Jeopardy (BBC TV series)
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Jeopardy was a BAFTA award winning television series that ran for three series, from 2002 to 2004 on the BBC about a group of eight high-school students and their teacher who go from Falkirk, Scotland, to the Australian Outback to look for UFOs, where strange events occur. They are all given camcorders to record any sightings, and the series (much like the Blair Witch Project) makes extensive use of jerky, handheld photography supposedly from those cameras. It was acclaimed for being thoroughly gripping and said by some to be the best childrens program in many years. Each episode was 20 minutes long and ended on a cliffhanger, to be continued the next week.
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[edit] Characters
- Gerry Simmins (Steven Vidler) - (seasons 1-3) The middle aged teacher on the trip. He runs the UFO club, and has been a Ufologist ever since he saw a UFO fly past him back in Scotland.
- David (Gordon McCorkell) - (seasons 1 and 3, with cameo appearances in 2) The 'boffin' on the trip, though he can get arrogant. He falls in love with Sarah.
- Sarah (Kari Corbett) - (seasons 1 and 3, with cameo appearances in 2) The 'hippy chick' on the trip. She falls in love with David.
- Harry Hastings (Craig Moncur) - (seasons 1 - 3) A bit of an unpopular person, he has epilepsy and is David's best friend. he falls in love with Lucy, and takes control of the group when it's in trouble.
- Lucy Jefferson (Samantha Bowie) - (seasons 1 - 3) Sarah's best friend. She falls in love with Harry.
- Leon (Stanley Smith) - (seasons 1 - 3) The 'joker' on the trip, he falls for Shona. He is the only black member of the group.
- Shona (Shelley O'Neill) - (seasons 1 - 3) The quiet one on the trip, she came on the trip as an escape from her harsh traditional parents. She falls for Leon.
- Simon (James Pearson) - (seasons 1 - 3) The arrogant one on the trip, he thinks that he's the best because he is the captain of the school football team. However he learns some valuable lessons from a mysterious Aborigini.
- Chrissy (Charlie Wilson) - (seasons 1 - 3) The bimbo on the trip, she only came because she has a crush on Simon.
- Melissa (Tammy Macintosh) - (season 1) The park ranger who travels with the group in the outback.
- Helen Stanich (Caroline Dunphy) - (season 2 and 3) The shady government agent who pursues the group.
- The Twins - (season 2) Two little twin girls who have a mysterious link to the group and the aliens.
- Ed - (season 2) The Twins' grandmother, who owns a ranch.
- Professor Sharpe (season 3) Works for the Australian government in solving extraterrestrial diseases.
[edit] Plot
See List of Jeopardy (BBC TV Series) Episodes
'Jeopardy' is about a group of nine senior school kids from Falkirk, Scotland and their teacher who go to Australia in search on aliens and UFOs. The school Ufology club has organised a trip to the outback to search for extraterrestrial activity. However, it is not just the geeky club members who come along but several members from across the school who want a trip to Australia. They are all given camcorders to record any sightings, and the series (much like the Blair Witch Project) makes extensive use of jerky, handheld photography supposedly from those cameras. They stay in the heart of the outback where there is no contact with the outside world, and it is then that it all begins to go horribly wrong. The series is similar to the later television series Lost.
[edit] Series 1 (2002)
In Series One, the group go to the Australian outback to look for extraterrestrial activity. The 9 kids, their teacher, and a park ranger, Melissa, stay in little tents, with food rationing and having to set up monitoring equipment around the area. But then things begin to go out of control. One member, Leon, is bitten by a deadly snake, and the antivenom is missing. Melissa tracks off to the nearest road in order to find the truck and drive to find medicine, but something stops her getting there. The kids find themselves alone, their teacher's control being thwarted by rasher members of the group. Soon everything is spiralling out of control as people go missing, they see lights in the sky, radio signals fail, several people decide to set off alone, and others are driven into madness. No radio signals work either. When they all finally get back together the kids and their teacher manage to get a radio signal to rescue services who agree to rescue them from Paramundi ridge. They are all waiting on the ridge when they see the helicopter - but it isn't a helicopter; a bright flash occurs and they all disappear.
[edit] Series 2 (2003)
The second season starts with the group on Paramundi ridge. But they are picked up by several helicopters. They are taken to a military complex where they realise that their camcorder tapes have been altered and Gerry (the teacher) has been locked up in a mental home due to his ravings that they were abducted by aliens before being replaced and picked up by the military. The group also realise that David and Sarah are missing. They escape from the facility and are pursued by an agent called Stanich. They travel around Australia in an old hippy van searching for David and Sarah. Their search leads them from weird UFO buffs to Aboriginal prophecies and two bizarre little twins. At the end of the series, they return to Paramundi ridge where they link arms to bring the aliens down to return David and Sarah. However it fails and they find themselves back in Scotland...
[edit] Series 3 (2004)
The group, minus Gerry, David and Sarah, find themselves in Falkirk, Scotland - their home. But they find themselves invisible, and only two people can see them - David and Sarah. David and Sarah were returned to Earth to witness the apparent suicide of the rest of the group. While David and Sarah stay in Scotland, the rest of the group return to Australia via a portal. Back in Scotland, they are continually pursued by Stanich, and they are visible again. They realise that they must try to contact the aliens so that everything caan be returned to normal. But things go terribly wrong when they discover that all their portal travel has given them a condition called "red-eye". Under this condition, when an individual gets stressed, their iris turns red and they "split", in which they look as if they are two separate people for a couple of seconds and then promptly disappear. As more and more of them disappear, the remaining members must team up with Stanich and eventually their search leads them to a top secret base on Astrid Island. At this island, they find their friends who had disappeared - but they now have the mentality of 8 year olds, and the unusual symptom of appearing black on an infrared camera, unlike normal humans.
The final episode was to be voted in by viewers. There was a choice - happy ending, surprising ending, or spooky ending. The viewers voted for the spooky ending. In this, the aliens suddenly pop-up and reveal themselves to all be twins. They were the original race on Earth. They cannot reverse the red-eye disease but send Harry and Lucy back in time to stop the trip all together. Racing to their school, they manage to convince the group not to travel to Australia by showing them their videotapes from throughout the series; however, when the present-day Harry and Lucy enter the classroom, Lucy sees her past self and her eye turns red. The series then ends on this cliffhanger.
[edit] Possibility of the series' continuation
It is unlikely that the series will be continued due to the fact that the final episode of series 3 was described as the final episode. The third series was probably left on a cliffhanger with the knowledge that the series would not continue, as was seen in The X-Files. However there has been a call for the release of season four from fans.
[edit] Film locations
The series was produced for CBBC Scotland and filmed on location in both Falkirk, (in Scotland) and Australia.
[edit] Awards
In 2002 the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awarded the first season Best Children's Drama. The programme was also awarded the best new drama, and was recommended for all teenagers.
[edit] The Game
On the CBBC website, a Jeapordy online game was released. In it, the player, an agent, has to find all the group before Stanich does. First of all you have to piece a note together, and then search for the different members in a maze. The game can be accessed here: [1]
[edit] Fan Following
Jeopardy has gained a significant internet fan following, on such web sites like the forum ASTRID [2]. They have campaigned for the release of DVDs and a new season.
