Depending on your
point of view and
tolerance for such latter-day
freak shows, either the
apex or
nadir of the '
reality TV' phenomenon. Touch the Truck ran for a week on England's horrendous
Channel 5, a channel already renowned for running
porn whenever there's a gap in the schedules and never making anything on a budget of over £50. Apparently the programme had also run in
America beforehand.
The programme was presented by minor celebrity
Dale Winton ensuring
kitsch cult status in the future. The basic premise was that a number of contestants would stand touching a truck for 5 continuous days. The last person remaining, still touching the truck, at the end of that time would win the
truck. In addition, there was to be no sleeping for the entire 5-day period. On paper, you might think this doesn't sound like the most
riveting television, and you'd be right. However, the show succeeded through cunning use of
hype from the
British Medical Association which issued a warning that keeping people awake for so long was
life-threatening, and through entertaining incidents such as one woman who threatened to
urinate where she stood if she wasn't allowed to use the toilet immediately.
Apparently, on the American version, one man won 14 trucks this way. You really have to wonder for his
sanity.