Game show in which the contestants are actually machines that attempt to destroy each other

Robot Wars in the UK started life as a relatively low-budget, underrated BBC 2 game show. The first series had so few teams that three "dummy" robots were planted by the production company to make up the numbers. The dummy teams deliberatey lost all their first matches, so they would not affect the outcome.

The programme was 30 minutes long and was presented by Jeremy Clarkson with Philippa Forrester. Each programme was divided into three segments: Gauntlet, Trial and Arena.

The gauntlet was a sort of assault course for robots that was designed to test the manouvrability of the robots as well as the skill of the drivers (who were called "roboteers"). It featured things like mazes and pendulums that would knock the robots off course. Of the six robot that played at the start of each programme, the one that did the worst in the Gauntlet would be eliminated.

The next round was the Trial. This was different every week. Once it was robot football; another time, a tug-of-war with a house robot(see below). The Trial was always based on a sport of some kind. Once again, the player that did the worst in this round was eliminated.

The final part of the programme was called Arena. The four remaining robots would be paired up and two semi finals would take place. The Arena was simply an all-out fight to the death. However, this did not mean that it would end with one robot completely destroyed. More often than not, one robot would push the other into the "pit" (a hole in the studio floor that no robot could get out of), or a robot would just stop moving because its circuits had been damaged or its motors had failed.

Notable robots from the first series include Road Block (which won the series), ReCyclops (which was made from 100% recycled material, and Scarab (which Jeremy Clarkson referred to as "cheese on toast").

The commentary for the programme was provided by Jonathon Pierce, who would start to shout at the top of his voice whenever something happened. In between rounds Philippa Forrester would walk around "the pits" to interview the roboteers, who were at work mending, fine-tuning or salvaging scrap metal from their robots.

In the first series, there were four house robots. These were made in-house by the production company to professional standards, and were therefore much stronger, faster and more robust than any of the competitor's robots. They were called Matilda, Sergeant Bash, Dead Metal and ???

In the second series Jeremy Clarkson left and was replaced by Craig Charles. Craig Charles took the game a lot more seriously and did not have the kind of tongue-in-cheek attitude of Jeremy Clarkson. The format remained the same as the first series, although there were a lot more teams competing. A new house robot called Sir Killalot was introduced. This robot was a lot bigger than any of the existing robots, and was practically invincible as far as the competing robots were concerned. The Gauntlet gained a mechanical arm called the Sentinel that would push robots off course. The second series was won by a robot called Panic Attack.

The third series (broadcast late 1999 to early 2000) was when Robot Wars became a much more mainstream show. The series was a lot longer, the budget was higher, and each programme was longer. The skill-based rounds (Gauntlet and Trial) were removed and the whole programme became an Arena-style knockout contest, with a separate Trial competition placed in a short segment in the middle of each programme.The most notable robot this series was HypnoDisc. Its only weapon was a very dense disc that could cause serious damage to a weakly armoured opponent. It had no self-righting mechanism and was ut of the competition as soon as it was overturned by another robot.

Despite the popularity of the third series, the programme makers still felt Robot Wars could be improved. In the fourth series (which started airing a few weeks after the third series had finished), the style of the programme was altered somewhat. In many respects, it imitated the style of American wrestling programmes.

Craig Charles would present the show in a much more aggressive way, shouting and screaming and encouraging the audience to do the same. Instead of judges deciding when a fight was over, a robot in the arena called RefBot would start counting down from 10 on a display whenever a robot stopped moving. Many well-known teams from the early series were absent from this series including the Road Block team, the Cassius team and the Killertron team.

The fifth series was delayed until 2002, and the sixth series was shown in 2003. Despite trying to appeal to an increasingly mainstream audience, the popularity of Robot Wars continued to decline. In 2004, BBC Two gave up on the show, and Robot Wars moved to Channel Five.

Robot Wars is a Mentorn production.

Related Amazon Product - Click for more

Robot Wars (DVD)