Touch the Truck

Touch the Truck
Genre	Game show
Created by	Glenn Barden Dave Hills
Presented by	Dale Winton
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
Production company(s)	Vascha Productions
Release
Original network	Channel 5
Original release	11 March – 15 March 2001

Touch the Truck was a British Channel 5 endurance gameshow which aired in 2001. It was hosted by Dale Winton and involved a group of 20 contestants holding onto a stationary truck. The last person left touching the truck won it.

The show was filmed at the Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock, Essex.

Jerry Middleton, 39, from Winchester, Hampshire, was the winner who managed to stay awake touching the vehicle for 81 hours 43 minutes and 31 seconds. He stated that he was going to sell the vehicle to fund a political party. Middleton stood at the 2001 General Election in the Kingston and Surbiton constituency, but gained only 54 votes of a turnout of 49,093.

According to the rules of the competition, disqualification occurred when:

Contestants could also be drug tested to ensure fairness.

The format was devised by Glenn Barden and Dave Hills and is owned by Vashca. It has been subsequently licensed to the Philippines, Indonesia, Portugal and Turkey.

The 1969 Sydney Pollack movie They Shoot Horses, Don't They? starring Jane Fonda features a marathon dance where the eventually desperate participants must stay awake to win a prize. The film is based on a 1935 novel by the same name written by Horace McCoy with the dance marathon taking place during the Great Depression.

The documentary Hands on a Hardbody tells the story of a nearly identical 1995 endurance contest in Longview, Texas. The contest was once an annual fixture in Longview, and the British newspaper The Sunday Times reported on the record-breaking 125-hour event held in September 2000.

A 1998 Boy Meets World episode called "The Eskimo" features a similar contest that the main characters participate in to win tickets to the Super Bowl.

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Wikipedia