United Kingdom
| Takeshi's Castle | |
|---|---|
| Format | Comedy |
| Created by | Tokyo Broadcasting System |
| Written by | Ben Mole Craig Charles Alex Mole Frederick Hutton Mills |
| Narrated by | Craig Charles |
| Theme music composer | Jonathan Czerwik |
| Opening theme | "Takeshi's Castle" by Jonathan Czerwik |
| Ending theme | "Takeshi's Castle" Shortened Instrumental |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 145 (inc. 10 Specials and 13 Best Ofs) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Ben Mole |
| Editor(s) | Anna Skidmore Eion Martin Duncan Armstrong Colm O'Rourke Andrew Trussler |
| Running time | 30 minutes 60 minutes (specials) |
| Production company(s) | Flextech (2002–2004) Virgin Media Television (2009) Black Mole Films |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Challenge |
| Picture format | 576i (4:3 SDTV) |
| Original airing | Original Series 9 November 2002 - 1 January 2004 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
United Kingdom — The show was first introduced to British audiences in the late 1990s, when it was featured semi-regularly as part of Tarrant on TV, in which broadcaster Chris Tarrant showcased a variety of unusual television programmes from around the world. It later become more well-known when a condensed version of the original series proved an unexpected hit when it premiered on Challenge on 9 November 2002, regularly dominating the top ten programmes on the channel each week.
The UK format does not follow the original Japanese format, instead presenting each sequence of games as comic martial challenges leading to the final game wherein contestants not so far eliminated try to storm Takeshi's Castle. Each episode is narrated by Craig Charles. A typical episode of the UK format of Takeshi's Castle has about eight games, followed by the Final Showdown. After each event, a 'Ridiculous Replay' is shown, highlighting the most entertaining attempt. Challenge decided to edit out the comedy sketches between Takeshi and Higashi to allow more (or fewer) games to be shown during the half-hour block.
More series were commissioned and shown over the next few months, culminating in a series of hour long specials in the Autumn of 2003, and a special highlights show, The A-Z of Takeshi's Castle, broadcast on January 1, 2004 which showed some of the best clips of the best games as the last original series finale. Repeats still air regularly to this day on Challenge, with an average of 130,000 viewers an episode. On 3 September 2005, MXC aired for the first time in the UK on Challenge.
On 9 May 2007, The Paul O'Grady Show had their own mini Takeshi's Castle challenge, including 'Knock Knock', 'Bite the Bun', a "Bridge Ball" adaptation called 'Balancing Act' and the 'Slippery Wall'.
The UK TV series returned to Challenge after a hiatus on September 7, 2009, with a modified opening sequence (to fit with Flextech rebranding to Virgin Media Television).
A petition has been created in an attempt to bring a brand new series of Takeshi's Castle on Challenge, within its 10th anniversary year on the channel (November 2012-13). It is suggested that these new episodes will feature never-before-seen games (previously completely cut from other episodes), and feature five Japanese episodes new to the UK, including the Pilot and an International Special which have never been seen on TV since their original airings in Japan. More info, and the petition, can be found here
Read more about this topic: Takeshi's Castle, International Versions
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