Between early 2008 and late 2012, UK television was in its renaissance era, producing some of the finest gameshows ever broadcast in these fine green isles. Those were the days of the big balls, terrifying animatronic hares and lycra-clad contestants getting bashed by advancing walls. What the hell was going on? Let’s take a trip back in time and remember some of British TV’s greatest Gameshow hits.

5. Don’t Scare the Hare

The product of some deranged fever-dream, Don’t Scare the Hare was cancelled six episodes into its initial run of nine, making it unique on this list as not even managing to get through its first season. The premise saw contestants take part in a variety of challenges meant to test their physical and mental abilities, whilst being careful not to disturb the enormous animatronic hare lying ‘asleep’ on set. Make too much noise and you’ll set off a blood curdling alarm, disturbing the hare and terrifying the children at home. In this clip contestants must float by balloon above the hare’s allotment, using long hooked sticks to steal the hare’s laser-guarded carrots, in a game called ‘Hot Hare Balloons’. Excellent stuff.

4. Total Wipeout

As such a total fan favourite it would be a crime to miss this one off the list. In sunny Argentina, a group of averagely athletic Brits throw themselves around a big red obstacle course until all but one have ended up in the water below. It’s simple, it’s addictive, and it looks really easy from home, I could definitely do better than these idiots. Despite being such a fixture of early 2010s TV, Total Wipeout only broadcast for six seasons over three years, and managed to bag two Top Gear presenters as hosts in that time, with both Richard Hammond and Freddie Flintoff lending their voices to the show.

3. Golden Balls

From the Big Balls to the Golden, this was a show that was best known for its psycological warfare round, played out with the famous “Split or Steal” question, a version of the prisoners dilemma so perfect that I was shown the clip below in GCSE economics. After cooperatively building up a healthy cash jackpot in the first two rounds, the surviving two contestants must decide how to end the game. Both are given a set of balls that say ‘split’ and ‘steal’. If both ‘steal’, nobody wins anything, and if both ‘split’ the money is divided equally. But if one chooses to ‘split’ and the other ‘steal’, then the thief gets the entire jackpot. Cue the most intense negotiations and the biggest betrayals we’ve ever seen on TV.

2. Get Your Own Back

Get Your Own Back was built on the simple premise that to children, adults are really annoying and embarrassing, and deserve to be dunked in a pool of ‘gunge’, slimy sticky multicoloured stuff that even today looks gross. Given that the show’s studio audience was made up of hysterical screaming kids, excited beyond belief to be where they are, it’s a miracle the production team managed to crank out almost 200 episodes given the chaos it must have been on set.

1. Hole in the Wall

The mother of all ridiculous game shows, Hole in the Wall made contestants take silly and awkward positions to fit through the hole in the large polystyrene wall that was speeding their way. Simple, genius, television. As the final episode aired almost ten years ago in 2014, it’s not inconceivable that we’ll see HITW back under a different name sometime soon…looking at you Netflix…