Junior Kick Start

Young kids churning up the mud on motorbikes during the half term holidays. It could only have been Junior Kick Start. A TV format that has survived to this day - human suffering for entertainment. brilliant.

Jimmy, aged 12, from Dagenham would drive his mini Yamaha 50cc around a course of slalom poles, see saws ramps and steep hills. Junior Kick Start was a show you only ever watched in case some poor kid on an overly large trials bike came a cropper.

Thankfully, that happened on a regular basis. My funniest memory of this, which has been replayed endlessly, is when some young 12 year old kid stacked it, tumbled into a ditch and had to be rescued by a St. John's Ambulance guy. The ambulance guy went down to get him and stacked it too, ending up on his arse in the mud. Quality entertainment.

The programme eventually ended in the early-90s when a new generation of kids turned their backs on driving motorbikes over ramps and see-saws and big hills, in favour of alcopops, crack, joyriding and mugging other kids for their mobile phones.
Ahhh Sunday afternoons in the 80s. Yeah, Kick Start was right up there with the A-Team and Hardcastle and McCormick.