Three members of the famous final team of Series 7 have written to us about their experience.
Advisor, Dan Skinner
I was in one of the last teams to win back in Series 7 (1993). Barry (helmet), Simon, Derek and I had a superb time in Norwich filming the 3-or-so episodes. It took us about a week as we would have to leave the studio and wait a good couple of hours while they set up the next room!
I remember that we were put up in a bloody nice hotel and everything was paid for which made it one hell of an experience for a bunch of 14-year-old country boys!
I remember that they did their best to kill us with games like the spikes board, but we were too good for them! Our secret weapon was Barry and his relentless gob, which we used to confuse any character that we had to interact with!
The other good bit was that we got on so well with the team before us (Julie, Sam, Helen & Helen) that a couple of 'inter-team' relationships ensued and many holidays together were had!
I still have my Frightknight trophy in my bathroom back home and I've managed to embarrass myself at university on more than one occasion after my various sets of housemates have found the videos!!
Our team still keeps in touch. I saw Derek in the pub last night, Julie, Helen and Simon in the Lake District at the weekend, and I hope to catch up with Barry very soon.
We've all graduated from our respective unis now (Barry, Oxford; Derek, Cambridge; Simon, Lancaster; me, Bath) and we're all doing exciting stuff with our lives!
It would be excellent to go back to Norwich and have a reminiscing look around the studios, so if there are any plans for a "Knightmare Alumni" get-together then give me a call.
August 2000
Barry Thorne, Dungeoneer
I was just chatting to Julie, the winning dungeoneer from Series 7, and she suggested I visit this site. Wow - this is really something. Congratulations for all the hard work this must have taken.
I am open-mouthed with astonishment: I hadn't realised there was a website featuring video clips of me anywhere on the internet! It was wonderful seeing the end sequence again after all this time.
I had also never read the interview with me in The Quest - I remember doing the interview on the phone, but I believed it had never been published. There's a revelation!
And to Dan, my erstwhile guider through the dungeon - what do you mean your secret weapon was my 'relentless gob'?? It saved your butt from being well and truly kicked mate, and don't you forget it!!
As a sidenote - you may not have realised that our team had previously appeared on another Broadsword production, TimeBusters, opposite Team 2, Nicola & co.
That was a rather more bizarre experience, which involved the uncovering of a scandalous match-fixing operation to rival Bruce Grobbelaar.
But I will save it for another time and another place. Cheers!
April 2001
Advisor, Simon Emmins
Knightmare was a great show, both to watch and to play. Tim Child was a top bloke from all I remember of him. Glad to see it's being remembered so well.
Simon answered some queries on the forum.
We had fun making it, so if people have fun watching it, we've all won. Just a couple of points of interest.
The life-force is added later. We didn't get to see the graphic and the earliest we know that our food is running out is when Treguard gives his warning.
We really had no way of knowing how long we had left.
I imagine the life-force concept is there purely to add to the tension rather than actually become a possible death.
You are quite right about the tottering on the edge in the fireball room. At the time, we couldn't see that as the lighting in the studio meant the screen was a lot darker to us! We could barely see the edges, let alone navigate them properly!
The spinning blades near-miss became a bit of a joke around the studio. People kept coming up to Barry to check the tear in his shirt.
We weren't "due" to win that season (as I understood it), but by the time we got through to the last few rooms they realised we might do it and just went with the idea.
The room with the spikes coming out of the floor was actually filmed much later to act as a bit of filler.
We certainly couldn't cheat; we just did our best in the world as it was presented to us.
Broadsword on the other hand probably "cheated" all the time. They were there to tell a story and make good TV first and foremost.
What's done is done and I for one had a great time.
March 2005