Touch the Truck was a British Channel 5 endurance game show which aired in March 2001. Hosted by Dale Winton,[1] it involved a group of 20 contestants holding onto a stationary Toyota Land Cruiser Amazon truck for as long as they could. The last person left touching the truck won it.[2]
| Touch the Truck | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Game show |
| Created by | Glenn Barden Dave Hills |
| Directed by | Sue McMahon |
| Presented by | Dale Winton |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 5 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Sharon Ali |
| Production location | Lakeside Shopping Centre |
| Production company | Vascha Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | Channel 5 |
| Release | 11 March – 15 March 2001 |
The show was filmed at the Lakeside Shopping Centre in West Thurrock, Essex.
Jerry Middleton, 39, from Winchester, was the winner; he managed to stay awake touching the vehicle for 81 hours, 43 minutes, and 31 seconds. He stated that he was going to sell the vehicle to fund a political party.[3] Middleton stood in the southwestern London seat of Kingston and Surbiton in 2001 and came in last place, with 0.1% of votes cast.[4]
Rules edit
According to the rules of the competition, disqualification would occur when:
- a contestant took a longer break than allotted (ten minutes every two hours, and fifteen minutes every six hours),
- a contestant removed both hands from the truck while not on a break, or
- a contestant fell asleep.[1]
The format edit
The format was devised by Glenn Barden and Dave Hills and is owned by Vashca. It has been subsequently licensed to the Philippines, Indonesia, Portugal and Turkey.[5]
In popular culture edit
The show played a significant part in the second episode of Diane Morgan's 2020 BBC sitcom Mandy.
See also edit
References edit
- ^ a b "UK TV Listings | UK TV Guide | What's on TV with Digiguide.tv". digiguide.tv.
- ^ "And the truck touched him | guardian.co.uk". www.theguardian.com.
- ^ "ENTERTAINMENT | Channel 5's Truck won". BBC News. 15 March 2001. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ "VOTE 2001 | RESULTS & CONSTITUENCIES | Kingston & Surbiton". BBC News. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ "Bespoke Television Productions". Vashca. Archived from the original on 1 March 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
