Challenge is a United Kingdom digital TV channel that mostly airs programmes dedicated to game shows like Takeshi's Castle. It is on the UK Challenge edit of the show that Craig Charles starred as the commentator who also coined the term "Keshi Head", a name for devoted fans of the show.
In 2013 Challenge created and aired a new series of Takeshi's Castle, Takeshi's Castle Rebooted, as a response to a petition created by the fan site Keshiheads.co.uk. Repeats still air regularly to this day on Challenge, with an average of 130,000 viewers an episode. The less successful Takeshi's Castle Rebooted airs in less popular slots.
Challenge's contract to Takeshi's Castle has ended in 2019 and currently has no plans to reshow it.
Description (2006)[]
Taken from the Challenge TV website from 2006.
Monday to Friday at 6.30pm
Takeshi's Castle was originally in Japanese, so we've enlisted the splendid Craig Charles (Robot Wars and Red Dwarf) to explain what's going on. The castle in question is guarded by Count Takeshi and his henchman. They're present to impede the progress of 100 eager contestants who take part in a variety of extremely silly but physically challenging games.
These include climbing slippery walls, running through mud, human Velcro games and carrying buns in their mouths. Once the number is whittled down, the tasks get harder as Takeshi's henchmen up the ante.
The last volunteers face the Emerald Guard in the Final Showdow - and they'll do whatever it takes to protect the big man. Takeshi's Castle is cult viewing and continues a long tradition of shows in which Japanese contestants put up with humiliation to win prizes.
Description (2011)[]
Taken from the Challenge TV website from 2011.
Takeshi's Castle is one of the world's most recognized programs ever to be aired in Japan.
After its enormously popular run of 129 episodes in Japan (1986-1989), it went on to air in many countries world-wide including through Europe, North and South America and many parts of Asia.
The show was hosted by one of Japan's most recognized media celebrity, Takeshi Kitano (also known as "Beat" Takeshi). The success of Takeshi's Castle was mainly rooted in the humour provided by contestants who go through obstacle courses and games designed to make them fail and often slip, fall and get dirty in the classic slapstick sense. This coupled with the sheer size and complexity of some of the games, made Takeshi's Castle one of the most unique and funniest shows ever created.
The programme starts with over one hundred contestants. Beat Takeshi (comedian and star of the show) plays the role of the lord that controls the castle and its "fortifications", which are a variety of giant purposefully hilarious obstacles that the contestants must overcome. Takeshi is assisted by a band of cohorts in various costumes who operate some of the obstacles and provide some more humor.
More than one hundred different obstacles and games were invented and used in the series. Ten different games are usually used in each one-hour episode.
By the final game, enough contestants are eliminated so that there will be only five or so contestants. The games, which are the heart of the programme, are designed to make participants fail in a humorous way, though there are always some successful ones.
Trailer list[]
During the 17 years Challenge TV aired this show, they had no less than 11 trailers just for the show itself (not including compilations).
| Trailer | Description | Aired | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| First trailer | Clips from Series 1 with commentary throughout by an unknown voiceover. Also aired on FTN after launch | November 2002 to January 2003 | 
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| Turning Japanese | Various clips from Series 1 is seen with The Vapor's "Turning Japanese" as the background music, This was used for both the Good Friday marathon and back-to-back weekend episodes. | March & April 2003 | 
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| Series 2 | In a spoof of the Cadbury's Creme Egg adverts, the voiceover asks various contestants "How do you beat yours?" with clips from Series 1 being shown. | April 2003 | 
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| Happy Clappy Chappy Craig | Craig Charles is seen in an average Japanese room with events happening to him like a punch on his face, a boulder trying to knock him over and running through the wrong door like Knock Knock. The original version ends with an ending with a boulder crashing through the TV screen which promoted Series 3. Also used for the Omnibus with the basic Challenge TV endboard. | May to Summer 2003 | 
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| Series 4 | Slow motion clips from (apparently) series 1 according to some people, with some Japanese music and a woman voiceover asking silly questions starting with "Have you got what it takes to take on Takeshi's Castle?" and ending with "If you have, then turn up for Takeshi's Castle, weekdays" | July 2003 to at least March 2004 | 
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| Specials | Clips from all 10 special episodes | September 2003 | 
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| Keshi's Head to Head | Craig Charles voices this trailer with a vote between the 2 specials, clips showing special "A" and special "B" are shown with Craig mentioning that the viewers decide who wins between them both. | July & August 2004 | 
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| 2005 trailer | In different coloured backgrounds, clips from various courses were shown along with words to describe them. | Late 2005 to early 2006 | 
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| Japanese Invasion | Using black and white footage with the only colour being visable is red (like red helmets or the boxing beast). It's a take on a war style film at the time. | August to November 2007 | 
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| My Hero | After 5 years without trailers, we see clips of various contestants getting hit, falling into the water, etc with Foo Fighters' "My Hero" as the background music. | October 2012 | 
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| Takeshi's Castle Rebooted | General Tani returns to voice over a japanese style advert for new games, new footage and even mentions "Challenge" in Japanese, ending with "IKE!". This is to promote the Rebooted series. This was the final trailer to be shown for Takeshi's Castle in the UK. | February & March 2013 | 
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Compilation trailers[]
Note: This list is currently incomplete, feel free to edit when there's more.
| Trailer | Description | Aired | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Action & Adventure (v1) | Clips featuring It's a Knockout, Fort Boyard, Gladiators & Don't Try This at Home. Ending with a Takeshi's Castle catch-up omnibus. | Early 2004 |
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| Japanorama | With Takeshi's Castle, Extreme Endurance and Sushi TV every weekday and Drunken Businessmen at weekends | Mid 2004 |
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| Teatime Takedown (v1) | Featured Takeshi's Castle (clips from specials), Fort Boyard and Gladiators | February 2006 |
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| Teatime Takedown (v2) | Same as above, also featured ISFA Strongman Championship | September 2006 |
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| I love Challenge | Featured clips from many shows with Takeshi's Castle included | January 2007 |
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| Teatime Takedown (v3) | A new look, featured Takeshi's Castle, Crystal Maze and Ninja Warrior | November 2007 |
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| 3 obstacle courses | Featured Takeshi's Castle, Ninja Warrior and Total Wipeout. Final trailer to use Takeshi's Castle footage | Summer 2013 |
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History and presentation[]
Note: this section is incomplete, please expand if possible.
| Year | Description | Logo | Ident example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002-2003 | Takeshi's Castle first aired in November 2002 originally as a 30 minute filler. | File:Challenge-logo-2002.png | 
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| 2003-2004 | In September 2003, another rebrand happened, with all trailer endboards featuring a red background with text and 10 animated idents (5 day, 5 evening). These included a man throwing a toast into the toaster, a table roulette to see who gets the cake and people surfing on random kitchenware around the floor.
From that period, more Japanese gameshows aired for the first time including Sushi TV presented by Julian Clary, later narrated by Craig Charles with a look at random Japanese TV clips from various shows, Extreme Endurance based on the Japanese show "Za Gaman", Iron Chef, a Japanese cook-off show & two 5 minute fillers called Incredible Edible Challenge & Drunken Businessmen. |
File:Challenge-logo-2003.png | 
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| 2004-2006 | In November 2004, Challenge had another new look, this time featuring idents based on quotes from various types of common games from the general public. The endboards featured a white background with red text. | File:Challenge-logo-2004.png | 
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| 2006-2008 | In October 2007, Ninja Warrior aired on Challenge based on the Japanese show, SASUKE. This was narrated by Stuart Hall for 4 years before being replaced by Jim North. | File:Challenge-logo-2006.png | 
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| 2008-2011 | In summer 2008, Unbeatable Banzuke aired on Challenge presented by Brian Blessed (aka. Banzuke Brian) and is based on the Japanese show, Muscle Ranking. This was the final new Japanese show to air on the channel.
After a few months break, Takeshi's Castle returned to screens in September 2009 with all new animated graphics and some brightness/contrast touch ups on some episodes (particularly series 1) Challenge launched on Freeview in February 2011 for the first time meaning more viewers could watch the show. |
File:Challenge-logo-2008.png | 
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| 2011-2013 | In 2012, Challenge launched a new late night strand called "Challenge Late Zone" which aired TNA Wrestling and from March 2013, the premiere of Takeshi's Castle Rebooted, a new 6 part show hosted by Dick and Dom which didn't go very well with viewers. | File:Challenge-logo-2011.png | 
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| 2013-2016 | TBC | File:Challenge-logo-2013.png | 
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| 2016-present | In 2019, the Craig Charles version of Takeshi's Castle aired for the very last time. | File:Challenge-logo-2016.png | 
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