Wanted!

Who remembers the classic Channel 4 show 'Wanted' from the 1990s and reshown in the 2000s on what was UK Horizons. Originally hosted by Richard Littlejohn and later, MTV's Ray Cokes.

https://youtu.be/PoHIlKcq5zw

It was certainly ahead of its time. I don't remember watching it live on Channel 4 and the UK Horizons repeats seemed heavily edited due to some bad editing, but I always wondered how the logistics and comms for the programme actually worked.

Now costs are much lower (technically) to produce such a show (I believe it was cancelled because it was so expensive to produce) could it make a comeback?

A copy of the rules is archived here:
http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Wanted_Rules

the main article suggests a huge satellite truck was used for the video links, which made life interesting to get it hidden when you're in the middle of nowhere:
http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Wanted

And some more details here:
http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/oldott/www.offthetelly.co.uk/index88d1.html?page_id=993

My favourite show, I could post more about it but it's late. Maybe tomorrow.

I seem to remember noticing at the time that S4C didn't show it live, so presumably it was a lot easier for a contestant not to be found if they were in Wales


Today the technology would make it very different, though it would probably remove the gimmicks too - GPS style graphics and video feeds of people moving around the country were a novelty then

Although the more populous areas of Wales had little trouble in getting a Channel 4 signal.

Hmm.. When one team holed out in a phone box on Kate's Hill in Dudley during the Wednesday night first series, there was a helicopter overhead from around 8pm until 9.45 (tx was 8.30 -9.30)

So, I've assumed since then, that was there to bounce the links from the chasers PSC crew, the mini camera in the phone box, down to the BT tower in Birmingham (which would have a clear line of sight to) and that was how they got the ob pics back to BBC OB's base in Acton, where the 'Wanted Organisation' studio was.

I loved Wanted. Minor flaw in the format where the contestants were moving for 167 hours during the week, then had to hunker down for an hour.

Impossible to do the same show now. For a start, there are fewer phone boxes around, and, with mobiles and social media @c4wanted and #teamA etc makes hiding in plain site very difficult.
Hunted which was on last year, was basically Wanted minus the live element and the daily prize money pot element.

Probably the helicopter acted as a mid point to bounce the chasers camera link to the satellite truck for on passing to London - either dual path by satellite or with the truck switching between the two cameras and sending back one satellite feed.


That method would be more flexible as they could take it anywhere with little notice - no need for a fixed ground based receiver near a circuit in the vicinity. Also I wouldn't have thought that the BT Tower would normally have facilities to receive a signal from a helicopter

Wanted was 6-7pm on the Sunday night, not as late as half 8-9.

Anyway, I loved this show so much. Richard Littlejohn was admittedly very good in it, despite being one of the worst people on the entire planet. Ray Cokes less so.

I was fascinated with the technology of it. Moving vehicles with a full sound/audio link, courtesy of a man holding one of these in his hand (or attaching it to the top of the vehicle).



I don't think the technical aspect of doing Wanted today would be an issue at all, but the sheer amount of connectivity we have would make it nigh-on impossible for a team to survive without being seen.

The second series was on Sunday teatimes, but the first was at 8.30 on Wednesdays.

ISTR one of the BBC Manchester produced Saturday morning shows, possibly UP2U showing how such a device on a pole was used to feed the mobile camera (and possibly sound) output to a receiver on a cherry picker.

It's just an antenna (3.5GHz helix by the looks of it), they were regularly used on poles (pit-lane-pole was the fancy name) for hand held cameras. The actual transmitter would either be on board the camera or in a back pack. There would normally then be another person up high somewhere pointing another one back at the camera to receive the signal.

They're still often used for point to point links, the starts vehicle on channel 4 racing normally uses one. The transmitters have all changed, but the antennas are still the same. The tracking vehicle is on omni's now, but it used to be fun racing round at nearly 40mph, on grass, with both hands out the window holding onto the pole trying to keep it pointed at a bloke up a crane.