This was good when it first arrived on the scene. Finders Keepers was based on the original show from America, redone for a UK audience.
The show's basic premise is one that is familiar to everybody who's ever been a kid: Make as much mess as you can. The host, Neil Buchanan (who at one time seemed to be on every kids programme going), gives you a clue to a specific item, you then have 30 seconds to trash the room looking for said item.
Two teams of two initially, eight rooms available (including the "out of bounds" room - Mum & Dad's room!), so four rooms a team. Each team got initially 25 points for finding an object in 30 seconds in their first two rooms (if not, points went to the other team), 50 points in the second two rooms and loads of points outside "the garage".
The Garage was a simple test of memory - nine screens with a sound effect behind each of them. Questions such as "what sound does a duck make?" and pick a number. Get the right answer, win a room to raid. Comic galore here, as the wrong sound effect to answer a question was actually quite hilarious. It was possible for one team to end up raiding all four of the second set of rooms yet fail to find any of the items and so the non searching team still win.
The final was a mad 3 (later 4) minute rush through all eight rooms in no real order, winning prizes along the way for finding items and a super duper prize if you get through all eight in the time. Super prizes to kids were available. People at home could look out for the Blue Arrow which pointed out where the items they were looking for were actually located. The number of times somebody picked up the item and then dropped it was amazing.
The show was changed for the worse when Jet from Gladiators was drafted onto the production, and the whole emphasis turned into a "Neil versus Jet" mini-competition. Out went the outside view of the garage, to go straight inside the garage itself and lots of messing around in some black oily-type stuff. No fun because it took the emphasis away from the house itself.
And then when Jet started going on the final round dashes, it was any excuse to slow the pace up with some silly routine and interruptions. Of course, in the grown up world, it's a symptom of "cutting costs" - slow the contestants down so they don't win as much.
Ah well, it was a great show which I loved until it was ruined by the new distractions thrown in by the introduction of Jet. Not that there was anything wrong with Jet herself, it just dragged the entire show down. If this is remade - please follow the original format (ie before Jet arrived). Thanks.
