Amateur engineering game show

Two teams of three people are given one day to put together a machine of some sort using anything that they can find in the scrapheap where the show is filmed. In the past teams have made catapults, cannons, amphibious machines and even flying machines.

Over the course of the day the teams' progress is charted and the viewer is given explanations of the scientific principles that the teams are using in their machines. The next day, the teams go head to head in a challenge that is designed to test which machine is the best. The team that wins this challenge wins the programme. If it is a heat, then the winning team goes to the next level of finals.

Scrapheap Challenge began on Channel 4 in 1998. Back then the same two teams competed against each other in each episode of the series. The programme was simply called "Scrapheap" and was presented by Robert Llwellyn on his own. The 1999 series featured a number of different teams including some people from the first series. The second series wsa also the first one in which Robert Llwellyn had a co-presenter. This was Cathy Rogers, who was also the show's producer at the time. Cathy Rogers left the programme after the 2001 series, and was replaced by Lisa Rogers.

Over the years, Scrapheap Challenge has been filmed in scrapheaps in Bath, Canning Town (in East London), Los Angeles and Berkshire.

Many viewers often wonder whether the scrapheap has materials planted before the show is filmed. The answer to this question is "yes" - but only if it is absolutely necessary. The following is a quote from the official Scrapheap Challenge website:

Scrapheap Challenge is an RDF Media production for Channel 4.

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Behind the Scenes at Scrapheap Challenge (Book)