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This is one of Orions
favourite game shows, hosted by Robert Llewelyn and
Lisa Rodgers. It is very inspirational and embodies a
lot of the principles underlying Orion Robots.
Scrapheap Challenge
is known as Junkyard Wars in the United
States. It is a game
show broadcast on British Channel
4 and The
Learning Channel. The show features contestants
using materials (often old vehicles) available in a junkyard
to build working machines that can do a specific task.
At the end of each episode, the machines are pitted
against each other in a contest to determine the winner.
Episodes generally consist of
two four-person teams in competition, plus one or two
hosts who usually consult with an "expert"
judge who knows something about non-junk
versions of the machines being constructed. Each team
consists of three regular members, plus a fourth expert
who usually has a better understanding of the class of
machine being constructed for that episode.
Robert Llewlyn and Lisa Rogers
The challenges are many and
varied, but usually involve teams constructing a machine
to achieve a particular objective. Challenges usually
involve understanding of a particular scientific
principle, e.g. ballistics,
navigation
etc. The final showdown usually consists of either head
to head races or individually run timed events.
The idea for the show came from
a scene in the movie Apollo
13, where NASA
engineers had only a short period of time to construct
an air filter out of parts available on the space
capsule.
Scrapheap Challenge
originated on the British Channel
4, but was imported to United States television
under the name Junkyard Wars. Later, an American
version of the show was created with the same name.
In the United
Kingdom, the two programs have distinct names, but
American audiences only see the Junkyard Wars
title. Sometimes, video of the UK version is even edited
to blot out the name Scrapheap Challenge. In
2004, a series of the US programme was broadcast on
Channel 4 under the title Scrapheap Challenge USA,
but only the title sequence was changed and the rest of
the programme, including logos and verbal references to
"Junkyard Wars" remained intact. The UK
programme was originally presented by Robert
Llewellyn and Cathy
Rogers. The latter was replaced by Lisa
Rogers (no relation) in 2002.
The first series of the show,
in the UK, pitted the same two teams against each other
each week, and was simply titled Scrapheap. The Challenge
part was added when the gauntlet was thrown down to new
competitors, and a knockout championship process was
created.
The
engineering demonstrated in the events has mostly been
of a very high standard. Of course - because team
members often have different ideas, you get some
tension. It is normally a better team who gets most of
this sorted out in the design phase where they draw
battle plans on old car bonnets.
There were catapults, tanks,
motor-boats, submarines, flying machines and a multitude
of other vehicles built. The new Scrappy Races season is
turning out to be just as good - although one team are
particularly dismal.
Robert
Llewlyn
Rated
22nd
Best Ever UK Game Show
Evidently a lot of people missed this gem first
time round, so Channel 4 changed the title from Scrapheap
to Scrapheap Challenge for series 2 as if to
say "Hey, it may be Sunday afternoon but not
everyone's showing repeats of 1940s black and white
films. Look! See! Here's something with some laffs!"
Robert Llewellyn (who will always be best known as
Kryten in Red Dwarf for the rest of eternity
whether he likes it or not) gave two teams
opportunities to build something rubbish from lots of
rubbish - but prepare to be genuinely impressed!
The two teams were asked to build buggies,
catapults, powerboats, rockets and diving bells. There
were two teams that were made up of three regulars
(who were in every episode) and a special guest member
who would have some tenuous link with whatever was
being built.
At the top of the show, Bob would tell the teams
what they were going to be building and told them that
they would have "until the Sun falls out of the
sky" - or ten hours to the lay person.
A big wall of rubbish (mainly crushed cars) hides
both team bases from each other. The first thing the
teams would do was planning what they needed with the
team's expert. Once decided, the team representatives
would venture out into the junkyard (the same one
Channel 5 use to get their prizes, fact fans) and
attempt to find the bits that they need. For this they
are given a buggy to carry stuff around in and a
headset so they can talk to the captains. What this
amounts to is a race basically, with each team looking
for the same bits of scrap. In several episodes,
necessary specialist equipment had to be hidden
randomly in the yard.
Lisa
Rogers out on the town
The teams making their contraptions then took up
most of the show. The trials and tribulations were all
captured on film. And these would be intermixed by Bob
talking to the resident
specially-brought-in-to-commentate expert who would
comment regularly throughout the show on the teams'
progress and explain why teams are doing what they are
doing. Anything too complicated would be explained by
Robert on a televisual computerised blackboard. Niiice.
The one thing that strikes the viewer whilst
watching this nut-wrenching and spanner-twisting it is
that what could and should be really boring actually
turns out to be very entertaining. Why is this? First, you have entertaining contestants and a fair
amount of emphasis is put on the banter, camaraderie
and competition between them. The sort of people who
take the whole thing seriously yet don't, if you see
what we're getting at. Secondly, Robert Llewelyn's
darkly humorous commentary and slightly outlandish
observation adds to the lilt, such as "Join us in
part two to see if they drown."
The
set walls are made of
crushed cars with blackboard centre.
But, eventually, the ten hours will run out and
indeed the Sun will have fallen out of the sky. In the
last couple of minutes there is usually the inevitable
"oh no" there's something wrong and the
machine has a problem which they usually fix before the time is up.
Then the team try out their machine, depending on what
they'd built that week. In series 1, we had:
-
Catapults: Each team has
fifteen minutes in order to hit their opponent's
base turret with as many cabbages as possible from
fifty meters away. Whoever hits the most times
wins unless they manage to hit and knock
off the puppet sitting in a window in the middle
of the turret, in which case that's an automatic
win.
And the end result: a very different sort of show
and possibly the surprise hit of the year.
Robert Llewellyn
as Kryten
There have been a few tweaks to the format over the
years. The floodlit night-time finales of the first
two series gave way to a two-day shooting schedule
with the build still done in one day, but the final
test the next day. An hour's "tinkering
time" became enshrined in the rules when it
became clear that nothing was ever going to work
properly without it.
The second series saw producer Cathy Rogers join
Robert Llewellyn on screen, and she also went on to
produce and present the US version Junkyard
Wars. This expansion of the franchise allowed for
some transatlantic christmas specials, with Bob and US
co-host Tyler Harcott making an appealing double-act.
The UK show even decamped to California for one
series, possibly as a tax dodge (and who wouldn't?).
In fact, although they never made a big deal of it on
screen, the Scrapheap itself was usually a different
one in each series anyway.
Cathy left in 2002, bound for Full
Metal Challenge and overseeing Faking It USA,
to be replaced by Lisa "it's quite a common
surname, you know" Rogers, a substitution that,
if we're honest, made pretty much no difference to the
show at all, and life goes on pretty much as normal on
the 'heap, except that whoever does the cartoons
nowadays, can't do the faces properly.
We've also got to mention this spin-off series.
Five teams have to build road-worthy vehicles capable
of being adapted to take on various challenges, and
having created their clever vehicles (on their own
time), they travel around the country and have eight
hours on a local scrapheap to prepare for each
challenge. With an emphasis on adaptation rather than
building from scratch, the series owes at least as
much to short-lived stablemate Full
Metal Challenge as to Scrapheap itself. A
four-part series went out in January 2004, and a
second five-part series a year later.
Undoubtedly, a bloke who was nicknamed
"Buzz" in the final episode of series 1. He
made rockets in his spare time and was one of the
oddest people they had on the show, albeit one of the
most likeable. Madder than a Mad thing that shouts
"Hello I'm Mad!" who is currently residing
in McMadland Asylum in America. Possibly.
There has never yet been an episode when both
teams' machines failed to work - though they have come
perilously close on quite a few occasions.
Geronimo!
host Dick
Strawbridge was a member of one of the house teams
in the first series, and later of the 2000 series
champions, Brothers In Arms.
In the first (1998) series, the same two teams,
Orange and Yellow, competed every week. The six-show
series was tied, three-all.
1999 Megalomaniacs
2000 Brothers in Arms
2001 Cat-Alysts
2002 Barley Pickers
2003 The Destroyers
2004 Anoraks
Scrappy Races
2004 Chaos Crew
2005 Chaos Crew again
Cathy Rogers (co-inventor)
Video: Scrapheap
Challenge: The Commandments (VHS) | (DVD)
Book: Behind
The Scenes At Scrapheap Challenge by Robert
Llewellyn
Weaver's
Week review (4 December 2004)
Official
Website
Junkyard
Wars Online - excellent Scrapheap/Junkyard fan site
Robert
Llewellyn's home page
Off
the Telly review
Orange and yellow teams
get to work
ROBERT
LLEWELWYN Actor - filmography
(In Production) (2000s)
(1990s) (1980s)
-
Red
Dwarf: The Movie (2005) (pre-production)
.... Kryten 2X4B-523P
-
MirrorMask
(2005) .... Gryphon
-
Moo(n)
(2003) .... Narrator
-
Christmas
Carol: The Movie (2001) (voice) .... Old Joe
... aka Weihnachtsmärchen, Ein (Germany)
-
Discworld
Noir (1999) (VG) (voice) .... Left palace guard
-
Can't
Smeg Won't Smeg (1998) (TV) .... Kryten 2X4B
523P
-
The
Feeble Files (1997) (VG) (voice) .... Feeble
-
Jim's
Gift (1996) (TV)
-
Red
Dwarf Smeg Outs (1995) (V) .... Kryten and
Himself
-
"I,
Camcorder" (1995)
TV Series
.... Presenter
-
It's
a Girl (1994) (TV)
-
Red
Dwarf Smeg Ups (1994) (V) .... Kryten and
Himself
-
Grushko
(1994) (TV) .... Petrakov
-
Prince
Cinders (1993) (voice) .... Ugly brother
-
Red
Dwarf (1992) (TV) .... Kryten
... aka Red Dwarf USA (USA: complete title)
-
"Red
Dwarf" (1988)
TV Series
.... Kryten 2X4B 523P (1989-)
-
"The
Corner House" (1987)
TV Series
.... Dave
-
Ghost
Dance (1983) .... Leader of Americans
-
Skywhales
(1983) (voice) .... Voices
Filmography as: Actor,
Writer, Himself,
Notable TV Guest
Appearances
Writer - filmography
(2000s) (1990s)
(1980s)
-
Christmas
Carol: The Movie (2001)
... aka Weihnachtsmärchen, Ein (Germany)
-
The
Man on Platform 5 (2000) (novel)
-
Red
Dwarf Smeg Outs (1995) (V)
-
Prince
Cinders (1993)
-
"Red
Dwarf" (1988)
TV Series
(writer) (epsiode 7.06)
-
"The
Corner House" (1987)
TV Series
(writer)
Filmography as: Actor,
Writer, Himself,
Notable TV Guest
Appearances
Himself - filmography
(2000s) (1990s)
-
"Ultimate
Sci-Fi Top 10" (2004) (mini)
TV Series
.... Himself
-
"Scrapheap
Challenge: The Scrappy Races" (2004)
TV Series
.... Himself (presenter)
-
"Britain's
Best Sitcom" (2004)
TV Series
.... Himself
-
"Hollywood
Science" (2003)
TV Series
.... Himself
-
Top
Ten TV Sci-Fi (2001) (TV) .... Himself
-
"Scrapheap"
(1998) TV Series .... Himself
(Host)
... aka Junkyard Wars (USA)
... aka Scrapheap Challenge (UK: new title)
Filmography as: Actor,
Writer, Himself,
Notable TV Guest
Appearances
Notable TV
Guest Appearances
-
"Comedy
Connections"
playing
"Himself" in episode:
"Red Dwarf" (episode # 2.8)
30 August 2004
-
"The
Bob Downe Show"
playing
"Himself" (episode # 1.14)
11 March 2001
-
"Space
Cadets"
playing
"Himself" in episode:
"Morks vs Mindys" (episode # 1.9)
9 September 1997
-
"Captain
Butler"
playing
"Admiral Nelson" in episode:
"Kiss Me Harder" (episode # 1.2)
10 January 1997
-
"Joking
Apart"
playing
"Tom" (episode # 1.4) 1993
-
"Bottom"
playing "Falklands War Vet"
in episode: "Parade"
(episode # 2.4) 22 October 1992
-
"Boon"
playing "Mr. Fenton"
in episode: "Walkout"
(episode # 7.3) 22 September 1992
-
"KYTV"
playing "Phil" in
episode: "KY Tellython"
(episode # 2.1) 17 March 1992
-
"Murder
Most Horrid"
playing
"Taxi Driver" in episode:
"Mrs Hat and Mrs Red" (episode #
1.6) 19 December 1991
-
"Birds
of a Feather"
playing
"Tory Candidate" in episode:
"You Pays Yer Money" (episode #
2.8) 25 October 1990
-
"Colin's
Sandwich"
playing
"Priest" in episode:
"A Piece of Cake" 19 January 1990
-
"Alas
Smith & Jones"
(episode # 6.6)
1990
-
"Alas
Smith & Jones"
(episode # 6.4)
1990
-
"Alas
Smith & Jones"
(episode # 6.2)
1990
Lisa
Rogers TV presenter
Cardiff
born Lisa is a familiar face on TV but has long lost her
Welsh accent. Her previous work includes: The Big
Breakfast, Sport Relief and Top
of the Pops, before lock stock and Scrapheap
Challenge. Lisa has no fear in mucking about with
the teams and can hold her own when chatting with
Robert. Oh, and a point we can't stress enough
(because everyone wants to know) she's not related to
Cathy.
SCRAPHEAP
CHALLENGE
APPLICATION
RDF MEDIA
PO BOX 43741
LONDON
W14 8XA
Rob
& Lisa guard the trophy
SCRAPHEAP
CHALLENGE APPLICATION FORM - Fill out in
capital letters and print three copies - each team mates
must fill out a copy. Then post with pictures to
the above address.
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