Nearly 30 years after Challenge Anneka was last on our screens, “Anneka Rice is back”, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. “And frankly, I don’t know how we’ve managed without her” – the woman is a “ray of sunshine”. The show was a massive hit at the time, and “wisely, the executives in charge” haven’t messed with the format, so we also have “lovely Dave the Soundman returning as Rice’s loyal companion”.
As before, each episode revolves around Rice carrying out a community project with the help of an army of volunteers. The first episode features an animal rescue centre in Kent, which needs new kennels and a hydrotherapy pool for a disabled pug. Rice is “enthusiastic, warm and generous” throughout; and it all adds up to a radiant revival.
The original show’s BBC run ended in 1996, after seven years, yet Rice has “barely changed” since then, said Christopher Stevens in the Daily Mail. She’s ditched the jumpsuits, but “if anything, she’s got saucier with age”. Flirting with an electrical supplier whose warehouse she has just ransacked, she tells him: “Thank you for letting us rummage in your back area.”
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The show “does run a bit long”, and there are all sorts of “extraneous bits”, said Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian, but it still makes for heartwarming television. Whether or not you remember the original, there is real joy to be had in watching “hundreds of people pitch in to do a good deed for the community”. You may find by the end that you have “a little something” in your eye.
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