Codex: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

History-meets-mystery as Codex uses family entertainment to unlock our ancient past. Each week 5 members of the public spend the night at the British Museum in London among its unrivalled collections of historical artefacts. Their challenge is to decipher the "Codex" – a riddle written in a mysterious code.

To ‘crack the Codex', the team follow a trail through the Museum, from the moonlit Great Court through the galleries to the Mummy stores and other spooky places. En route they visit 5 major Artefacts on the theme of the week, and tackle a historical challenge directly related to each one. If they complete a challenge successfully and in time, 2 symbols in the Codex are turned into letters. As well as earning letters, the team is also whittled down in a series of Head-to-Head challenges, also on the theme of the week.

After 5 Artefact Challenges, the sole surviving player returns to the Great Court, where the rest of the team – and the viewers – attempt to ‘crack the Codex' and decipher the riddle. Finally, the surviving player enters the world-famous Reading Room and must use the riddle to decide which of 5 similar artefacts displayed is the only one to which the riddle refers. If the finalist chooses the correct artefact, the team win the show, and a trip to a site of historical interest.

Series details

• Title: Codex
• Format: Game Show
• Language: English
• Genres: Mystery, History
• Premiere date: 2006-11-12
• Final broadcast date listed: 2007-12-15
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: Channel 4
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 60 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 31179

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2006-11-12; final listed air date 2006-12-17; episode order: 6.
• Season 2: premiered 2007-11-10; final listed air date 2007-12-15; episode order: 6.

Source and licence

Adapted from Codex on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.