Raid the room!

Inviting children to turn rooms upside down looking for hidden objects, Finders Keepers is a noisy, action-packed game show for children. Beginning with an impressive near life-size house set, each room’s temptingly neat presentation is short-lived as two teams of two players called the Green Meanies and the Yellow Terrors compete to make a mess and win prizes.

Competitors go through a round of silly general knowledge questions to win the chance to ‘raid’ a room in the house, getting points for objects found. A blue on-screen arrow indicates to viewers where items are hidden. Joyously chaotic scenes follow with competitors relishing the chance to ransack the pristine set. Adding to the mix is confetti, streamers, smoke, sirens and moving furniture. Competitors are egged on with lots of shouting and cheering from the lively school-age studio audience. The final ‘super search’ round gives competitors three minutes to find objects in every room to win a trip to a French theme park.

Energetic 90s kid’s TV favourite Neil Buchanan hosts, following the teams’ every move and shouting clues over the chaos to help the contestants find the objects. He zips up and down the set, narrowly avoiding tripping over upended furniture and getting tangled up in streamers.

The show ends with smiles to the camera and a reminder to viewers to keep their bedrooms tidy. A perhaps flimsy gesture warning against any potential recreations in viewers’ homes.