Highly surreal 2011 BBC Game Show that seems like it could've only been the result of either being under the influence of some type of hallucinatory product, or strategy sessions with Jay Wolpert.
It involves two teams of three contestants in an "underground forest", playing competitive minigames where the objective is to not scare the Hare. This occurs if a team gets three faults on a particular challenge, which will trigger a loud noise, and thus scare the Hare. The hare, for the record, is an animatronic rabbit with wheels.
Winning games earn carrots; the first two rounds offer 3, and last round is a head-to-head challenge with up to 18 available), and the winning team gets to play a final bonus round for the grand prize of £15,000.
Nine episodes were produced, but the BBC canned it after just six aired (the other three were quietly burnt off in the mid-afternoon later in the year). Some critics thought it was a bit too weird, some thought it would work better as a kid's show, and many viewers were surprised when they heard that the show was not just a one-off for Easter weekend.
This show provides examples of:
- The Announcer: Sue Perkins, as the "voice of the forest".
- Beneath the Earth: Said to be set here, but their "underground forest" also has a sky and a day/night cycle.
- Bonus Round: Answer three out of five multiple choice questions correctly; the choices are assigned to three plungers manned by each of the team members, with correct answers triggering lures to guide the Hare into a trap, and incorrect answers triggering explosives (which scares the hare—the thing you're aiming not to do).
- Game Show Host: Jason Bradbury
- Minigame Game: The various rounds have goals of averting an event that would scare the hare, such as hopping on lily pads in the correct sequence, throwing apples at fireworks to knock them away from a fuse, carrying eggs through an obstacle course, etc.
- Multiple Demographic Appeal: Host Jason Bradbury mentioned this "It's about mum and dad liking the Fiona Bruce gags, the kids loving the bunny and the teenagers loving the guy from the Gadget Show". It didn’t quite work out that way, however.
- Reflective Eyes: If the hare is scared, whatever set off the noise that scared it is reflected in its eyes before it freaks out.
- Subverted Kids' Show: Played straight; even host Jason Bradbury described the show as being "fantasy based toddler telly with an adult twist."
