Eighties legend Anneka Rice has dusted off her famous jumpsuit to relaunch the much-loved reality show Challenge Anneka more than 30 years on. Challenge Anneka, which ran on BBC One from 1989 to 1995, saw Anneka take on a community project to accomplish within a certain period of time.
Anneka, who is moving her rebooted classic show to Channel 5 from this Saturday night, appeared on The One Show sofa with hosts Lauren Laverne and Jermaine Jenas, on Tuesday evening (March 14) and fans were floored to see she doesn't seem to have aged.
Lauren introduced Anneka, 64, by saying: "I can't believe it's been 30 years. Thank goodness challenge Anneka is back." And @Kerrybu70683649 gasped on Twitter: "30 years ago? Anneka Rice is looking fab, she hasn’t aged a day!"
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@Dd1201Diane agreed: "Anneka Rice has not changed one bit, still looks fab." @RetroGirl cheered: "Yes Anneka is back! And she looks exactly the same." @SteveDonoghue17 remarked: "Anneka Rice stills looks fit." And @KlRussell said: "Anneka u look fantastic x"
@susannah_t tweeted: "I adored Challenge Anneka as a kid! My life ambition was to be @AnnekaRice, have a buggy that came out of a big blue and yellow lorry and have Dave the soundman as my friend! Can't wait for the new series!"
Challenge Anneka will again take on cases for the community and will see the return of the Challenge Anneka truck, buggy and Dave the Soundman. Reflecting back over the launch of the original series Anneka, who was also the jumpsuited star of Channel Four's Treasure Hunt from 1982 until 1988, said it helped to break down boundaries for women in television.
"When we started doing Challenge, women in televison weren't doing the sort of things I was doing on Treasure Hunt," said Anneka, who travelled by helicopter solving clues on Treasure Hunt and zipped around in her famous blue and yellow buggy to get things done and lead her team to victory on Challenge Anneka.
"We assembled an amazing group of women on the production team all under 30," she explained. "It put women in control, calling the shots, in charge of the action. So I'm particularly pleased from that point of view because we've seen telly change now.
"Now loads of women work in telly in front of the camera, behind the camera, in production, all areas of it. So I think telly has changed a lot. I really think some of those programmes made that change happen."
She added: "When I started doing Treasure Hunt women were just seen draped over cars or being chased by Benny Hill around a car park somewhere. It was quite unusual to suddenly see a woman going 'right, okay, what are we doing?'" The first episode of the new Challenge Anneka, at 8.50pm, will focus on an animal sanctuary.
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