Finders Keepers (1981 game show)

Finders Keepers is a British children's game show television series that aired on BBC1 from 13 February 1981 to 1 March 1985, hosted by Richard Stilgoe.

Finders Keepers
Genre	Children's Game show
Presented by	Richard Stilgoe
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	5
No. of episodes	42
Production
Running time	25 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	13 February 1981 (1981-02-13) – 1 March 1985 (1985-03-01)

Format

The show combined a quiz element with a computerised version of the game Battleships. Two teams of three primary school-aged pupils would compete against each other.^[1] On scoring a "hit" at the Battleships game, the team had to answer a question to gain the associated points.^[1]

Theme

The show was notable for host Richard Stilgoe playing the theme on a synthesiser live in the studio at the beginning,^[2] as well as the use of the phonetic alphabet to indicate the square on the battleship grid.^[2]

Transmissions

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	13 February 1981[3]	3 April 1981[4]	8
2	19 February 1982[5]	2 April 1982[6]	7
3	25 February 1983[7]	1 April 1983[8]	6
4	9 January 1984[9]	26 March 1984[10]	12
5	4 January 1985[11]	1 March 1985[12]	9

The series was a victim of the BBC's wiping of their children's programming in the 1990s. 28 out of 42 episodes survive in the BBC archives. The surviving episodes are:^[13]

Series 1: Episodes 1 and 4; Series 2: Episodes 1–2 and 4; Series 3: Episodes 1 and 4–6; Series 4: Episodes 1–6, 8 and 10–12. Series 5 exists in its entirety

References

1. Finders Keepers on Sausagenet – Access Date 25 April 2018
2. Finders Keepers on UK Game Shows
3. "Finders Keepers – BBC One London – 13 February 1981". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
4. "Finders Keepers – BBC One London – 3 April 1981". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
5. "Finders Keepers – BBC One London – 19 February 1982". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
6. "Finders Keepers – BBC One London – 2 April 1982". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
7. "Finders Keepers – BBC One London – 25 February 1983". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
8. "Finders Keepers – BBC One London – 1 April 1983". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
9. "Finders Keepers – BBC One London – 9 January 1984". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
10. "Finders Keepers – BBC One London – 26 March 1984". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
11. "Finders Keepers – BBC One London – 4 January 1985". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
12. "Finders Keepers – BBC One London – 1 March 1985". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 31 January 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

External links

• Finders Keepers at UKGameshows.com