselves as Channel Four's logo. I breathed a sigh of relief - although I still thought that it had strong Rubikian (?!) influences!

The logo was designed in 1982 by the Robinson Lambie-Nairn company.

Appraised of the facts about the new channel-to-be, Lambie-Nairn decided to play on the fact that Channel 4 would be buying all its programmes in, so would be a kind of patchwork.

The idea they came up with was to try and illustrate the various elements which would make up Channel 4 coming together.

With the logo created, Lambie Nairn used a computer to animate the outlines of the blocks to the final freeze. The movements were then hand coloured and shot, but it didn't work - what was lacking was shadow and lighting.

Lambie-Nairn went to Bo Gehring Aviation in Los Angeles, USA. The company specialised in computer animation and Lambie-Nairn ordered differing sequences of the same basic symbol to be made entirely on computer. At that time, nobody provided that service in the UK.

The result, of course, was the familiar Channel 4 logo seen on the opening night and for years afterwards - a very cutting edge design and animating technique in 1982.

But would Channel 4 be a cutting edge TV station?

From the Daily Mirror, 4/9/1982.

Will ITV's Channel Four be a big turn-off?

You will soon be able to switch on to a brand new TV channel.

ITV's Channel Four goes on the air early in November.

But whether viewers will like what they see is another matter. The new channel is aiming to be experimental in content with a large output of educational and minority programmes.

In fact more like BBC-2 than ITV.

And in some quarters of the ITV companies fears are growing that this could be the recipe for a ratings disaster. For a start there'll be hardly any sport. What little there is will come mainly from America - basketball and grid-iron football, for instance.

Then each weekday night at the peak viewing time of seven, the channel plans an hour-long news programme.

Here's a run-down of what you will (or may not want to) be watching when Channel 4 flickers into life on Tuesday, November 2 at 4.45 pm.

COMEDY: From Australia, Paul Hogan. Top comedian Down Under and highly thought of by Channel 4 bosses who have bought twenty-six of his shows.

"The Optimist", a silent comedy starring up-and-coming English actor Enn Reitel and filmed in Hollywood.

And Peter Bowles stars in "The Irish RM", a six-parter based on the classic comedy stories of an Irish magistrate and set in the 1890s.

SOAP OPERA: "Brookside", an up-market "Coronation Street" set on an estate where most people own their own homes.

LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT: The Brazilian-made "Fantastico", reputedly one of the world's most spectacular song and dance shows, will run for twenty weeks at least.

NOSTALGIA: Hit American series of the Sixties such as "I Love Lucy", "The Munsters" and "Get Smart".

BLOCKBUSTER: "Nicholas Nickleby". The hit stage production of the Charles Dickens classic by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

FILMS: The silent version of "Napoleon", with a music track added, runs for six hours. Otherwise you'll be seeing golden oldies such as the 1930s gangster film "Scarface"; Eddie Cantor movies including "Whoopee".

Midnight movies on Friday and Saturday nights will run up to 2am, with a hint there will be some X-rated films.

DRAMA: Two plays ready for screening have down beat themes. "The Disappearance of Harry" stars Annette Crosbie as the wife of a man who leaves for work one morning and never returns. "Angel" is the story of a young saxophone player facing violence and death.

Channel 4's chief executive, Jeremy Isaacs, says: "it will be responsive to its audience's changing needs, lively, concerned, useful - and fun."

The target figure is a nightly audience of five million.

Will Channel 4 ever manage to attract that many viewers? Wait and see.

And so we waited. And we saw.

On 2 November 1982, after a welcome from presenter Paul Coia and a look at goodies to come, we settled back for the first of Channel Four's programmes - and it was "anyone for anagrams?" with Countdown.

You can see Richard Whiteley above and Carol Vorderman below as they appeared in the very first show.

Early Channel 4 was short of adverts, due to an industrial dispute: should actors appearing in ads on channels like TV-am (which was due to start in February 1983) and Channel 4, both envisaged as attracting lower audiences than the main ITV regional channels, be paid less? It took some time to sort that one out, so, in the early days of Channel 4, we got to know pictures with captions like "Brookside follows shortly" very well indeed!

The "Sun", January 20, 1983: TV critic Margaret Forwood comments on the lack of adverts and adds a few of her thoughts on Channel Four in general...


From the "Sun", February 2, 1982. Actually the provisional title for this show, which turned out to be "Brookside", was "Meadowcroft", not "Meadowcraft" and the creator was Phil Redmond not Redmund! Still, "Coronation Street" producer Bill Podmore's confident attitude is worth noting: "I enjoy competition... especially when we are going to win."

I remember watching the very first episode of Brookside and loving the electronic theme tune. But I wasn't too sure about the characters or setting. Would it take off? It all seemed a bit too real...

We couldn't have guessed on the first night, but with its gritty plots and set of real houses, Brookside would drag soap away from the cosy story lines, tight perms and brightly lit studio sets of Crossroads and Coronation Street, both fixtures on ITV since the 1960s, into the 1980s.

The characters - the moved-up-in the world Grant family, moved-down-in the world Collins family, and young urban professionals Roger and Heather Huntington, were uncompromisingly non-cosy. The language used in the early episodes was considered a little too real and had to be toned-down, but early Brookside, thought by many to be far too subversive to be a soap opera, was great. Well, OK, maybe this anti-Thatcher dog was a bit too darned shaggy. As a poor, working class geezer, I don't recall real life in the 1980s being anywhere near as grim as in Brookside, but for those of us who detested Thatcher at the time it was sheer bloody brilliance.

Gordon Collins, played by Mark Burgess, was the first regular gay character in English TV soaps; Tracy Corkhill (Justine Kerrigan) got into trouble with telephone chatlines, parents, teachers, you name it; Annabelle Collins (Doreen Sloane) faced a move down in status from the leafy Wirral to rough and tumble Brookside; but for working class mum Sheila Grant, played by Sue Johnston, the Close marked a move up in the world from a grotty council estate.

I believe that Brookside was, at least partly, responsible for some new (to most of us) slang words over the next few years. Before the 1980s, I recall nobody in my area calling Christmas "Chrimbo" and electricity "'leccy", but, post November 1982, both gradually seeped into usage.

They seemed to originate from Brookside "Scouse speak".

Sainsbury's, of course, became "Sainsboe's"!

Brookside was soon more commonly known as "Brookie", and Coronation Street became "Corrie", which, again, I don't recall before the 1980s. Soaps simply weren't trendy enough before the 80s to bother with zippy abbreviations. Brookside influenced other soaps and helped to blast away soap's fuddy-duddy image - making it respectable for youngsters to tune in.

But I digress. Back to what I viewed on that first night on Channel Four...

I remember being depressed by the opening night film - Walter - about a man with "learning disabilities" (the modern day PC phrase - not in use round my way, nor I believe anywhere else, in 1982!) who was subjected to various horrible experiences after his mother died.

Five Go Mad In Dorset was a Comic Strip Presents production, and a merciless mickey take of the Enid Blyton Famous Five books.

The show had a "surprise guest star" - Ronald Allen, David Hunter of Crossroads fame - appearing as Uncle Quentin. Dear Uncle told the children: "I'm a screaming homosexual, you little prigs!"

It was difficult not to see Ronald Allen as his Crossroads character, I don't think I'd ever seen the actor appearing in any other show before, and to hear "David Hunter" coming out with those words left me absolutely breathless with laughter.

At the end of my first taste of Channel Four programmes, I decided that it was different. Definitely different. And worth another look...

See a 1988 article on Channel Four favourite Treasure Hunt here.
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3-2-1

In the increasingly sophisticated mid-'80s, we chucked out our 1982 deelyboppers, pumped up the shoulder pads a little more, and knew we’d made it. We only had to look around us at the wine bars, the bouffant mullets, the pastel coloured clothing (for men as well as women), the black ash furniture, the up-lighters, the glitz and gloss.

Even Dusty Bin, who'd been with us since 1978, was getting more sophisticated - as this article from 1985 shows…

Dusty Bin, the mascot booby prize of “3-2-1”, ITV’s Saturday night game show, has become famous not only as an advanced robot capable of making an amazing number of movements, but also as one of the most lovable characters on TV. Now in his eighth series, he’s a star in his own right, with a whole range of toys named after him. He lives in a converted chapel outside Leeds, the workshop of Ian Rowley.

Robotics expert Rowley had been asked to do some pretty amazing things in his time, from ‘blowing up’ a £20,000 cruiser to making a set of underwater bagpipes for comedian Les Dawson. But the day he was asked to animate a dustbin was, though he didn’t realise it, one of the greatest challenges of his career.

He also didn’t suspect he’d be working on the project over the next three years, continually adapting the £10,000 robot to do new and more adventurous things with every series.

In the 120 programmes Rowley has been involved with, his little friend Dusty Bin has juggled balls, played the piano, flown around the studio with a James Bond jetpack, escaped Houdini-style from chains, ridden a bike, sprayed host Ted Rogers with paint and driven into the studio in a tank to bomb the audience with confetti.

Rowley says: ‘Dusty allows me to do all the many things I’ve always wanted to do but would never have the nerve to. Every week I read the script and say to myself, “What outrageous things can I get him to do next?”’

Every show has fresh challenges to provoke new ideas. But thanks to 73 microprocessors, Dusty never fails to meet Rowley’s requirements. Rowley personally operates him on the show by means of a radio-controlled handset, similar to those that control model aircraft. But technology is moving fast, and he is currently working on refinements which will give Dusty programmable arms, twice the power and the ability to move at five miles per hour. “That’s fast for a dustbin,” he says.

What an era!

And Ted Rogers was still doing his 3-2-1 hand gesture on each and every show.

Wow!

Anything more would have been greedy.