On the Scrapheap? News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 18th July 2007, 20:20 It seems after the tenth series, Robert Llewellyn’s Scrapheap Challenge could well be ending. It’s by no means a cast iron confirmation, but his comments coupled with most of the video being dedicated to the people who work on the show, makes it seems more than likely. Having not really watched the show for the last couple of years, I can’t comment on whether this is a welcome move, a gut punch or just ‘one of those things, really’, but at the end of the day 10 years for any show is damn good going. It’s always been enjoyable to watch when I’ve caught it, and it will be a huge shame that Robert wont be on our screens as much, but who knows what he might have lined up next? Thanks to Leelu on the TOS Board for the heads up.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it did go. First they put off the launch of the current series for months, despite it being in the can, and then they split it in two. Not exactly treating the show with respect.
They seemed to be attempting to kick it up the arse in the latest series, with the move to progressive scan video and general ‘tighter’ editing. I suppose this, and having an unscheduled ‘rest’ mid-series seems ominous in retrospect. Bah. It’s a good format, it could have been left to regulate itself. It’s never going to be a huge ratings winner, but it was a lovely cosy Sunday evening show. The saddest thing, as you say, will be the lack of Robert on our screens, he made a great presenter.
Oh ffs. Can’t we just have one channel that isn’t interested the latest fad, or being cutting egdge. Just somewhere that show’s nice, intelligent TV.
Fuck with the scheduling/airdates to deliberately piss off the viewers? Check. Use the drop in viewers as the excuse to axe it? You betcha. Key production staff leaving means one of two things – 1. It will go to shit, 2. It won’t return, partly because they would have to hire people who they would rather have working on new projects such as…Diet My Dog, or whatever. Still, as has been said, ten years is a great run. Can’t say I watched it much though. All I’ve done is constantly bang on to other people watching it about how it’s the guy from Red Dwarf presenting, which no-one believes. I have to then put on a Dwarf DVD doco just to prove the point to them because I’m such an arsehole major.
Oh poo… It was always entertaining watching Robert gurning away in front of the camera while bits of machinery disintegrated in the background (also watching my brother wince as he calculated the health and safety tally). Bring back Robot Wars!
Has it actually been 10 years? I mean I know they say ’10 series’ but weren’t some of the early ones pretty short? I’d love them to Bring back Robot Wars but with Robert.
Well, Robot Wars was losing viewers on BBC TWO, and continued to lose viewers on five. And it’s an expensive show to make, so it’s not surprising it got canned. The live shows are still going, though – and maybe in ten years or so, they might think again…
Interestingly, Robert says (in a forum post made after that YouTube video was uploaded) that Channel 4 are actually keen to make more Scrapheap – but “it’s all now down to contractual arrangements, budgets etc”.
You know, it’s a sign of how slow this place has been that this is still halfway up the “recent comments” list…
Yeah. Doesn’t take into account forum discussions, but even so, it’s the slowest the site has been for ages. The thing I mention here has, coincidentally, taken a massive step forward this weekend, so hopefully we’ll be back to proper updates soon.