Jeopardy (TV series) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Jeopardy |
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| Genre | |
| Created by | Tim O'Mara |
| Directed by | Paul Wroblewski |
| Starring |
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| Composer(s) | Garry Hardman |
| Country of origin |
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| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 40 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
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| Producer(s) | Andy Rowley |
| Cinematography |
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| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 24 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
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| Distributor | BBC |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Picture format | PAL (576i) |
| Audio format | Stereophonic |
| First shown in | United Kingdom |
| Original release | 8 January 2002 – 11 May 2004 |
Jeopardy was a cool British-Australian TV show for kids. It was a science fiction drama that aired on BBC One from 2002 to 2004. The show was made by Tim O'Mara and filmed in Scotland and Australia. It even won a BAFTA award in 2002 for Best Children's Drama!
Contents
What is Jeopardy About?
The story of Jeopardy follows eight high school students and their teacher from Falkirk, Scotland. They travel to the Australian bush, hoping to find UFOs. Each student gets a camcorder to record anything strange they see. The show often uses shaky footage, making it feel like you are watching their own recordings.
Meet the Characters
Main Characters
- Lucy Jeffers (played by Samantha Bowie) – Lucy is a bit of a tomboy and very fit. She is good at outdoor activities and usually stays calm. She becomes close with Harry.
- Sarah Fitzwilliam (played by Kari Corbett) – Sarah cares a lot about the environment. She is the first to think she has seen aliens. After the first series, she appears less often.
- David Hedges (played by Gordon McCorkell) – David loves science and UFOs. He knows a lot about plants and animals and has a great sense of direction. He strongly believes aliens are causing their problems, which sometimes makes the group argue. He also appears less after the first series.
- Harry Hastings (played by Craig Moncur) – Harry is a natural leader, even though he is not as fit as the others. When their teacher disappears, Harry takes charge. He has epilepsy but decides not to bring his medicine. He starts a relationship with Lucy.
- Shona Campbell (played by Shelley O'Neill) – Shona is the quietest and most caring member of the group. She can get emotional and sometimes seems grumpy because she gets upset easily. She told her strict parents the trip was for geography, not UFOs.
- Simon Tudor (played by James Pearson) – Simon is athletic and the school's football captain. He is strong and fast, but also very proud and can make bad choices. He sometimes betrays the group. Later, meeting an Aboriginal tour guide named Vic helps him change and fit in better.
- Leon Duffy (played by Stanley Smith) – Leon is energetic and strong, but he does not always take things seriously. He likes to be the center of attention and makes the group laugh. He tries to be a hero, especially for Shona. He is immature but can have good ideas.
- Chrissie McAteer (played by Charli Wilson) – Chrissie is popular and loves fashion. At first, she only came on the trip to get to know Simon better and was quite self-centered. But through her experiences, she learns to care more about her friends.
Other Important Characters
- Melissa (played by Tammy MacIntosh) – Melissa is a park ranger who helps the group in Series 1. She gets captured by diamond smugglers.
- Gerry Simmons (played by Steven Vidler) – Gerry is the students' teacher and the leader of their UFO club. He plans the trip but later disappears. He is found at the end of Series 1 but is thought to be mentally unstable. He helps the group again in Series 3.
- Helen Stanich (played by Caroline Dunphy) – Helen works for an organization that watches people who have been abducted by aliens. She sometimes helps the group, even though her goals are not always clear.
Series Adventures
Series 1: The Outback Mystery
The students and their teacher, Gerry, go to the Australian outback to find aliens. On the first night, Sarah sees strange lights and thinks they are aliens. Soon, Leon is bitten by a snake, and their medicine is gone. Melissa, the park ranger, goes for help but disappears. Then Gerry goes missing too, leaving the teenagers alone.
The group sees more strange lights and hears weird radio signals. Simon and Chrissie try to save themselves, but the group later finds Gerry and Melissa. They discover that the alien activity was faked by smugglers! The smugglers had captured Melissa. After this, the teenagers and Gerry go to the ocean, but then they are truly abducted by real aliens!
Series 2: The Search for Friends
The group wakes up back on a ridge and is taken to a military base. They realize David and Sarah are missing. Gerry is separated from them because he keeps talking about aliens, but the others do not remember being abducted. The group escapes the base and buys an old van. They travel across the country, looking for David and Sarah, who appear to them in visions.
Simon makes a deal with Helen Stanich, an agent, thinking it is the right thing to do. The group locks him in a train car to teach him a lesson, but the train takes him away. The others go to the Gold Coast to find twins who might help them. Simon is rescued by Vic, an Aboriginal guide, who shows him cave paintings about time and their group's future. The group eventually meets Simon and learns from the paintings that they need to be at the Glass Mountains during a solar eclipse to bring their friends back. With Helen's help, they arrive and form a circle. They briefly see David and Sarah, but then they start to fade away.
Series 3: The Red-Eye Virus
The group realizes they broke the circle, and their friends are fading. They quickly reform the circle and find themselves back home in Scotland, six weeks later. They are invisible to everyone! Only David and Sarah can see them. David and Sarah explain that they returned to Scotland with no memory of the Glass Mountains. Everyone thinks the other six teenagers and Gerry are dead.
While David and Sarah stay in Scotland, the rest of the group goes back to Australia. They become visible again but are chased by Helen Stanich. They realize they must contact the aliens to fix everything. However, they start getting a "red-eye virus." When they are stressed or scared, their left eye glows red, they seem to split into two, and then they vanish! Leon, Shona, and Chrissie all disappear this way.
During their search, they find Gerry, who has escaped from the hospital. They travel to a secret base on Astrid Island. There, they find their friends who had disappeared, but they act like seven-year-olds and look black on an infra-red camera.
After Gerry and Simon also split, Harry and Lucy realize that an eyewitness saw them in the water just before they split. They stay calm to avoid this fate. They meet the eyewitness, who turns out to be one of two alien twin boys. The aliens explain they are an ancient human race that left Earth long ago. The red-eye virus was an accident from being on their spaceship, possibly due to the solar eclipse. Harry and Lucy realize the island is another portal. They convince their friends to form a circle, which sends Harry and Lucy back in time to Scotland. They show the tapes they recorded to their past selves and friends, convincing them not to go to Australia.
How the Show Ended
At the end of Series 3, CBBC viewers got to vote on how the show should end. There were three choices: "spooky," "happy," or "surprising."
- The "spooky" ending won the first vote. It ended with a cliffhanger. The Harry and Lucy from the future meet their past selves. Lucy is shocked, and because two versions of her exist, the red-eye virus starts. The show ends without knowing what happens to future Lucy.
- The "happy" ending was chosen in a later repeat vote. It was similar to the spooky ending, but it finished before the future Harry and Lucy appeared.
- The "surprise" ending never aired. The show's creator, Tim O'Mara, said this ending would have revealed that Harry, Lucy, and the rest of the group were actually alien clones! The red-eye virus was a way to control these clones.
Awards and Recognition
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
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| 2002 | Jeopardy | British Academy Children's Award for Drama | Won |
