Knightmare

I never heard of this show in my childhood until recently, when I stumbled upon Watchmojo's top 10 Kid Game Shows list when I heard of it. I was captivated by what I saw, four kids (one of them the dungeoneer) traversing 3 levels of rooms full of traps, eccentric characters, evil monsters, and imagination. I am into Dungeons and Dragons type board games, so this show won me over big time courtesy of Youtube. I have nearly seen all the episodes that were aired and watching just one episode was enough to make me watch another and then another until I found a winning team (only 8 teams succeeded in the history of the show). The characters will stick with you forever such as Folly the Jester, Mordred the Wizard, Oakley the Tree Troll, Gundrada the warrior woman, Brother Mace, Smirkenorff the Dragon, Sylvester Hands, Ah Wok, and Lord Fear himself. The monsters the dungeoneer encountered were kind of scary a few of them bordering on frightening, such as the Catacombite and the Brollochan, despite dated special effects. Of the 8 seasons of this show, my favorites are seasons 2 and 7 since they have the most amount of winning teams. Now if only BBC America could air this wonderful show....

Well what is there to say about Knightmare? It was a kids TV programme/game show broadcast here in the UK. A team of teenagers would attempt to conquer the dungeons of doom by sending in the bravest among them into the dungeon... however there was a minor twist, the adventurer entering the dungeon had to wear a helmet which completely stops him from seeing anything except the exact spot where he was (so he could pick up and look at items he found etc) - the rest of the team had the arduous task of guiding him to safety by telling him which way to go.

Memorable aspects:

1) The "energy" of the adventurer is displayed as a helmed head, and as time progresses or danger threatens pieces of the helmet begin to strip off... then pieces of flesh and the finally pieces of the skull... the last thing to go is a pair of (by then) floating eyes and thats game over... you can replenish your energy by placing food in your knapsack.

2) spellcasting... sometimes you could answer challenges set by "nice" characters met in the dungeon and they would give you a spell... to spell you literally had to spell... "Spellcasting... S.. L.. E.. E.. P.." kinda thing...

3) big clanking gears and cogs and things and if the hapless adventurer missed his footing... well bye bye...

4) At the end of each episode a gong would sound and the team of teenagers would freeze in time until the next episode...

5) Tregard the dungeon master... a bearded rogue-ish looking fellow who would add strange cryptic comments after the team had frozen at the end of an episode.

6) Some random jester type blokey who I don't remember anything about except he was annoying...

7) Random evil-blokey (Lord Fear) who would just strut around and look menacing... usually only seen in a crystal ball..

8) Crystal balls where the foe would announce his master plan and give some sort of a hint before leering menacingly towards the adventurers at which point they would all panick and shout "drop it... drop it..."

9) The comments by the characters after you have answered one of their questions... "Truth accepted!" if it was correct... "Falsehood!" if it was wrong...

It was a very bizarre but yet strangely amusing programme (and completely non-violent... If I recall correctly the hero would die instantly if he attempted to brandish a weapon)... it was made into a computer game for several platforms at the time, and remade as a RPG for the Amiga a few years on, but none of these managed to capture the atmosphere of the programme...

10. The Antechamber. This is the room where Treguard, his assistant and the advisers would spend the entire quest, watching over the dungeoneer.

9. Level 1 Clue Room. Consisted of a table with several objects on it, of which the dungeoneer could only take a maximum of 2, and usually a wall monster who would ask the dungeoneer a question or two before they were allowed to take any objects.

8. The Room of Choice. Usually the first room in the dungeon. A rotating disc with four doors with logos above them. Adventurers would have to choose which quest to go for out of the crown, the goblet, the shield and the sword.

7. Smirkenorff's flight. Not really a room as such, but as the series went on and the adventure branched out beyond the confines of the dungeon a new method of travelling between levels 1 and 2 was required (in earlier series this involved the dungeoneer climbing into a well). Smirkenorff was a large friendly dragon who would fly dungeoneers between the two levels, for a small fee.

6. The Catacombite room. A large chamber containing a gigantic monster. The Catacombite was a large skull with two massive legs made of bone. Id the dungeoneer came into contact with this terrifying (well, terrifying when you're seven years old) monster it would mean instant death.

5. Merlin's Chamber. Basically exactly how it sounds. A large-ish room with walls lined with books and a chair in the middle. Adventurers would have to work out how to summon Merlin, who would then give them magic in return for them answering a few riddles.

4. The Cogs of Doom. Timing was of major importance when crossing the cogs of doom, as the path only stayed intact for a few seconds. Advisors would have to guide the dungeoneer across two giant cogs without him/her falling into the pit below.

3. The Beast's Stomach. Perhaps the most disgusting room. Sometimes a dungeoneer would somehow end up swallowed by a snake or another monster and not die. Instead they would come here. There is only one way out of this place (well, two ways I suppose, but we won't go into that) and the adventurers would have to work out how to give the monster an "upset stomach". This usually involved throwing salt down or rubbing the stomach lining with soap.

2. Causeways. There were hexagonal blocks reaching across a large chasm. The blocks would have symbols or numbers on them to tell the adventurers which blocks were safe to step on and which would send them plummeting downwards into oblivion. Usually the dungeoneer would have been told the proper combination earlier, in exchange for giving a character an object, answering a riddle or through the use of a spyglass. The combinations often ranged from the relatively easy (earth, fire, wind, water) to the insanely hard (removing a piece of a shape in each tile to work out which way it was pointing). Needless to say, many dungeoneers failed thanks to these devilish rooms.

1. The Corridoor of Blades. Imagine this: You're standing on a conveyor belt heading down a narrow corridoor. Suddenly, a large circular buzzsaw sticks out of the wall to your left. You narrowly miss it by jumping out the way, then find you have to dive underneath another one that has suddenly appeared on the right. Now imagine you're doing this blindfolded and are relying on three panicky fools to warn you when and where the blades are coming, and you have The Corridoor of Blades.

In my opinion these are the most memorable rooms in the history of Knightmare. You may disagree, if so then why don't you post yours up here as well?

Knightmare (1987-1994) A team of three contestants have to guide a fourth contestant (who's vision is impaired by a helmet) through a dungeon on a quest. Usually their goal was to recover a special object such as a crown or sword but they were rarely successful. During their adventure the group would have to solve riddles, avoid traps, and would encounter a wide range of characters and monsters (including goblins, wizards, dragons, witches, jesters, ogres, maidens and potion sellers). Some of these would be very pantomime-esquire such as the charismatic Hordris, the immortal Lord Fear, and of course the captivating Tregar.

The dungeon is generated using painted backgrounds and the same blue screen technique used by weathermen (Chroma Key). Despite its innovative format and huge following it never quite got the attention or praise it deserved (probably because it was on ITV rather than BBC).

It was recently repeated on Challenge TV during the mornings. There are apparently no plans to start a new series.

For more information see: http://www.knightmare.com/

I would venture to suggest that there has never been a kids game show made that tops this. From the inventive - and highly advanced for its year - concept, to its generous contribution to the morale of out-of-work actors who didn't mind dressing up in ridiculous outfits, the format was a winner on all levels. It became something I looked forward to without fail to kickstart my weekend. The puzzles actually took some thought, and the idea that three players guided the one who couldn't see past the end of his nose meant it must have been fun to play whether you were experiencing or controlling. The bloke who presented it was always a bit sinister as well, must've been the beard...

A kind of live-action "Dungeons & Dragons" then, only infinitely more entertaining than sitting in front of a computer. It's one of my fondest favourites from childhood, and will hopefully be remembered long after Virtual Reality has become a commonplace element in all our lives. This program was very 'funky' indeed.