A popular series of fantasy novels has come to our attention again.
Today the Warner Brothers Studio Tour London announced its newest Harry Potter attraction, opening on 6th April: Gringotts Wizarding Bank. This is being promoted on social media with the hashtag #EnterStranger.
The phrase rings a bell. A bell so loud that we thought we'd be frozen to the spot for a week.
As you surely know, but we're keeen to state for thoroughness, "Enter, stranger" was the phrase uttered by dungeon master Treguard in 1987 to summon Knightmare's first dungeoneer David Campbell and many contestants thereafter (even if his assistant Majida took it over in the later episodes).
Ten years later, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone featured a visit to Gringotts with goblins who couldn't play the horn and an engraved door that stated: 'Enter, stranger, but take heed of what awaits the sin of greed...'
Here are six more connections between Knightmare and J.K. Rowling's creation.
1. Children casting spells. A perennially popular concept which Knightmare did with simplicity. And yes, we did have cod-Latin incantations too, but we left them to the stuffy warlocks.
2. The philosopher's stone. Also known as the sorcerer's stone. It was mentioned in Series 2 by Folly, who showed one team how Level 2 guards could be fooled by the offer of one of these "rare and valuable stones... completely invisible to all but the cleverest people".
3. Rupert Grint. 'Knightmare! I remember that!' He said during an interview with Den of Geek in 2014. Interviewer Simon Brew went on to tell Rupert about the Knightmare contestant he knows personally. That contestant wasn't named, but our best guess is Simon from Series 6 Team 7 (1992).
4. Boy on a broomstick. The dungeoneer from that same team used a broomstick to fly past a pyromaniac witch, with not a golden snitch in sight.
But talking of snitches...
5. Jessie Cave. After playing Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter films, Jessie appeared in Knightmare's YouTube Geek 2013 special as dungeon thief Theodora Snitch.
6. The 'Hogwarts team'. Since we can't prove that J.K. Rowling took inspiration from Knightmare, we'll have to chalk this up as a happy coincidence. It was Emii on our forum who made this brilliant observation about the advisor line-up for Team 1 of Series 6: 'It's Harry Potter, Hermione and Ron!!' We trust they are flattered.
If you know anyone young or old who considers Harry Potter the first and last word in fantasy entertainment, humbly direct them towards Knightmare. They might just change their minds.
