Pump it Up

I have very fond memories of being six years old and rushing home on a Friday afternoon to watch Pump It Up and then chatting about the outcome of the show with my friends the following Monday morning at school.

Pump It Up. Is one of those childhood TV shows that I remember but no one in my immediate social circle does. Which is a shame, it was awesome.

I guess it was one of those shows commissioned to fill the void left by the departure of Fun House. It had gunge, some hyperactive presenters and a race around the studio. So some similarities.

It aired on CITV and sadly didn't have an incredibly long run. Lasting just two series from 1999 to 2000. Both series were hosted by Andy Collins. Who later went on to host Family Fortunes for a short while and is now a successful TV warm up man. The first series was co-hosted by Julia Bradbury (yes, the same one who has presented Countryfile and many other outdoorsy nature type documentaries).

The second series was co-hosted by Fearne Cotton. Commentary was provided by Richard Webb, who later went on to be the commentator on CBBC's Bamzooki.

So what made the show awesome for me? Well the set was impressive. I have no idea where it was filmed, if anyone wants to let me know then feel free to get in touch. It looked like it may have been in filmed in an aircraft hangar. As the show was made by Carlton Television I would assume it was filmed somewhere near Nottingham. I'm not entirely sure. A large inflatable assault course stretched the outer rim of this set. Called the Gunge-A-Thon. The show was very much of it's era, with nightclub style lighting. Dance/Trance style backing music and combat trousers featuring as part of the contestants outfits. But it looked like some considerable amount of money was spent on making the show.

I only recall the first series vaguely. I remember the second series a lot better and even own an edition on VHS tape still.

The game play was this. Two teams of four played four games. There was a pool of games that were selected. All involved inflatables (hence the title!). Some of the games played were...

Dodgy Geezer - Team members had to navigate a bouncy assault course (which had a big water feature in the middle of it, making it slippery) grab a pole and run back an attach it to a capstan. Once all four pieces had been attached. The first team to turn the capstan would inflate a large wobbly man.

Grand Prizza - A race around the set on electric scooters. Delivering pizzas to the hosts.

Blown 2 Bits - The teams would run around inside giant inflatable sausages with spikes on the end. Using them to pop giant balloons hanging from a gantry.

That was just a small selection of games featured. Many more were used over the course of the show.

The winning of a game by a team earned them to right to deactivate a gunge zone in the final Gunge-A-Thon. Which will become clear in a moment.

So after the four games. The Gunge-A-Thon takes place. Both teams have to cross a large inflatable assault course. Featuring bridges, pools of gunge, hills...that kind of thing.

Half way through this assault course is Gunge Gulley. This is where the gunge zones come in to play. Gunge Gully was essentially a hill in four sections. Flat, uphill, downhill and flat. Each section represented a colour. White, purple, yellow and green and two large gulleys ran through this section for the teams to travel through.

Now if a team had deactivated a gunge zone. Nothing would happen when they would travel through that relevant section. If they hadn't, a nice shower of gunge would rain down on them. This was supposed to make things a bit more difficult. Teams would often struggle to cross this bit.

The final part of the assault course after running through lots of sludge for the last 5 minutes. Was to get all of your team mates up the top of a large inflatable uphill slope.

First team that did, won. There were semi finals and quarter finals. Before a grand final where the winning team won a holiday.

I enjoyed the show as a six year old. Perhaps in hindsight maybe the show copied Fun House and 50/50  in places. But to the target audience, who cared? I loved it. I'd love to see the show repeated again (listen up Challenge TV!) but that seems unlikely. I was surprised to see clips of the show featured in the 30 years of CITV documentary in 2013 though. It's one of the most obscure CITV shows from the noughties. A huge shame it didn't stretch beyond two series. If anyone has any episodes lurking on VHS tapes. Please do upload or share them. So very little of this show is available online.