The Adventure Game

For the computer and video game genre, see Adventure game.
The Adventure Game
Genre Game show
Presented by Patrick Dowling
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 4
No. of episodes 22
Production
Running time 25-45 minutes
Release
Original network BBC1 (1980)
BBC2 (1981-6)
Picture format 4:3
Original release 24 May 1980 (1980-05-24) – 18 February 1986 (1986-02-18)

The Adventure Game was a game show, aimed at children but with an adult following, which was originally broadcast on UK television channels BBC1 and BBC2 between 24 May 1980 and 18 February 1986. The story in each show was that the two celebrity contestants and a member of the public had travelled by space ship to the planet Arg. Their overall task varied with each series. For example, the team might be charged with finding a crystal needed to power their ship to return to Earth. The programme is often considered to have been a forerunner of The Crystal Maze.

The programme came about because Patrick Dowling (who also introduced episodes of series 2) had an interest in Dungeons and Dragons and wanted to televise a show that would capture the mood. The programme also has a similar sci-fi feel to the work of Douglas Adams, who was asked by Patrick to write the show, as he already agreed to write a TV series of his own radio show The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The first two series were written and produced by Dowling and directed by Ian Oliver, who wrote and produced the final two series after Dowling had retired from the BBC.

Many elements and events of The Adventure Game would later be used again in the CBBC game show, Incredible Games.

The characters

Arg was inhabited by shapeshifting dragons known as Argonds. As a reference to this, most proper nouns in the programme, including Argond, were anagrams of the word dragon. To avoid scaring contestants, within a few minutes before they arrived, generally all Argonds shifted form, mostly to human.

Notable characters within the game included:

The look of the characters in Argond form was quite different in the various series:

Notable contestants included Keith Chegwin, Sue Cook, astronomer Heather Couper, John Craven, Paul Darrow, Noel Edmonds, Sarah Greene, Bonnie Langford, James Burke and Richard Stilgoe.

The credits for the series listed the human characters as being played by Argonds, rather than the other way round.

Common tasks

The contestants had to complete a number of tasks in order to achieve their overall goal (i.e.. regain their crystal and return to their ship). Many tasks involved the drogna, a small transparent plastic disc containing a solid geometric figure, which was the currency of Arg. The value of a drogna was its numbered position in the visible spectrum multiplied by the number of sides of the figure (though the contestants usually failed to work this out). For example, a red circle is worth one unit, an orange circle is worth two units, a red triangle and a yellow circle are both worth three, and so on.

Tasks which often appeared included:

Gnoard demonstrates the Vortex task.

Episodes

Where known, and applicable, the contestants are listed below in the order in which they played the Vortex game: [E] = evaporated, [S] = survived, [n/a] = didn't play.

Series 1

Originally broadcast in 1980 on BBC1 on Saturday mornings.

Repeated in 1980 on BBC2 on Saturday mid-afternoons.

The series of encounters in every episode of Series 1 was the same, although some were omitted or added depending on time constraints:

Series 1 also differs from 2 and 3 in that Gnoard's name varies regularly (at different points she is called "Enod", "Charmian", and "What's Her Name"). The set used for the main puzzle in each episode is the same: it always features a desk with two fixed plastic tubes, one with an air blower below, and a compartment secured by either a key lock or an electrically released seal; a reversed grandfather clock; three pressure pads located in three spots in the studio; a broom cupboard; and a ladies' toilet door with a vacant/engaged symbol above it (in all episodes but the first; as most teams had only one female contestant, this was usually used to isolate her so she could play a separate game; but it is sometimes not used at all, and is a trap in one episode, causing legitimately terrified screams and flight in the female contestant due to the appearance of a monster inside; in another episode Gnoard changes the ladies' room sign to a men's room one after the female contestant fails the task and is jailed inside). A series of three doors with clowns' faces on them appears as a puzzle in the first episode and is used several times as a background prop in later episodes.

Series 2

Originally broadcast in 1981 on BBC2 on Monday early-evenings.

Repeated in 1982 on BBC1 on Friday late-afternoons.

Series 3

Originally broadcast in 1984 on BBC2 on Thursday early-evenings.

Repeated in 1985 on BBC2 on Thursday early-evenings.

Series 4

Originally broadcast in 1986 on BBC2 on Tuesday early-evenings.

Repeated in 2002, 2003 & 2004 on the digital TV channel Challenge.

Signature tune

Missing episodes

Following a mass wiping of children's television programmes in the early 1990s[5] no copies of the following episodes are present in the BBC's archives:

Notes

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/28/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.