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Whatever happened to BBC's Kick Start series?

By A Mystery Man Writer

With its crazy obstacles and catchy theme, it turned a generation on to trials Fact file First show: BBC 1, August 1979 Last show: June 1988 Kick Start? A quaint trials game show in the 70s wasn’t it? Although merely a lightweight TV half hour which pitted leading trials riders (and later juniors) against each other and the clock, it became a firm favourite that lived on for years. So just how big was it? Huge, running for nine years and 13 series between 1979 and 1988, spawning a spin-off, computer game and, at its peak, attracting 13 million viewers. Today’s Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, for example, pulls about six million. So how did it come about? It was the brainchild of 1978 Lombard RAC Rally organiser, Nick Brittan, when he noticed some trials riders out the window of his local pub. A few phone calls to the BBC resulted in a formal pitch and led to the go-ahead with Pebble Mill producer Derek Smith (who later helped create Top Gear). What was the idea? Basically, top
With its crazy obstacles and catchy theme, it turned a generation on to trials Fact file First show: BBC 1, August 1979 Last show: June 1988 Kick Start? A quaint trials game show in the 70s wasn’t it? Although merely a lightweight TV half hour which pitted leading trials riders (and later juniors) against each other and the clock, it became a firm favourite that lived on for years. So just how big was it? Huge, running for nine years and 13 series between 1979 and 1988, spawning a spin-off, computer game and, at its peak, attracting 13 million viewers. Today’s Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, for example, pulls about six million. So how did it come about? It was the brainchild of 1978 Lombard RAC Rally organiser, Nick Brittan, when he noticed some trials riders out the window of his local pub. A few phone calls to the BBC resulted in a formal pitch and led to the go-ahead with Pebble Mill producer Derek Smith (who later helped create Top Gear). What was the idea? Basically, top