| Genre: | Children's Game show |
| Presenter: | Richard Stilgoe |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 5 |
| Num Episodes: | 42 |
| Runtime: | 25 minutes |
| Channel: | BBC1 |
Finders Keepers is a British children's game show television series that aired on BBC1 from 13 February 1981 to 1 March 1985, hosted by Richard Stilgoe.
The show combined a quiz element with a computerised version of the game Battleships. Two teams of three primary school-aged pupils would compete against each other.[1] On scoring a "hit" at the Battleships game, the team had to answer a question to gain the associated points.
The show was notable for host Richard Stilgoe playing the theme on a synthesiser live in the studio at the beginning, as well as the use of the phonetic alphabet to indicate the square on the battleship grid.[2]
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13 February 1981[3] | 3 April 1981[4] | 8 | |
| 2 | 19 February 1982[5] | 2 April 1982[6] | 7 | |
| 3 | 25 February 1983[7] | 1 April 1983[8] | 6 | |
| 4 | 9 January 1984[9] | 26 March 1984[10] | 12 | |
| 5 | 4 January 1985[11] | 1 March 1985[12] | 9 |
The series was a victim of the BBC's wiping of their children's programming in the 1990s. 28 out of 42 episodes survive in the BBC archives. The surviving episodes are:[13]
Series 1: Episodes 1 and 4; Series 2: Episodes 1–2 and 4; Series 3: Episodes 1 and 4–6; Series 4: Episodes 1–6, 8 and 10–12.Series 5 exists in its entirety