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Mentions on Screenwipe / Election Wipe

By David Goldstein

Knightmare has featured on the BBC TV series Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe and a short set-piece for Election Wipe.


Knightmare on Screenwipe / Election Wipe

Knightmare has been mentioned on the BBC TV series Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe and a spin-off production for Election Wipe.

2007: Screenwipe

In Series 3, episode 4 of Screenwipe, first shown on BBC Four on 26th February 2007, Charlie Brooker spoke about Knightmare.

He was addressing the history of computer involvement in TV history - in Brooker's words, "warped on-screen reality" - with clips from the first quest of Series 8.

Knightmare Series 8 Team 1. The red dragon Bhal Shebah fries Richard with a fireball.

In 1986, groundbreaking kids' show Knightmare used a combination of bluescreen trickery and CGI to create a deadly interactive world in which children were burnt alive.

Charlie Brooker

Knightmare, as we know, in fact started on Children's ITV in 1987. Thank you to LordF for letting us know.

2015: Election Wipe

Jake Yapp mentions Knightmare in a 'BBC Election Night in 87 Seconds' video made for Charlie Brooker's Election Wipe. (Unfortunately, it didn't make it into Election Wipe itself.)

As part of his walking, talking summary of the typical pattern of the BBC's television overnight coverage of elections, Jake describes Jeremy Vine as "playing Knightmare" in reference to the abiding use of chromakey backdrops and CGI.

Jake's not alone in this comparison: it's been made by numerous social media users during previous elections, and the 2015 General Election saw dozens of tweets about it.

Here at Knightmare.com, we can't help thinking that the pathway of hexagons in Jeremy's "virtual Downing Street" does owe something to the causeways of Series 5 and 6 and the Hall of Choice also seen in Series 6.

As a bonus for Knightmare fans, Jake's video was filmed at Bodiam Castle, which numbers among Knightmare's own filming locations.

With his incisive and very funny whistlestop segments about TV at its most formulaic, Jake is a regular contributor to Charlie Brooker's 'Wipe' programmes.

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