Short Change

For the song by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, see Short Change (song). For the scam involving cash, see List of scams § Change raising.

Short Change was a consumer affairs programme for children, broadcast on BBC One and later also the CBBC Channel. It is essentially a version of the prime-time show Watchdog except that it is aimed at children. The show was first aired on 20 February 1994. It had 13 series; the last episode was broadcast on 12 July 2005.

Short Change
Genre	Consumer affairs
Presented by	Zoe Ball (1994–1995) Andi Peters (1996) Tim Vincent (1997–1999) Ortis Deley (1999–2005) Rhodri Owen (2000–2005) Angellica Bell (2001–2004) Thalia Pellegrini (2005)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	13
No. of episodes	139
Original release
Network	BBC One CBBC
Release	20 February 1994 (1994-02-20) – 12 July 2005 (2005-07-12)

Transmission guide

Series	Episodes	Duration	Presenter(s)
1	6	20 February 1994 – 27 March 1994	Zoe Ball
2		19 February 1995 – 26 March 1995
3	7	18 February 1996 – 31 March 1996	Andi Peters
4	8	9 February 1997 – 30 March 1997	Tim Vincent
5	6	11 January 1998 – 15 February 1998
6	12	7 January 1999 – 25 March 1999	Tim Vincent & Ortis Deley
7		6 January 2000 – 23 March 2000	Ortis Deley & Rhodri Owen
8		4 January 2001 – 22 March 2001	Ortis Deley, Rhodri Owen & Angellica Bell
9	14	29 March 2001 – 28 June 2001
10	13	18 April 2002 – 11 July 2002
11		24 April 2003 – 17 July 2003
12	15	8 April 2004 – 15 July 2004
13		5 April 2005 – 12 July 2005	Ortis Deley, Rhodri Owen and Thalia Pellegrini

Specials

• Series 3 compilation: 5 January 1997
• Fan Clubs Special: 9 November 1997
• The Fat Nation Challenge: 18 editions from 9 September 2004 – 7 November 2004

PriceBusters Competition

On each programme, viewers were challenged to find the cheapest and most expensive prices for a given product throughout the country. Two winners each week (one finding each extreme price) would win a boom-box stereo. Bill Bennett won the competition two weeks running, by finding the most expensive prices for the given products, and including Tesco.com's grocery delivery charge of £5. This made the cost of a Müller Rice around £5.40, much more expensive than prices found by any other entrant. Following the two consecutive wins, the rules were changed to omit delivery charges from the total cost for a particular product.

See also

• Street Cents, a CBC program influenced by Short Change

References

• Source: BFI/BBC Motion Gallery