Children's ITV

1987 - 1994

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A look at the Children's ITV presentation between 1987 and 1994,
in particular the periods that introduced Knightmare in the Autumn seasons.

Year: 1987 :: 1988 :: 1989 :: 1990 :: 1991 :: 1992 :: 1993 :: 1994

Several Knightmare characters made guest appearances on Children's ITV over the years. Treguard appeared in 1988 where he asked viewers to design dungeon rooms for him. The designs were not actually used on the programme itself, but some of the ideas may have been incorporated.

In 1989, Hordriss announced a competition which was to look out for letters in every room, which will eventually form a word connected with fantasy. The word was 'EXCALIBUR'. The prize was a Sinclair and a copy of the original Knightmare computer game!. They showed all the competition entries, and there were literally hundreds!. The winner was drawn on 8th Dec 1989, by CITV presenter Jerry Foulkes just before Knightmare.

Hordriss and Gundrada made an appearance in 1990. Hordriss came in to CITV on Monday 22nd October to announce a competition, to win an Atari Lynx game, and Gundrada appeared on the Friday to announce the results of the competition. The competition involved watching out for letters appearing throughout a Knightmare episode, making up a word (like the 1989 competition). The letters were 'NAMEHERBLADE'.

Treguard made an appearance on ITV's Saturday morning show 'Motormouth' in summer 1990, where they showed some behind the scenes work for Series 4. Treguard took presenter Andy Crane for a walk along the battlements of Knightmare castle and discussed the special effects and new rooms for the series. In 1991, Treguard made two guest appearances on Glenn Kinsey's 'Summer Mornings' season. On the first, he was on a quest, searching for a secret place and you had to guess what it was. He also announced a competition which involved answering a question - "How many levels does the dungeon have?".

The winner of this competition was Jason Jandu, and he signed my Guestbook in September 2000. Here is what he said:

I was particularly drawn to your 'Children's ITV and Knightmare' section of the site, as it mentioned the competitions set, in particular the one who's question was 'How many levels are there in Knightmare?'. Well you might not believe this, but I won that competition!

Unfortunately I wasn't tuned in when Glenn Kinsey pulled out my postcard and announced my name, but I can still remember the prizes I won; a Knightmare sweatshirt (which was about 4 sizes too big!), a Children's ITV T-shirt, the Knightmare adventure puzzle book, and some Knightmare stickers and badges too. Unfortunately I lost everything when I moved house.

A marvelous site, brings back some wonderful memories, keep it up!

During Treguard's appearance, viewers also saw a short clip of the French version of Knightmare 'Le Chevalier du Labyrinthe'. On his second appearance, he appeared with other special guests like Jeanne Downs (another CITV presenter) and Grotbags. They were all lined up to put on a dance performance.

'Summer Mornings' didn't show Knightmare, but the appearances by Treguard were welcome. Treguard made a third appearance in 1991, with Tommy Boyd in the main afternoon Children's ITV slot. This time he announced another competition, with the question being 'What was the other name for Hordriss'. The Answer was 'Harris'. In 1992 (Series 6), Treguard made another appearance with Tommy Boyd just before the series began . He announced that Knightmare was returning to our screens.

That was the last appearance of any Knightmare character on Children's ITV because in 1993 (after Glenn Kinsey took over presenting for a while) they (ITV) decided to have no presenters and just have a voice-over person to link the programmes. It was much less enjoyable and meant that guest appearances were not possible. That changed on the 26th May 1998 when CITV went back in-vision with a new studio, set and presenters.

Select a year for more information, including audio and video clips of presenters:

Year: 1987 :: 1988 :: 1989 :: 1990 :: 1991 :: 1992 :: 1993 :: 1994

Pictures of Gundrada's appearance in 1990 can also be found. Many thanks to Liam Bell, Daniel Pridham, Duncan and Pendragon for providing me with more information for this section.