Mikey! Mikey! Round the back, quick!

Yes yes yes, hasn't it been a long time, yada yada yada. Anyway, what I really wanted to get off my chest this week was the rerun of a certain programme on Challenge TV. Now I wouldn't want you to think I spend all weekend watching Challenge TV, but every now and again, it is good for a solid hit of nostalgia (remember the appallingly bad prizes on Bullseye? Here they are, in all their cheap and nasty glory) but they have now resurrected arguably one of the loopiest shows of the late 80s: Interceptor.

This was both an inspired and apallingly produced show all at the same time. For anyone who doesn't remember, it had 'Treasure Hunt' type tendancies except in place of Aneka Rice (;-)) it used each week two consistently dull members of the public (mistake) who were placed ten miles apart and led by Annabel Croft (mistake) towards each other. Along the way, they had to collect keys to each other's backbacks, one of which contained some cash, and get together in the space of 40 minutes using whatever means possible. However, the backpacks could be locked remotely by being hit with a laser beam, which was being carried by a complete nutter called 'The Interceptor' aka male model Sean O'Kane . Clad in black leather (cool, but must have been a bit uncomfortable in summer filming conditions) he was flown about in a black helicopter by his trusty pilot (Mikey) and did his best to shoot the backpacks from 500ft up (bit tricky) to the sound of an appallingly bad dubbed laser gun effect (mistake). He also didn't so much relish his part as chew the rotor blades off the helicopter. He was occasionally sane enough to get slightly closer to his targets using motorbikes or a black Maserati he seemed to have handy, though it was never explained how he knew where to park them, or how he was allowed to traverse the streets of some godforsaken market town at 90 mph without breaching some health and safety regs..

Cancelled quite rightly for the utterly banal aspects of the programme at the end of the first series (despite a Teletext petition you know!), you get the feeling that by the end of a couple of series and a proper shakedown, it would have become pretty good. The hint of how good it could have been that I always remember was when 'the Interceptor' got ahead of one lady contestant's route and bunged some tractor-owning farmer £20 to let him swap places and outfits. He then offered the contestant a ride and had Mikey buzz the woman to suggest he was airborne. Then he got her off the tractor, walked round the back of her and 'calmly' zapped her pack shut. £1000 down the swanny and a moment of classic TV I shall carry with me forever.