Jeux Sans Frontières
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Jeux Sans Frontières (English: Games Without Frontiers or Games Without Borders, Italian: Giochi senza frontiere, Portuguese: Jogos Sem Fronteiras, Welsh: Gemau Heb Ffiniau, Spanish: Juegos sin fronteras, Dutch: Spel zonder grenzen, German: Spiele ohne Grenzen, Serbian: Igre Bez Granica, Hungarian: Játék Határok Nélkül) is a Europe-wide television game show.
In its original conception, it was broadcast from 1965 to 1999 under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union and featured teams from different European countries in outlandish costumes (often large latex suits) competing to complete bizarre tasks in funny games.
In the United Kingdom, participants came from the heats of It's a Knockout. The presenter of that series, Stuart Hall, provided the British commentary. Wales had its own team between 1991 and 1994 and the programme was broadcast on S4C in Welsh by Iestyn Garlick.
The idea of the show came from French President Charles de Gaulle, whose wish was that French and German youth would meet in a series of funny games to reinforce the friendship between France and Germany. The games were inspired by the matches between French cities. Some games were played in swimming pools. In 1965, three French men (Pedro Brime, Claude Savarit, Jean-Louis Marest) brought the idea of the games to all Europe with success. Teams representing France, Germany, Belgium, and Italy took part in the first edition of the show called Inter Nations Games.[1]
Each participating country hosted one round of the games, presented by the host broadcaster. Every game was umpired by two "international" judges, Gennaro Olivieri and Guido Pancaldi. EBU announced that the show would be relaunched in summer 2007 after 7 years of inactivity. Due to financial considerations it was delayed, and is now forecast to begin in the summer of 2009.
An online petition was launched on 4 June 2007, to persuade EBU to revive JSF.[2]
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[edit] Participating countries and wins
Between the span of 1965 and 1999, 20 countries participated in 30 editions of JSF (considering Wales and Czechoslovakia as separate participants):
| Country | Years of Participation | Editions | Wins | % | Top 5 |
 Belgium |
1965-1982, 1988-1989 | 20 | 2 | 10 | |
 Germany |
1965-1980 | 16 | 6 | 37.5 | 3 |
 France |
1965-1968, 1970-1982, 1988-1992, 1997-1999 | 25 | 3 | 12 | |
 Italy |
1965-1982, 1988-1999 | 30 | 4 | 13,3 | |
 Switzerland |
1967-1982, 1992-1999 | 24 | 2 | 8,3 | |
 United Kingdom |
1967-1982 (1991-1994: Wales only) | 16 | 4 | 25 | |
 Netherlands |
1970-1977, 1997-1998 | 10 | 0 | 0 | |
 Liechtenstein |
1976 | 1 (one heat) | 0 | 0 | |
 Yugoslavia |
1978-1982, 1990 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
 Portugal |
1979-1982, 1988-1998 | 15 | 5 | 33,3 | 4 |
 Spain |
1988, 1990-1992 | 4 | 1 | 25 | 5 |
 San Marino |
1989-1991 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
 Wales |
1991-1994 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
 Tunisia |
1992 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
 Czechoslovakia |
1992 | 1 | 1 | 100 | 1 |
 Czech Republic |
1993-1995 | 3 | 2 | 66,6 | 1 |
 Greece |
1993-1999 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
 Hungary |
1993-1999 | 7 | 3 | 42,8 | 2 |
 Slovenia |
1994, 1996-1997, 1999 (earlier as Yugoslavia) | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
 Malta |
1994-1995 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Liechtenstein participated in 1976, replacing Switzerland in one single heat, and using thus the code FL (instead of CH).
Wales participated from 1991 to 1994 on behalf of the United Kingdom, and were identified by the code GB in mainland Europe and by C (Cymru, the Welsh name for Wales) in Wales itself. Welsh was the transmission language of the participating broadcaster (S4C).
Czechoslovakia participated in 1992 with Czech teams only. There was no Slovak participation in JSF that year. In 1993 the Czech Republic entered the show as an independent country.
The show inspired Peter Gabriel's 1980 hit single, "Games Without Frontiers" (the direct English translation of the title), in which backing vocalist Kate Bush sings "jeux sans frontières" during breaks. The lyrics also refer to the original title: "It's A Knockout".
[edit] Participating countries in Jeux Sans Frontières 2007
The series did not take place in 2007, due to financial setback: previously, EBU announced that the show would be relaunched in summer 2007 after seven years of inactivity. It was then forecast to be launched in the Summer of 2008, which also has not happened. It is unknown whether JSF is now aiming for a 2009 broadcast.
Eight countries were thought to be participating and their colours would be:
- Belgium (B): yellow
Croatia (HR): light blue- Spain (E): red
- Greece (GR): dark blue
- Netherlands (NL): orange
- Portugal (P): green
- Slovenia (SLO): fuchsia
- Italy (I): white
It was also rumoured of a participation of:
- San Marino (RSM): silver
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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This article's external links may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links. (April 2009) |
- JSF Official Site
- European petition to the EBU to relaunch JSF
- Italian petition to EBU and RAI to relaunch JSF
- JSFnet Italy
- UK Jeux Sans Frontieres Site with clips and forum.
- Site of Jeux Sans Frontieres with the history of the show and more. in French
- JSFnet Greece in Greek and English
- VoteForJsf Web poll where people can vote for the revival of the JSF
- VoteForJsf Web poll - Hungary
- List of all UK It's a Knockout and JSF episodes
- It's A Knockout & JSF website that includes details of the BBC, Channel 5, UK Royal Knockout, Telematch, and many international versions.
