More information on Le Chavalier du Labyrinthe, thanks to Fabien, a French fan of the show.
Le Chevalier du Labyrinthe
January 2004 Update: Fabien (a French fan of the show) has supplied us with some press cuttings of Le Chevalier du Labyrinthe.
Fabien visited the Knightmare Chatroom in December 2000 and provided us with more information on Le Chevalier du Labyrinthe:
Le Chevalier du Labyrinthe was the version of Knightmare produced by an independent television company (Marina Productions Ltd.) and was transmitted on Antenne 2, a French TV station. It ran for two series (we believe 1990-92) at a length of 52 episodes a series = 104 episodes! Almost as long a run as Knightmare had over 8 years! Today, much like the British version, it is no longer shown on the network, but is remembered fondly.
Favourite elements of the format were the characters, the atmosphere and the drawings used for the rooms. Unlike the British version, there was a smaller range of characters, but then there was a smaller cast of actors. It was not uncommon to have one actor playing two, three or maybe four characters! There were only five main actors across the first run at least, maybe more for the second run.
It’s interesting to see how many things change across the channel. This table summarises some of the main changes:
British: Advisors sit around the TV in the chest (or stand looking into the pool in Series 8) and guide from there.
French: The advisers stand on a balcony to watch the adventure.
British: When the dungeoneer dies, the whole quest is over, the team is dismissed and a new team called in to take on a new quest.
French: When a dungeoneer dies, he/she is replaced by one of the advisers and the quest continues until three dungeoneers have been killed. (See note below).
British: For conquering the dungeon, teams received a scroll at least, and either the "Symbol of Squiredom" or a FrightKnight trophy dependent upon what series it is!
French: The prize for winning - a SEGA games console! (Very medieval indeed!) and a Chevalier du Labyrinthe board game.
British: The programme run was eight series, of either 8, 10, 15 or 16 episodes long and ran September to December on a yearly basis.
French: The programme run was 52 episodes for two series and was transmitted weekly, repeated the following Sunday. So they had two years of the dungeon. Knice!
Each room of the castle is regarded as a stage to cross. If the dungeoneer fails at any stage, (s)he is eliminated and replaced by one of the Advisors (known as 'Knights'). The elimination of three successive knights involves the loss of the team.
In each room, the dungeoneer must (assisted by his Advisors and the Dungeon Master) solve riddles, answer questions posed by the habitats of the dungeon (interestingly, some of these questions would relate to the French equivalent of the National Curriculum). This is the pretty much standard fare that British Knightmare set the trend for and nothing really changed in the French version.
To cross the rooms of the castle and to progress towards the final phase of adventure, the children must be very attentive with all the people they meet and note certain things in writing (hence the advisors). Interestingly, these were not always clues like you get in British Knightmare - they could be indices, formulas etc. These would prove useful later on (presumably in the dungeon, probably later life as well :D)
One difference was progression. This was done by the accumulation of knowledge that made it possible for the team to reach the final stage. Suffice to say all knowledge gained was vital to get to the end of the dungeon, whereas in British Knightmare, some information would not be needed until Level 3 or for another two rooms and was discarded immediately after use. The final 'room' involved the team having to solve a puzzle, which might be putting a set of shapes or words in the right order, for example. If the team get this right, the dungeoneer would be able to release a sword and the prizes would then be revealed for the team to collect.
Some characters used in Le Chevalier du Labyrinthe were Merlin, Morgane (a fairy), "the death" and Mandragore (a witch). 'The Death' was a skeleton (what a great pseudonym for a skeleton!) and the name was Tados. As well, there were two woman warriors in the dungeon – Gundrada & Stiletta. A jester was also included par standard – Bouffon was his name. As well, a talking raven was used. We believe some of these names were based on the British equivalents – Merlin is obvious, Morgane could have been Morghanna and Mandragore could have been Mellisandra. [If this is accurate, while it is likely that Gundrada was imported by Chevalier, Stiletta's introduction into the British version in 1994 means that her character could have been imported from the French version. KaM]
As well, there appeared to be the start of what turned out in British Knightmare to be a division of the foes, to create 'The Opposition' and 'The Powers That Be'. Tadoss was the leader of what would have been The Opposition. Alongside him was a Raven called Tarock, who posed questions to the teams, but these questions were allegedly very hard to answer. Merlin was on the side of the Powers That Be, much like he was to be a year later in Britain.
As mentioned previously, when a dungeoneer dies, the quest continues with one of the advisors taking over the dungeoneer role. The quest ends when is just one advisor and one dungeoneer left, and the dungeoneer subsequently dies i.e. a dungeoneer must have at least one advisor. The dungeoneer who has just died only ever re-appears on screen to collect their prize should the team win, or shown waving goodbye to the castle if the team dies.
Moving away from the game play, there was an EP released that contained the theme music to the TV show! Unsurprisingly, this is no longer available in France (at least not on EP).
Nowadays, the actors who stared on French Knightmare are considered legends. They’ve gone on to other programmes and roles in the French acting profession. The 'Master of the Castle' - George Beller is a well-known actor in France.
Thanks to Fabien for coming into Knightmare Chat on 31st December 2000 and talking about Chevalier du Labyrinthe. It was very interesting indeed and we learned a lot. Hopefully we will have some video clips of Le Chavalier du Labyrinthe to download on this site in the near future, plus more information not mentioned in this document.
Written up by NKTP, 1st January 2001.
Edited by Illusion, 18th March 2001.