Genre Children's Game show Country of origin United Kingdom No. of series 8 | Created by Lesley Oakden Original language(s) English | |
Presented by Dominic Wood (1999–2000)
Chris Jarvis (2001–2)
Michael Underwood (2003–6) | ||
Jungle Run is a British children's television series which aired on CITV as part of the ITV network from 10 September 1999 to 29 November 2006. It was a game show similar to Fort Boyard and The Crystal Maze. The show has had three presenters, referred to as the "Jungle Guide": Dominic Wood from 1999 to 2000, Chris Jarvis from 2001 to 2002 and Michael Underwood from 2003 to 2006.
Contents
Format
A team of children complete five challenges in the jungle (four for the celebrity guests). Originally, bananas win them time in the final challenge. In later series, these are replaced with silver monkey statues which give them ten seconds of time inside the Temple of the Jungle King; in each episode, there is a golden banana worth more bananas or a ruby monkey worth twenty seconds.
Jungle Run was shot at a disused air base: RAF Newton, near Nottingham.
Gameplay
Challenges took place in various locations. Some were swamps or waterfalls; others were obstacle courses or mazes, and some were just places out in the open. The same location could be used for multiple challenges, but each task could only be played in one place.
Usually, four or five statues were available in each of the challenges. Occasionally, members of the team could be trapped by running out of time in an obstacle course or failing to complete a game involving cages; the rest of the team would then decide if they wanted to pay two statues to release them, or leave without them. In some games, Sid and Elvis (a pair of monkeys) would try to distract contestants by throwing coconuts or other objects in their direction.
Games took roughly two to three minutes each, and included challenges such as:
The Temple of the Jungle King
The final challenge involves contestants making their way through the Temple of the Jungle King, their time inside varying based on the number of bananas/statues collected. Inside the temple is a series of rooms each containing a large monkey statue. Once the challenge in each chamber is completed, the door to the next room opens. In the first few episodes, teams would only win one prize (based on the chamber they advanced to), but following this, teams won one prize per chamber completed. There were four challenges and one statue for each chamber: Stone, Bronze, Silver and the Golden Monkey.
When a team has only 10/20 seconds left (depending on the series), a warning sound (such as a chimp screaming) would be heard, signalling that they should make their way out of the temple. If some members or the entire team fail to get out in time, those people are locked in the temple and they receive no prizes other than a monkey teddy, regardless of tasks completed.
Challenges could involve: