Body Heat

Three pairs of yuppies get all hot and sweaty through a variety of studio-based and outdoor exercises.

Sally Gunnell (left), Jeremy Guscott (centre) and Mike Smith (right) with the winning pair of contestants after a special end-of-series final filmed on location somewhere tropical.

Rounds featured in the first series included:

An opening race on gym equipment. It could be a 6km cycle ride, 3000 metres on a running machine, a 2000 metre rowing race or a race to the top of a tall building on climbing machines. A computer screen showed players progress in real time and confirmed the result at the end. For each gender, it was 100 points to the winner, 75 for second and 50 for third.

The opening virtual race in action. The white boxes in front held televisions showing the competitor's positions.

Power Point - This tested players’ muscle strength with a machine that measured the power of arm and leg muscles. This produced a rating and for each gender, the best rating got 100, then 75 and 50, but there were bonuses for exceeding a target.

Bleep Test - Basically a multi stage fitness test, where contenders had to cover successive 30 metre lengths to a pace set by a bleep. After each minute, the time between bleeps decreases, forcing the contenders to speed up. But this takes time, so a commercial break was put in place to give us a bit of a breather.

Part two begins where the bleep test continues, and the rule is that missing the bleep three times in a row meant elimination. Scores were based on when players quit or were eliminated, and again for each gender, it is 100, 75 and 50, but women entering level 12 and men entering level 15 (after 11 and 14 minutes competition respectively) got 5 extra points for each length completed before quitting or being fouled out.

Pressure Point - This was always a filmed insert of the teams performing a pressure situation. The team that copes best got 200 points, then 150 and 100.

The Batak - The final round where each player got 20 seconds each to hit a light on the wall with their baton. Then both players were in for the last 20 seconds. 10 points for each hit registered.

The Batak Attack. After an exhausting warm-up, the pairs of contestants take turns to hit the lit lights on the giant walls. The lights must be hit with the correct amount of pressure to score.

The first series became an absolute hit. Airing in the 7pm slot on Friday nights during the summer months, it was renewed for a second series with an extended runtime and promoted to the Gladiators slot on Saturday nights with a couple of new rounds.

Body Matters - A somewhat silly quiz, based on fitness and nutrition questions, the twist being that contestants had to run a short distance to press the correct response button.

In this series, there was a restructuring midway through. Instead on showing adverts during the Bleep Test round, Power Point was put in place to keep the flow of the show going.

Tri-Batak - The final round was given an update where players had four minutes to swim 200 metres, cycle 400 metres and run 800 metres. ‘It doesn’t matter that one of you does 190 metres and the other ten, it’s the 200 total that is important.’ Only when this was completed do the two players go to the Batak wall and get the rest of the time (usually around one minute) to score ten points per hit.

A good format which serves its purpose well, but whether anyone gets truly excited about the outcome is debatable.

Stephen Leahy, who also served as Executive Producer

Simon Etchell

Big Brother 9 housemate Lisa Appleton appeared as a contestant in the final series.

A New Year's Eve Celebrity Special in 1996 featured Jane Gurnett, Du'aine Ladejo, Tristan Bancks, Oliver Skeete, Karen Dixon and that well-known athlete Sian Lloyd.