Raven is a BBC Scotland children's adventure game show. It originally aired on CBBC in the United Kingdom from 16 December 2002 to 11 March 2010, over the course of ten series, with three spin-offs. In the original release, the show was hosted by James Mackenzie who played the title role, and conducted a group of six children, known as warriors, over five days through a series of tasks and feats. At various stages in the adventure, the group loses the least successful warrior, until two go through to the final week to compete for the title of Ultimate Warrior.
The series returned in 2017 with Aisha Toussaint as the new Raven and host, with Mackenzie's character also appearing in the show, renamed as "Raven of Old". Two series were commissioned and filming began in July 2017 with the eleventh series starting on 4 December 2017, and a twelfth series later airing on 4 June 2018. No further series were commissioned afterwards. The revived series sees Raven conducts four warriors over three days and one goes through to the final week to compete for the title of True Warrior.
Format
Series 1–10
This format of the show features three groups of six warriors who compete in various challenges over the course of three (broadcast) weeks. Each group features for five days, and after the second day, the warrior with the fewest lives and rings must face the Way of the Warrior, an elimination challenge deciding whether they would continue to the next day or not. Only two warriors in each week go through to compete in the final week of the quest, where one becomes the Ultimate Warrior.
Each warrior starts out with a number of lives, represented by feathers on a standard. The number of lives started was 7 from Series 1–3, and this changed to 9 lives from Series 4–10. From series 5, contestants with a full number of lives intact could gain further lives with 9 rings, whereas they couldn’t beforehand. Warriors also received symbolic emblems that follow them throughout their quest (Sun, Mountain, Tree, Wave, Cloud, and Moon). Losing any challenge meant the loss of a life, but these could be won back, by winning at least 7 (Series 2–3), later 9, gold rings, although in Series 1, the final day's challenges were played to win back lives. To lose all lives from a standard meant the warrior would be automatically eliminated from the process, though this never occurred.
At the end of days 1–4 (Series 1, Series 7 final week), days 2–4 (Series 2–10 heats, Series 4–6 final week), and 5 in the final weeks in Series 2–3, 8–10, the warrior with the fewest lives and rings must face the Way of the Warrior, a complex and difficult series of obstacles that only four warriors, (Ishal, Varna, Worjo and Kinsa), have ever completed. Only in Series 1 that warriors volunteer to do the challenge but in the first day, no-one was sent home. Should a warrior reach the portal at the end of the Way of the Warrior, they will be admitted through to the next day of the quest, and the task must then fall upon the next warrior with the fewest lives and rings. This process continues until somebody is eliminated. If there was a tie on lives and rings, a drawing of feathers decides which one would face the challenge, that warrior being the one who picked the black feather.
Series 11–12
Raven conducts four groups of four warriors (the Bears, the Wolves, the Wild Cats, and the Stags), similar to the spin-off shows, in a three-day chunk in which they start off with six rings. They would lose one if they were claimed by a demon and Raven rescued them from Nevar's realm with her staff of power, instead of the feathered lives seen previously. The warrior with the fewest rings leaves at the end of the second day, leaving the three remaining warriors to face off against each other in The Last Stand on the third day. Whoever wins The Last Stand proceeds to represent their group in the Grand Tournament. In the Grand Tournament, the format is similar to the heats with the warrior with the fewest rings leaving on the second day and the remaining three facing off in the Tournaments version of The Last Stand. The winner earns the title of a True Warrior and becomes part of Raven's army to eventually take down Nevar permanently.