Treasure Hunt

As I continue my walk around the televisual vaults, or rather, watch Challenge because there's nothing on, I was surprised to see them re-running the Sunday afternoon stalwart, Treasure Hunt.  Two contestants in the London Studio aided by former BBC Newscaster, Kenneth Kendall, guide skyrunner Anneka Rice and her Helicopter around an area of the UK to solve and find clues that eventually lead to a "treasure".  Annette Lynton "adjudicating" and timekeeping throughout using what looks like a Commodore PET and monitoring progress using a somewhat naff map and a sharpie marker pen. 

Back in the 80's, Treasure Hunt was cutting edge stuff, but watching it now, it feels rather dated... the helicopter, the communications pack around Anneka's neck and of course, the clothing.  Looking back, Kenneth Kendall was an interesting choice of frontman given his background in newscasting, and clearly he was from a bygone era; calling Annette a "Good girl" is a prime example of why I say this.  

Nevertheless, Kendall was good at guiding the contestants towards the information they needed to solve the puzzle and even though he wasn't the archetypal game show host, he had charisma, and was a true gentleman.  Kendall died in 2012, and his partner, Mark Fear committed suicide four months later after becoming overcome by grief.

Treasure Hunt was clearly a thinking man's game, the clues were Times Cryptic Crossword style puzzles that guided you to five locations in an area leading to the final treasure which tended to be something pretty unextraordinary.  The prize for solving all 5 clues and finding the treasure?  A whopping £1,000 in the form of a multicoloured cheque drawn upon Williams and Glyn bank.