Robot Wars Revealed (found BBC Choice spin-off of robot combat game show; 1998-2000)
Title card.
Status: Found
Date found: 6 May 2022
Found by: Mech+
Robot Wars Revealed was a spin-off series of the BBC 2 robot combat game show Robot Wars. Broadcast on BBC Choice from 1998 to 2000, it provided a behind-the-scenes look at Series 2 of the show.
Background
Hosted by Robot Wars pit reporter Philippa Forrester, the show presented a behind-the-scenes take of Series 2, also known as The Second Wars. It would document the teams as they progressed through the events, provided their video diaries on how they created their machines, as well as showing how the production crew set up trials like Joust. Additionally, battles would shown in a more raw format, containing music but no commentary from Jonathan Pearce.
According to the Genome archive of Radio Times issues, episodes were broadcast from 1999 to 2000.[1] Additionally, two other episodes were said to have been listed in 1998 based on a Robot Wars Wiki discussion, but have since been removed by Genome.[2] During this time period, BBC Choice was a relatively new television channel, created to entice people in the United Kingdom to buy digital set-top boxes.[3][4] However, few were purchased during this time period, meaning that Robot Wars Revealed likely received low viewership.[5]
Availability
Because of the low viewership, combined with a lack of any home media release, much of Robot Wars Revealed remained relatively obscure among even hardcore Robot Wars fans. Out of a total of around fifteen possible episodes listed by Genome,[1] only two resurfaced prior to May 2022. On 20th February, 2017, Simon Harrison of the King Buxton team was able to find a VHS recording of the Heat I episode, which was uploaded to YouTube three days later. On 18th March 2018, John Denny of Team 13 uploaded the Heat G episode. Based on the tape's label, the episode was broadcast in November 1999.[6]
On 6th May 2022, free streaming platform Mech+ announced that it had obtained all episodes of Robot Wars Revealed, publicly releasing the episodes later that evening.[7]
Gallery
See Also
- 1995 Robot Wars UK Open (partially found rejected robot combat TV show pilot; 1995)
- American Robot Wars 2000 (lost MTV pilot of British robot combat game show; 2000)
- BattleBots (found Comedy Central robot combat game show; 2000-2002)
- BattleBots (partially lost build of unreleased GameCube/PlayStation 2 game based on robot combat TV series; 2003)
- BattleBots Collegiate Championship (partially lost unaired spinoff of robot combat TV show; 2009)
- Mechanoids (partially found BBC robot combat game show; 2003)
- Plunderbirds: Talk Robots (partially found unfinished robot combat mockumentary film; 2019)
- Robot Wars (found cameos of robot combat-themed BBC 2 ident; 1999-2000)
- Robot Wars (lost footage and HSE documentation of behind-the-scenes accidents of BBC robot combat game show; 1998-1999)
- Robot Wars (lost near-death footage of Jeremy Clarkson from robot combat game show; 1998)
- Robot Wars (lost work on unfinished cartoon series based on robot combat game show; existence unconfirmed; 2002-2004)
- Robot Wars (partially found footage of robot combat show qualifying auditions and battles; 1998-2003)
- Robot Wars (partially found unaired or partially aired battles of BBC robot combat game show; 1998-2017)
- Robot Wars (partially found uncut battles from BBC robot combat game show; 1998-2017)
- Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1 (lost original BBC Choice version of robot combat battle; 2001)
- Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors: Season 1 (found TNN robot combat game show; 2001)
- Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors: Season 2 (partially found behind-the-scenes footage of TNN robot combat game show; 2002)
- Robot Wars: Series 8 (lost unaired pilot of BBC robot combat game show; 2016)
- Robot Wars: Series 8 (partially found Science Channel reruns of robot combat game show; 2018)
- Robot Wars: The Kick-Off (lost BNN robot combat special; 2001)
- Robotica (found TLC robot combat game show; 2001-2003)
- Robots Revenge (partially found Discovery robot combat documentary series; 2001)
- Why Hypno-Disc can't work in an office (found testing video of Robot Wars competitor; 2000, 2007)
External Link
- Mech+, where all the episodes can be accessed from.
- Robot Wars Wiki article for Robot Wars Revealed.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 BBC Genome episode listing of Robot Wars Revealed. Retrieved 13 Nov '21
- ↑ Robot Wars Wiki discussion where episodes from 1998 were said to have been listed on Genome previously. Retrieved 12 Nov '21
- ↑ BBC article about the launch of BBC Choice. Retrieved 14 Nov '21
- ↑ Another BBC article about the launch of BBC Choice. Retrieved 14 Nov '21
- ↑ Unofficial Robot Wars Facebook post where Simon Harrison revealed he had a copy of the Heat G Robot Wars Revealed episode and explained the show's disappearance. Retrieved 12 Nov '21
- ↑ Unofficial Robot Wars Facebook post where John Denny revealed he had a copy of the Heat G Robot Wars Revealed episode. Retrieved 12 Nov '21
- ↑ Mech+ announcing it will be releasing all episodes of Robot Wars Revealed. Retrieved 6 May '22