Scrapheap Challenge has been a programme I’ve always enjoyed, for it’s sheer technical and engineering interest, the enthusiastic engineers, eccentrics, the mad challenges and excellent production values and presenters. It ticked so many boxes: Great family entertainment, a good dollop of education, the thrill of a challenge and lots of humour.
But after ten years, it was clear they needed to do something new. Presenter Robert Llewellyn and Cathy Rogers were moving on, and you can’t really stick to the same format for too long without risking getting stale.
But having watched the first episode from the new version this evening, I’m left feeling rather sad that the production of the new series seems to have tried hard to keep Scrapheap, but missed the fundamentals of what made it work as a programme. Whilst they’ve got a great presenter with Dick Strawbridge, and there’s still a sense of invention, it’s not quite as madcap. It feels like there are too many people involved, and I found it really hard to find a narrative: All the contestants, family and observers seemed to be talking to an anonymous and silent off-camera interviewer, which just seemed to leave me feeling detached.
The production seems cheap too. All the sound effects from the previous version, and painfully simple graphics (including points shown right across the team-pic), and that lack of interviewer, it’s clear that budget costs have been slashed. Given how much the show is repeated on More4, I’m a bit surprised it’s not more of an investment on a show like this. But perhaps the viewing figures were falling away, so something had to give.
All said, I can’t see there being another series. They tried to keep Scrapheap Challenge, but simply forgot what made Scrapheap work. The ‘great egg race’ inspiration of the original was nowhere to be seen. What’s left seems to have many of the ingredients, but just doesn’t ’stick’ together in a cohesive way.
Entries (RSS)
September 1st, 2009 at 9:45 am
Totally agree. They took a great programme that appealed to nerds and families alike, removed all the best ingredients and then tried to shore it up with a load of uninteresting interviews. The key missing elements: the drama of competition and the race against the clock, wacky humour, presenter chemistry, engineering nerdiness, the thrill of watching a genuine event with half finished machines, the Schadenfreude of experts proved completely wrong, etc etc.
Yes we all suspected that in the old scrapheap key items were conveniently placed in the heap for the teams to find, that the design was finalised before the teams set foot on the heap, that “tinker time” was increasingly long to try and improve the spectacle, but so what?
With the new scrapheap, by the time they got to the actual challenge, I didn’t even care about the result and switched it straight off – the first time I’ve ever done that with SC. We barely even got to see the machines being built and hardly a scrapheap in sight.
Poor show channel 4. If the old series was tired and couldn’t be improved upon, then they should have finished it there and then. This new scrapheap is beyond a joke. Kill it now, put it out of its misery!
September 10th, 2009 at 4:27 am
I just wanted to say good article and I completely agree. They have managed to ruin almost everything that made Scrapheap compelling to watch.
September 13th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
It’s now rubbish! A great original prog ruined. Dick Dastardly and son useless. ( and I’m from Cornwall )
September 13th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I’d have to agree. You never feel an attachment to any of the teams since the concentration on their build time is minuscule, and any dramas the teams might have encountered would probably never get on camera (like you saw on ‘old’ Scrapheap).
Too many teams, too little focus and too little attention to the engineering (I can’t really say I’m an engineering geek, but it’s nice to see that the theory is there). Today’s Water Challenge, while entertaining, failed in my mind. Copying an Old SC challenge, it just turned into “putting a water mill between the engine and the wheels” – The assortment of petrol and diesel engines just made me wonder what the actual point of the water was.
I still watch Old SC religiously on More4. The 2002 series was possible one of the greatest (for both its characters and challenges)…what we have now just doesn’t even come close.
September 20th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Totally agree, I watched the new episode when it came out expecting it to be the good ole’ stuff I love, but I could tell straight away that it was ruined.
I remember eating my sunday roast with my brother and betting potatoes on who was gonna win.
R.I.P scrapheap challenge.
September 21st, 2009 at 2:04 pm
It’s definitely not classic Scrappy, but it took a couple of series before they perfected that formula too. There are elements of the new series that I really like (I think Dick and Jim are great presenters, they just need to interact more with the other teams during the build instead of the anonymous camera crew mentioned above) so I hope they get another go – it can only get better, right?
September 27th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
i agree entirely. this new series is simply terrible. it should be called ‘build-it-at-home’ challenge. one of the things i loved was seeing the bizzarre things people unearthed and tried to use in the scrapheap, but now it’s all just ‘we need a car with a fan on it. well, we ‘happen to have or be able to get a car for free’ and we’ll stick a fan on it. hey look, it’s done.
the other thing i find annoying is how the home team ‘Dicks Diamonds’ make something in a week which previous contestants would have made in 10 hours.
sorry ‘do it at home’ challenge, but it really is terrible.
October 4th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Rubbish now. Can’t watch it. Too much inane talking – they need someone to give them a decent script. It used to have a touch of camp about it, but now it is just tedious and boringly blokey.
October 11th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Sadly the new series is dire and should be dropped !
October 18th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
i agree its lost it and you cant evgen go on there forum because its closed .what a load of rubbish
October 19th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Couldn’t agree more, they’ve killed it stone dead. They should have done the decent thing and just killed it.
On the plus side while googling for an explanation (and finding your post) I managed to find a picture of Lisa Rogers half-naked. Every cloud and all that…..
October 20th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I must agree with everyone on this. Dicks Dimonds and the new format has ruined which was once the best show on TV. I spend my time watching the re-runs of the old show during the week. What will it take to atleast bring back the old format and get rid of Dicks Dimonds, PLEASE!!!!
January 19th, 2010 at 7:50 am
I quite agree with everyone. i used to enjoy it so much but now Dick has wrecked it
I guess it wouldnt be so bad if Lisa and Robert were still presenting it but i think that the old format was much better
February 25th, 2010 at 1:35 am
I could’t agree more, however I feel the previous postings are far too kind. I’ve been a loyal Scrappy fan for years but sadly can hardly watch the new series featuring “Dicks Diamonds”. The only apropriate part of that name is the first. My main objection is Dicks constant rambling, particularly in the early parts of the show when he responds to the challengers with snide bragging comments such as, and I quote: “Be afraid, be very afraid”. I mean get some class man, or at lest come up with something original. The second and most erksome objection I have is the fact that the challengers (mostly genuine and respectable tinkerers) have to put their machines through trials almost to the point of destruction and once they are virtualy spent “Dicks” so called “Diamonds” come on fresh from the side lines and take part in what seems by comparison a “token” event at the end which just seems un-fair and un-sportsman like.
June 6th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
I can’t believe they would drop the wonderful Lisa and Robert. Totally stupid!!! Dick Strawbridge is ok…..but only as a contestant. The production company have ruined a brilliant format. If it ain’t broken, DON’T fix it!!! Unfortunately TV production teams are full of little tossers who have only just got their Media degrees and don’t have a clue. I will NOT be watching the new format…EVER. Only re-runs of the good old days with Robert and the gorgeous Lisa. Lisa I love you….and so does my wife!! Bring back Robert and Lisa!!!!!….or rest in peace Scrapheap!
June 8th, 2010 at 2:56 am
All this moaning really seems to go against the real idiology of Scrapheap. Trying to build something out of nothing. Nothing is the budget C4 gave them and they offered us something, pretty poor considering the previous format but something is better than nothing.
I think with more open mindedness with the fans and a hell of a lot of tinkering they could have made more. Sadly you guys literally never gave it a chance. Look back to series one of Scrapheap it was vastly different to what followed because they perfected it.
Sadly as the fans were not as adaptable and imaginative as the builders its ended and instead we have endless reality shows and pop/dancing/crap on.
You guys should be ashamed. Your more like the whinging wives than the crackpot builders.