ITV Archive

how did Challenge come about?

I don't know who, but it must actually exist as I've seen a Ruth Rendell on ITV3 not too long ago that did have the TVS endcap on it too.

I know, some episodes had a Buena Vista distribution logo in place of the TVS endcap though.

Not sure exactly but I'd imagine Flextech bought the Family Channel, which always had alot of gameshow programming and turned it into Challenge?

By the time it had wrapped up The Family Channel was showing wall to wall gameshows, so it was probably the logical step to rebrand it to a gameshow channel. They kept the Family programmes on the channel but in a new slot called Family Late which was broadcast between 12.30am and 5.00am, probably for contractual reasons, but by Autumn 1998 Family Late was showing gameshows too and disappeared not too long after.

I reckon Disney now actually own them but someone kept the paperwork for them so they can be shown correctly - probably the Wexford production company formed after 1993 hung onto them?

I heard stories in interviews of the episodes being repeated and released onto video with no royalties being paid.

Ah yes, greedy old George Baker demanding his royalties...don't think he'll starve any time soon.

What's that got to do with anything? It's not necessarily that he deserves the total amount he will eventually be paid for his role as Inspector Wexford in itself, it's that the work he did continues to be sold and make money for the current owners. And in that case, of course it's right that he should get his cut.


The issue with endcaps being changed on some episodes and not on others with old programmes is probably that the set licenced to the broadcaster has been compiled from other edits made at different times. This happens especially if reruns have allready been made by other channels, and can be especially obvious on longer series; the 'set' of Prisoner: Cell Block H which was run by C5 from 1997-2001 seemed to be a mixed bag of all sorts of tapes from at least 4 different sources, some were new copies of the original masters, some were copies from the aussie reruns of the late 80's and the subsequent aborted mid-90's run, and some were copies previously used by ITV.

The presentation varied with a mixture of period and updated logos in credits, and technical quality also varied enormously, with some episode pin-sharp and crystal clear, and others being fuzzy and muffled. Ironically, some episodes from 1978 looked better than those from 1986 because of the varying quality of the sources used for C5's tapes.

Well let's not forget that George Baker was not the only cast member.

After doing a bit of research into it it seems that in the end an agreement was reached with some money being paid to the cast members involved, I assume it was George's pursuit to get the royalties that meant that Disney actually have the documentation that proves they own it.

Now all we need to do is get Roy Walker involved "It's good but it's not right.."

Didn't George Baker have some involvement with script adaptation?

It looks the archives of ITV is in such a mess, this only means we will probably never see quality programmes see the light of day ever again!

arrcoding to Wiki there are co- producer;

The first episode aired on January 10, 1983, and the last episode aired on March 30, 1987 for a total of five seasons, with a total of 96 episodes. The show was filmed on a Toronto soundstage, (later at Elstree Studios, London), and was a co-production between former British television company Television South (TVS), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, United States pay television service Home Box Office and Henson Associates (now Jim Henson Productions).

Its a shame the Boomerang area repeating the American versions.

It would be nice to see the Uk one again bloody Disney!