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.
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