Knightmare

Knightmare was a UK television programme for children, produced by Anglia Television and aired on ITV from 7 September 1987 to 11 November 1994.

Contents

1 Overview 2 History 3 Merchandise 4 Repeats 5 Knightmare VR 6 Other versions 7 External links

Overview

The show featured teams of four children (11-16 years old). On the call of "Enter, Stranger", the first member (the 'dungeoneer') would enter Knightmare Castle via an antechamber belonging to Treguard of Dunshelm (played by Hugo Myatt). After giving his or her name, the dungeoneer would be asked by Treguard to call their three advisors, who would magically appear next to the viewing apparatus beside them (though, in Series 8, all members of the team appeared at once). Before entering the dungeon, the dungeoneer would be given a knapsack to wear, in which they were to place food found along the way, in order to replenish Life Force. In addition, the Helmet of Justice was put on the dungeoneer's head, leaving them largely unable to see.

The dungeoneer would then enter Treguard's partly computer-generated, partly hand-drawn fantasy dungeon, using bluescreen chromakey (hence the need for the helmet, as the dungeoneer would otherwise just see a large blue room). The team would watch and guide the dungeoneer with hurried descriptions and shouted instructions, overcoming a variety of puzzles and traps in the dungeon, much like many text-based computer games that relied on description and commands rather than any visuals. Spells would also be cast every so often.

There were three levels in the dungeon. The object of the game was to collect various items, meeting a selection of the many inhabitants of the dungeon along the way, and get out 'alive', passing between the levels in an varied selection of ways, including wellways, and (in later series) such methods as mine cart rides, lifts ('descenders/descendors') and even airborne rides on Smirkenoff, a dragon. The dungeon's inhabitants would range from people like jesters, maids, and wizards, who would help the dungeoneer along the way, and guards, witches, and warlocks, who would either demand passwords or try and kill the dungeoneer. Mary Whitehouse was initially critical of this latter aspect of the programme (i.e. the simulated fatal demises of the dungeoneers) after having been given a macabre description of Knightmare by the press. However, she apologised after she saw Knightmare for herself, noting that Treguard always made it clear that the dungeoneers still survived in "their own time".

If the team managed to complete all three levels and master the dungeon, they were awarded with a prize, which changed over the years from the Silver Spurs of Squiredom, to medallions, to Frightknight trophies (a design of a Knight holding a sword). Unlike most other children's shows, Knightmare had no qualms over having a very high difficulty level. In its 8-year history, only 8 teams managed to successfully conquer the dungeon: two in Series 2, one each in Series 4-6, two in Series 7, and a final one in Series 8.

While the essence of Knightmare remained the same, there was also much change and development throughout its eight series. In Series 2 (1988), a quest object system was introduced, so that dungeoneers now had a specific item to reclaim at the end. There were four main quest items. The Sword of Freedom (originally The Sword of Justice, retrieved once), The Shield of Justice (originally The Shield of Liberty, retrieved twice), The Cup that Heals (never retrieved), and The Crowning Glory (retrieved three times), though there were occasionally others, such as Free the Maid or Find the Talisman.

In its early series, Knightmare lacked a single major antagonist or 'baddie'. Indeed, originally Treguard was specifically a neutral character, neither on the side of good nor evil. The closest there was to a main villain was Mogdred (portayed by John Woodnutt), but his main duty was, according to Merlin (a wizard, and Mogdred's 'alter ego' in the first series) to "scare you into making a mistake", though he did kill some dungeoneers at times. In Series 5 (1991), however, changes were made. Though some characters were neutral, the majority were split into two sides; the righteous "Powers that Be", and the villainous "Opposition", the leader of which was Lord Fear, played by Mark Knight. By this time, Treguard's stance had now fully evolved into that of a strictly good character, and in the previous series had gained a sidekick in the form of Pickle the elf, played by David Learner. For Series 7 and 8, Treguard's sidekick was Majida the genie (real name Daughter Of The Setting Moon Whose Eyes Are Like Daggers In The Hearts Of Men Who Ride The Great Caravan Of The Sultan), played by Jackie Sawiris.

History

Knightmare was conceived by Tim Child in 1985, inspired by the two ZX Spectrum games Atic Atac and Dragontorc. Figuring that if a Spectrum could do these types of adventure games, then a television programme could revolutionise the genre, he enlisted the help of artist David Rowe to design realistic looking backgrounds with an airbrush. Borrowing the technique used in weather forecasts, Child devised a large blue room, which would be set up in Studio A of Anglia Studios.

Eventually, in 1986, a 15 minute pilot under the name of Dungeon Doom was recorded. Even at this stage it featured Hugo Myatt, the husband of Christine Webber who was a presenter of Anglia's regional news programme About Anglia. After it had been edited together, he decided to change the name from Dungeon Doom to Knightmare, and add 'life force', an idea borrowed from Atic Atac. For this he recruited Robert Harris, who used a Spaceward Computer to design a animated head protected by armour. The armour would break off into pieces, followed by parts of the skin peeling off to reveal a skull underneath (though no blood was seen), followed by the skull itself breaking up. Once the eyes had disappeared off the screen, the game was over. Child sent this finished pilot to the ITV Children's Committee, who commissioned a series of 8 half-hour-long episodes.

The show was an instant hit with viewers, so much so that a second series twice as long as the last was commissioned the next year, closely followed by a third the year after that. By the time this third series finished, which many fans consider to be the best out of the eight, Child felt the dungeon format was getting too restrictive, and he needed something new. Because of this, the fourth series saw the introduction of many 'outdoor' scenes, filmed around places such as medieval castles across the UK, and composited into the blue room using the usual chromakey technique. This series also saw the introduction of the "Eye Shield", which acted as an 'eye' for the dungeoneer. Using prerecorded footage filmed on location, it would follow the progress of the dungeoneer as they exited and entered rooms.

At its peak, Knightmare attracted over 5 million viewers. By 1993, the year which saw the programme's seventh series, it was the most popular non-animated show on CITV. However, changes had recently occurred. Late the previous year, the ITV Children's Committee was replaced by a single Controller of CITV, that being Dawn Airey. Although she thought well of Knightmare, the average audience age of CITV was now 6-10, down from 6-15 in 1985. It was believed the older audience were moving to satellite television and video games, and that programmes for a more younger audience were needed. After two meetings, it was agreed that an 8th series of Knightmare would go ahead in 1994, but it would be a shorter run (10 episodes instead of 15/16 episodes), and the remainder of the season's timeslot would be taken over by Virtually Impossible, a new virtual reality show from Broadsword, the same production company as Knightmare, and aimed at this younger audience. Shortly after this decision was made, Dawn Airey left for Channel 4, and her replacement as Controller was Vanessa Chapman.

Despite the diminishing older audience, Knightmare's 8th series performed well, and gained a higher audience than Virtually Impossible did later that autumn. Changes introduced in this series saw a return to the dungeon format of Series 1-3, albeit now completely computer generated, and a new piece of dungeoneering equipment was added, the wand called Reach. This allowed dungeoneers to push, touch, and open things from a distance. At this point, there was still hope that Knightmare was to return for a ninth series in 1995, as a postal address for future contestants was displayed on screen after the end of the final episode. The chances of the 8th series being the last were also strong, however, and so the series ended on an ambiguous note.

In the event, Knightmare was 'rested' for the foreseeable future, partly due to the general declining older audience, and partly because Tim Child felt that, while Knightmare should employ high-quality virtual reality in order to remain a cutting-edge show, such technology was not affordable at that time.

Merchandise

A number of items of Knightmare merchandise was produced over the shows run, including 7 books written by Dave Morris. The first of which, Can You Beat the Challenge? (ISBN 0-552-52540-5, published in 1988) told the story of how Treguard came to inhabit Knightmare Castle, originally Dunshelm Castle, which Treguard owned by birthright.

The other six books were:

• The Labyrinths of Fear (ISBN 0-552-52608-8, 1989)
• Fortress of Assassins (ISBN 0-552-52638-X, 1990)
• The Sorcerer's Isle (ISBN 0-552-52714-9, 1991)
• The Forbidden Gate (ISBN 0-440-86317-1, 1992)
• The Dragon's Lair (ISBN 0-440-86328-7, 1993)
• Lord Fear's Domain (ISBN 0-440-86336-8, 1994)

The first four books were intended for older readers, and took the format of half-fiction, half-interactive story (similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure books). The next two, though the story/interactive aspect continued, were aimed at a younger audience. Finally, Lord Fear's Domain (generally considered to be the rarest of the seven) was a puzzle book.

There were also two Knightmare computer games released. The first was in 1988, released on the Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, and Commodore 64, and the second in 1991, released on the Amiga and Atari ST. A PC version was proposed for 1995, but the programme finishing put an end to these plans.

A Knightmare board game was also released in 1992, by MB Games.

Repeats

After Knightmare ended on ITV, it was quickly picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel, who aired all 8 series starting from 1995. In the United States, Series 5 and 6 were shown for a short time on local New York channel WLNY-TV.

Sci-Fi's contract ran out in October 1998, midway through Series 4. Knightmare's only appearances on television after that were as clips in "40 Years of Anglia" in 1999, and Channel 4's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows in 2001, where it came 16th, the highest position on the list for a game show.

In December 2002, the UK satellite channel Challenge held a group of programmes called the "Christmas Cult Selection", featuring a group of classic game shows from the 1960s (The Golden Shot) right through to the 1980s. Knightmare was included in this, and the repeats started on 23 December 2002, with Series 3, Episode 1 preceded by a short 2.5 minute documentary featuring Tim Child and Hugo Myatt. Just over a week later, Knightmare went on to reach first place in an Internet poll held by Challenge, asking viewers to decide the best show out of the Cult Selection.

Reasonably good ratings, combined with the high fanbase, ensured that the other 7 series went on to be bought and shown over the next two years. It took until 8 July 2004 for all the episodes to be shown, when episode 16 of Series 2 was broadcast 563 days after the repeats started. Knightmare continues to run on Challenge as of May 2005, scheduled as a double bill on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 8-9AM.

Knightmare VR

On 25 November 2002, only 6 days after the Challenge repeats were confirmed, it was announced that a reformat of Knightmare was to be undertaken by Televirtual, founded by Tim Child. Known as Knightmare VR, this would use avatar technology to place the dungeoneer in a full 3D computer generated world. A £40,000 National Lottery grant for the programme was awarded in July 2003.

Test images and clips continued to appear on the Televirtual website, until, on 17 August 2004, a full 13 minute pilot was posted on the Internet, featuring one dungeoneer and one advisor. Hugo Myatt reprised his role as Treguard, now relegated to a avatar head who would occasionally appear to give the dungeoneer advice, and Mark Knight reprised his role as Lord Fear. Reactions to the pilot were mixed, with many saying that the lack of a Helmet of Justice (and, therefore, the dungeoneer now able to clearly see his surroundings) meant a lot of the essence of the original show was lost. On 10 May 2005 it was announced that the project was to be shelved, with Child saying that he had decided that Knightmare would work best under a mixture of virtual reality and the original format. [1] (http://www.knightmare.com/forum/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=1875).

Other versions

Two other versions of Knightmare were also made. One in France (Le Chevalier du Labyrinthe), which started in 1990, and the other in Spain (El Rescate del Talisman). Possible versions in Germany (in 1991) and the United States (in 1993, called Lords of the Game) were also considered, with a pilot for the US version recorded. However, full series for these were not commissioned; for the US version, it was due to production companies not liking the idea of a complex chromakey based show.

External links

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• Knightmare.com (http://www.knightmare.com/)
• The original Knightmare fansite (not updated since 1999) (http://members.aol.com/treguardd/knight.html)
• UK Gameshows Page: Knightmare (http://www.ukgameshows.com/index.php/Knightmare)
• Official Televirtual site (http://www.televirtual.com)
• A review of the pilot, from Bother's Bar (http://www.bothersbar.co.uk/weekendspecials/knightmarepilot.htm)
• Demian's Gamebook Web Page: Reviews of the first six books (http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?name=Knightmare)