Supporting Content
About the programme
Treasure Quest explores all corners of Norfolk with you as the vital contributor, helping to solve the clues and work out where the radio car should head next!
Julie Reinger is our intrepid clue-hunter out in the radio car each week, with Sophie Little in charge of the maps back in the studio.
Every Sunday morning, we have four or five clues hidden in different places around a certain part of the county. Each clue leads to where the next one is located, with the final clue leading to the treasure envelope! Our radio car team of Sophie and her driver have to battle against the clock to solve the clues and find the treasure before the 11.55am deadline, but they wouldn’t be able to do it without you phoning in to crack the clues for them!
During the coronavirus pandemic the show has gone virtual, with Julie safely in the studio seeking out the locations via Google Streetview!
Sophie Little
Sophie first took part in Treasure Quest in 2013 as a stand in clue-hunter, and since then has become a well-loved member of the team. She alternated the regular clue-hunting role with Kirsteen Thorne from 2014 to 2015, and when Kirsteen left became the full-time clue-hunter. She's now as the studio presenter, in charge of the maps back at base!
A Norwich native, she’s a familiar voice on BBC Radio Norfolk, having been the presenter of our Saturday evening new music programme BBC Introducing from 2009 until 2019, and since 2018 has had her own Sophie Little Show on Friday nights. She was also the voice of the travel bulletins in the breakfast show between 2011 and 2014, and has stood in as a presenter on various other shows - and also for BBC Radio 1!
She doesn’t just play music on the radio, however – Sophie is also a keen musician herself, and has sung in a local rock band! It’s probably no surprise therefore that listeners are occasionally treated to snatches of her singing along to the records played when the radio car is travelling between clue locations on Treasure Quest!
Sophie holds a unique position in the history of Treasure Quest, as she’s the only one of our regular 'runners' to have also stood in as Navigator, having driven Julie Reinger around the county for a memorably chaotic quest in September 2014! In October 2020, she switched roles to become the new studio presenter of the show, after David Whiteley left the programme.
Julie Reinger
Well known as the weather presenter on BBC Look East since 1999, Julie first stood-in as the clue-hunter on Treasure Quest in June 2012. She was then a regular stand-in out-and-about in the radio car until she took over as one of the regular clue-hunters following Becky Betts's departure from the show at Easter 2013.
Julie alternated the clue-hunting role with Kirsteen Thorne until the autumn of 2014. She then left the show for a time, but returned in 2017 as a stand-in. She had two long periods deputising for Sophie Little during Sophie's maternity leaves in 2018 and 2019-20. Julie then returned full-time to the show as the clue-hunter in October 2020, when Sophie switched to become the studio presenter.Past presenters
For its first five years, the show was well-known for its double-act of David Clayton in the studio and ‘runner’ Becky Betts, until Becky left in 2013. After Becky left, Kirsteen Thorne and Julie Reinger alternated the clue-hunting role week-to-week in 2013 and 2014. Sophie replaced Julie in late 2014, and took over as full-time clue-hunter after Kirsteen decided to step down in September 2015. David left the programme in April 2016, after eight years as the studio presenter, when he retired from the BBC.
David Whiteley then took over as studio presenter, until he left the BBC in October 2020. Sophie then switched across to the presenting role, with Julie Reinger returning to the programme as clue-hunter.Want to be a clue holder?
If you've got a great idea for a Treasure Quest clue location in your town or village and you'd like to place a clue there for us one Sunday morning, then why not get in touch? We can't guarantee to use your suggestion, but the Questmaster is always on the look-out for new places to put clues! You can e-mail the Questmaster at the following address:
Treasure Quest on Facebook
Treasure Quest has its own dedicated page on Facebook, where you can join in with the debate over the clues every Sunday morning and post your suggestions for what the answers are and where the radio car should be heading next. You can also share your passion with fellow fans of the show, and catch up with all the latest news about the programme. Just click on the link below to take part:
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