Challenge Anneka

Challenge Anneka

The programme that tries to make the impossible possible. Each week Anneka Rice is set a challenge by a member of the public and, using only her giant Challenger truck, has to beg, borrow and otherwise persuade people to help her complete the task on time. All challenges aim to achieve something of lasting benefit, and Anneka has no idea what lies in store until the fateful moment when the challenge arrives.

Seasons

1. The Playbuses

Air Date: 1989-09-08

Ten double decker buses need to be converted into playbuses for the National Playbus Association, and Anneka Rice and her team of volunteers have just 3 days to do it.

2. The Playground

Air Date: 1989-09-15

3. The White Horse

Air Date: 1989-09-22

4. The Football Field

Air Date: 1989-09-29

5. Ray Cooney Farce

Air Date: 1989-10-06

Anneka has just 2 days to produce and record a new farce for the Calibre Cassette Library for the blind.

6. Walled Garden

Air Date: 1989-10-13

7. Kent Railway Restoration

Air Date: 1989-10-20

8. Recycled Joke Book

Air Date: 1989-10-27

9. Disabled Skiing Trip

Air Date: 1989-11-03

10. Series 1 Highlights

Air Date: 1989-11-10

Anneka Rice has tackled a variety of daunting tasks during the series, from building a railway line in a weekend to producing a radio play in an afternoon. In this episode she looks back at the successes and failures of the series - at those times when the impossible became possible.

1. Children's Parties

Air Date: 1990-11-10

Anneka Rice returns to face new challenges set by viewers, relying simply on her giant Challenger and public goodwill. In this episode she has to get into the party spirit with 11,000 children. The problem is, she has to be in four countries at the same time!

2. Seal Sanctuary

Air Date: 1990-11-17

To undertake this challenge, Anneka is going to need 4,500 gallons of water, 18 tons of concrete, a set of Scottish bagpipes and a plateful of herrings!

3. Buxton Riding Centre for the Disabled

Air Date: 1990-11-24

4. Isles of Scilly Jetty

Air Date: 1990-12-01

5. Thames Barge

Air Date: 1990-12-08

6. Lighthouse

Air Date: 1990-12-15

7. Romanian Orphanage

Air Date: 1990-12-22

Anneka faces her most daunting challenge ever - to restore a Romanian orphanage into a home for 600 children in just one week. This specially extended episode reveals what happened, and how through sleepless days and nights her team reached their goal.

8. Pantomime

Air Date: 1990-12-29

Two sisters, a ballroom, and magic shoes are on Anneka's shopping list as she races against the clock.

9. Reminiscence Centre

Air Date: 1991-01-05

10. Homeless Hostel

Air Date: 1991-01-12

1. USPCA Dog Kennels

Air Date: 1991-09-14

Anneka Rice returns to face a new series of challenges set by viewers. In this episode Anneka has a massive home improvement job on behalf of Northern Ireland's stray dogs.

2. County Durham Road

Air Date: 1991-09-21

Anneka's challenge in this episode is to organise a street party. She'll need 1,000 tons of stone and 600 tons of tarmac!

3. Paralympics Commercial

Air Date: 1991-09-28

Anneka's challenge involves an orchestra, a choir and a sports stadium.

4. Gloucester Theatre

Air Date: 1991-10-05

Anneka enlists the help of an undertaker, a town crier, a blacksmith and dozens of scaffolders to help with this episode's challenge.

5. Mitcham Parish Church

Air Date: 1991-10-12

Less than three days to prepare a full-blown white wedding and renovate the 13th-century church? On behalf of an extremely trusting young couple, a breathless Anneka has to rustle up dresses, organise a reception complete with cake, flowers and guests, and supervise painters and scaffolders. Then there's the honeymoon to fix!

6. Monkey World

Air Date: 1991-10-19

Anneka gets up to monkey business in Spain as she races against the clock with hundreds of volunteers to complete this challenge.

7. Birmingham Children's Hospital

Air Date: 1991-10-26

Last July, HRH the Duke of Edinburgh gave Anneka Rice a special challenge to mark his 70th birthday. Will she get the royal seal of approval?

8. Children's Holiday Camp

Air Date: 1991-11-02

Some fireworks, a septic tank and a giant lawnmower are just some of the things Anneka needs for this episode's challenge.

9. Childline Calendar

Air Date: 1991-11-09

Anneka's challenge this episode is to organise a photography exhibition in just 73 hours. Childline, the free national helpline for children in trouble, want to produce their 1992 calendar, Children at Play. She must collect photos of children from all over Britain, take some herself, and then narrow the selection down to a few dozen pictures!

10. 180-Foot Bridge

Air Date: 1991-11-16

Anneka needs to build an 180-foot bridge in just four days!

11. Return to Siret

Air Date: 1992-01-03

A year ago, millions of viewers saw Anneka Rice and a team of volunteers rise to the challenge of transforming the lives of hundreds of children living in a huge, decaying orphanage in Siret, northern Romania. In five days, hot and cold running water was installed, lights were rewired, walls painted and bedding replaced. Recently, Anneka returned to Siret to see for herself what successes and setbacks the children have faced during the past year.

1. The Best of Challenge Anneka

Air Date: 1992-09-11

A nostalgic review of the last three years of the series, with Anneka Rice recalling some of the highlights - including the group of disabled people who learned to ski in two days - and some of the disasters - such as when the entire camera crew fell out of the back of the buggy. She also looks back to one of her most memorable tasks: in 1990 she was challenged to restore an orphanage in Romania. Within a week she had to transform it into a proper home for 600 children. Tonight she finds out how the children's lives have been changed since the team visited.

2. Heeley City Farm

Air Date: 1992-09-18

The return of the series which sets out to make the impossible possible. This week Anneka ends up in the mud - and a lot worse - as she takes an army of volunteers down on the farm in Sheffield.

3. Tommy's Tape

Air Date: 1992-09-25

In this episode Anneka has to create an album of nursery rhymes in just two days, for pregnancy and baby charity Tommy's.

4. Ilfracombe Library

Air Date: 1992-10-02

It's a moving experience for the team in this challenge, as they try to shift Ilfracombe's public library all the way over to the other side of town. It needs two teams of builders to succeed, one to dismantle the old library and another to receive it at its new site. Once there, it will prove a valuable asset to the community, who need a venue for everything from playgroups to sports and social activities. But with only 56 hours to complete the task, will it prove a library too far?

5. Albrighton Angling Centre

Air Date: 1992-10-09

In this episode Anneka needs to get hold of archaeologists and 200,000 gallons of water to go fishing in Shropshire.

6. Mencap Nursery

Air Date: 1992-10-16

Anneka has to produce 25,000 charity Christmas cards in time for the opening of the new Mencap nursery in Leeds - but then she finds that the nursery has yet to be built.

7. Red Sea Diving

Air Date: 1992-10-23

Anneka is set a very fishy task when she finds she has to go diving in the depths of the Red Sea with a group of disabled people. But first they must learn to dive - in just a few hours.

8. Cumbrae Sports Centre

Air Date: 1992-11-06

On the island of Cumbrae off the Ayrshire coast, Anneka finds she needs 1,000 cyclists, a demolition squad and some help from Glasgow Rangers.

9. Malawi Medical Centre

Air Date: 1992-11-27

The last challenge of the series is one of Anneka's most daunting: she has to equip a new medical centre serving up to 100,000 people in the Luwani refugee camp in Malawi, southern Africa. The refugees have fled Mozambique because of war and drought, and arrive in the camps exhausted and destitute. She has just 24 hours to fill an empty plane with emergency relief aid.

1. Challenge Anneka Special & Croatia Appeal

Air Date: 1993-08-27

Celebrating five of years of her entertainment series, Anneka Rice presents a live edition in which she goes back to check out the results of some of her toughest tasks. She has been set a variety of problems and has completed more than 40 challenges: from building children's playgrounds in Birmingham and Belfast to equipping a hospital in Malawi. Anneka also launches an appeal from the BT Tower, asking for materials to rebuild a school in Pakrac and the goods to be taken on convoy to Croatia. The challenge is delivered by Simon Bates on behalf of the British Red Cross just hours before the live episode goes to air.

2. Boathouse

Air Date: 1993-09-04

Anneka Rice returns with another series of the show that makes the impossible possible. In the first episode, the Exmoor Calvert Trust in Devon challenges Anneka to turn a derelict barn into a boathouse for use by disabled people.

3. Soup Kitchen

Air Date: 1993-09-11

In this episode Anneka needs a new kitchen and thousands of steak pies as she tackles a challenge to help London's homeless.

4. RNIB Maze

Air Date: 1993-09-18

Anneka hits weather problems when she tackles a challenge from the RNIB College to build a giant multi-sensory maze in Worcester.

5. NCH Commercial

Air Date: 1993-09-25

Anneka attempts to make a video about the work of the National Children's Home charity, to be shown at the gala premiere of the film Super Mario Bros.

6. Disabled Bungalows

Air Date: 1993-10-02

Anneka's challenge in this episode is to stage a housewarming party for two hospital patients with spinal injuries. But first she has to build their homes.

7. Fashion Range

Air Date: 1993-10-09

Anneka has less than three days to launch a new fashion collection, in this challenge set by the Cope Children's Trust Rainbow Appeal. Will she make it?

8. Croatia School

Air Date: 1993-10-16

In the last episode of the series, Anneka faces one of her most daunting and dangerous challenges. She travels to the village of Pakrac in Croatia, which has been completely destroyed in the war. Her task is to renovate a primary school in just five days, taking with her a convoy of 30 lorries full of emergency food, hygiene and baby supplies. Can she do it in time for the new school term?

1. Wormwood Scrubs Riding School

Air Date: 1994-09-03

The first of a new series of challenges in which Anneka Rice sets out to "make the impossible possible" with the aid of enthusiastic and energetic volunteers. This week she needs the assistance of an international building company, to create an indoor riding school for the disabled and disadvantaged children who belong to the Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre - with only three days to complete a task normally taking three months! Joining the team for this new series is Pedro, a lively terrier who turns up with sound man Dave Chapman and stays.

2. Burnham-on-Sea Lifeboat Station

Air Date: 1994-09-10

The town of Burnham-on-Sea has a Marine Rescue boat on standby, but because there is no boat house on the shore the boat is stored miles inland in the Somerset countryside. Anneka's challenge is to build a new lifeboat station, but she only has 72 hours to complete the job. Will she sail through the task before her or be left high and dry?

3. Patti Pavilion

Air Date: 1994-09-17

Anneka is in Swansea with Pedro the dog and they have to stage a concert in the new arts centre. But before they can begin to think about putting on a production, they have to rebuild the theatre.

4. Playboats

Air Date: 1994-09-24

This episode's task is to convert two fishing boats into play spaces. To achieve her goal Anneka has to find one of the largest cranes in the country, hampered by fog and a fire on board.

5. Recipe Book

Air Date: 1994-10-01

Anneka attempts to publish a cookery book within 48 hours, and become a master chef for a celebrity lunch to launch the book. But before she can put the book together she has to gather 100 celebrity recipes and have them tested.

6. YCTV Studio

Air Date: 1994-10-08

Anneka has to get Britain's newest TV channel, YCTV - Youth Cable Television - on air. It's the first studio to be created as part of a nationwide initiative to keep inner-city children off the streets and allow them to make TV rather than just watching it.

7. Romanian Hospital

Air Date: 1994-10-15

In one of her toughest and most dangerous challenges, Anneka undertakes to move an entire hospital casualty unit from Dunfermline in Scotland and rebuild it 1,830 miles away in a remote town in central Romania. If she succeeds, the unit will become the first accident and emergency unit in a country where thousands die each year through lack of medical facilities, and she has just 11 days in which to complete the task.

1. Sheffield Circus

Air Date: 1995-08-27

Anneka Rice returns with a breathless series of taxing tasks to be completed against tight deadlines. In this episode the Challenge Team arrives in Sheffield with a brief to convert an old church into a circus skills centre. One of the technicians' attempts to master the flying trapeze is just one of a host of challenges to accomplish before the show can go on.

2. Royal Albert Hall Deaf Concert

Air Date: 1995-09-03

Anneka finds herself in the middle of the Royal Albert Hall with no audience, no show, and just 28 hours in which to find both on behalf of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People.

3. Bathgate War Memorial

Air Date: 1995-09-10

Anneka and the team have two days in which to move a war memorial from the top of a hill to the centre of town so that Bathgate in Lothian can celebrate VE Day.

4. WRVS Book

Air Date: 1995-09-17

In this challenge from the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, Anneka and the team have 52 hours to publish a book listing 500 ways to make people feel better while they are in hospital.

5. County Antrim Meeting Place

Air Date: 1995-09-24

The Challenge truck arrives just outside Ballycastle in County Antrim, where Anneka and the team have just 74 hours to knock down a building and replace it with three new ones.

6. UK Blood Transfusion Service

Air Date: 1995-10-01

Anneka's challenge is to get all the country's eligible donors to pledge to give blood - and the target is 100,000 pints!

7. Birmingham Homeless Mothers Hostel

Air Date: 1995-10-08

Anneka and her team battle through one of the hottest spells of the year to create ten homes in just two days for homeless people in Birmingham.

8. Kent Lion Sanctuary

Air Date: 1995-10-15

In the last episode of the series, Anneka rescues two African lions from Athens and has just 61 hours to create a new home for them in Kent.

1. Sri Lanka

Air Date: 2006-12-26

2. Hospice CD

Air Date: 2007-06-06

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Rating

0.0/10

Release Date

1989-09-08

Episodes

65 (8 seasons)

Status

Ended

Cast

Videos

Production Companies

Mentorn Media

Mentorn Media

Chatsworth Television