Contestant Sarah cycled down from her starting position to get to her key challenge on a river, only to see the Interceptor nearby in a dinghy. Initially designed in the early 1960s to counter US-built B-58 Hustler bombers, F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bombers and Lockheed U-2 spy planes, it still retains the ability to 'sprint' at Mach 2-plus speeds and later versions can carry medium-range PL-12/SD-10 MRAAM missiles for interception purposes.

Within a 45 minute time limit, and guided by the host at a nearby base camp, they must move across the area, gain the key to the other contestant's backpack, meet up, and exchange keys. Both the fighter and the Phoenix missile were retired in 2006. The interceptor mission is, by its nature, a difficult one. As an alternative, longer-range designs with extended loiter times were considered. The aircraft of the Soviet Air Defence Forces (PVO-S) differed from those of the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) in that they were by no means small or crudely simple, but huge and refined with large, sophisticated radars; they could not take off from grass, only concrete runways; they could not be disassembled and shipped back to a maintenance center in a boxcar.

Flicking through the channels I noticed nothing interesting, apart from the title of one show I had never heard of, on the Challenge Channel- Interceptor.This was a brilliant but short lived British game show from 1989, made by Mal Hayworth's Chatsworth Television, the same people who made Treasure Hunt and The Crystal Maze.

The utility of interceptors waned as the role merged with that of the heavy air superiority fighter, which was dominant in military thinking. Contestant Mark enlisted the help of the army to find his key, and his partner Sue later used a canoe to collect her key from under a bridge. Rather than focusing on acceleration and climb rate, the design emphasis is on range and missile carrying capacity, which together translate into combat endurance, look-down/shoot-down radars good enough to detect and track fast moving interdictors against ground clutter, and the capability to provide guidance to air-to-air missiles (AAM) against these targets.

Although the two contestants met up with 1 minute remaining, the Interceptor had zapped both their backpacks. The two aircraft resulting from these proposals were the single-engine Bell P-39 Airacobra and the twin-engine Lockheed P-38 Lightning. The F-16, however, was originally designed for air superiority while evolving into a versatile multirole fighter. Two contestants are each given a locked backpack - one containing £1000, the other merely weighted. Hence, the F-106 ended up serving as the primary USAF interceptor into the 1980s. The first seven episodes were aired on a Wednesday. Improving on some of the flaws on the proceeding MiG-25, the MiG-31 has better low altitude and low speed performance, in addition to carrying an internal cannon. Trying to stop them is The Interceptor, who will spend most of the game trying to 'zap' the contestants' backpacks with a device that will jam the lock, making it impossible to open. The other was G-BHXU, the same Agusta-Bell Jetranger helicopter used in Treasure Hunt, piloted here by Jerry Grayson.