Former Takeshi's Castle contestant reveals they only got paid £20 to go on show

A contestant on Takeshi’s Castle has revealed the shockingly low amount that the contestants were paid to take part in the show.

Everyone remembers Takeshi’s Castle, right?

It was an absolutely classic Japanese game show that was narrated here in the UK by Craig Charles – and later Jonathan Ross, but the less said about that the better – in which contestants took on a load of daft challenges.

For example, the classic ‘Bridge Ball’ game, where a contestant must catch and carry a ball across a rickety wooden bridge, all whilst the ‘guards’ fire footballs at them out of a load of massive cannons.

Or ‘Skipping Stones’, in which contestants had to run full tilt across a pond with various stepping stones on it, with the challenge being that some of them aren’t actually secured and disappear beneath the water, causing the running contestant to spectacularly fall into the water.

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That’s if they didn’t break their shins or teeth falling forward into the other stones at breakneck speed.

So, there were clearly some risks involved in being a contestant on the show.

What’s more, winning it was super tough.

In fact, you could watch hundreds of episodes and never see anyone win, despite 100 people taking part in the show each episode.

All of these things just added to the appeal even more.

The show was taken off air in 2013, but given that there have been so many contestants, it was only a matter of time before one spoke out about the show and gave us a glimpse behind the curtain.

That happened on Reddit a while ago, with the contestant revealing some interesting details.

The unnamed former warrior said: "All of the contestants received a nominal appearance fee (the equivalent of around $25 U.S. if I remember.)

"They also fed us lunch (sushi and sashimi, of course) and soft drinks."

About £20 to put yourself through pain and danger with very little chance of winning the game?

Sign me up.

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The contestant went on to explain that he was eliminated from the show during an early round, but also revealed how much the winner was paid.

He said that the big jackpot prize was about $10,000, which is about £7,834 these days in UK currency.

Interestingly enough, he also claimed that all of the show’s staff, barring one person, could speak English.

There were a notable number of international contestants on the show during some of its run, so that might make sense.

Either way, it’s interesting to get a peek behind the velvet robe of one of the all-time greatest cult TV shows, isn’t it?

Topics: World News, TV and Film, Weird, Money

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

@TPWagwim