Robot Wars

This program was started in 1998 and ended in 2004. It introduced an American concept that had been running for several years prior to a British audience. The show revolved around professional and amateur members of the public building remote controlled fighting machines designed to battle each other in a purpose-built arena, although earlier series featured segments called the “gauntlet”, a challenging obstacle course, and the “trials”, which saw surviving robots take part in a challenge, usually against house robots, before battling actually takes place. Starting from series 3, the trails were dropped in favour of more battles, but were still seen in side games for additional entertainment (and allowing competing robots a chance to complete repairs). This series is highly enjoyable to me because of the sheer variety of competitors and machines that appear on the show.

Will