Knightmare.com

Michael will be interviewed for the 25th anniversary documentary next Saturday (November 3rd).

If you have any questons that you would like to have put forward to Michael, please post them here and I will select as many as I can for him to answer. These can of course be about Brother Mace, Fatilla or The Gatemaster - or anything else regarding his memories of Knightmare!

Please post questions no later than Friday evening. As I will be going to meet and interview him the following day, I'm afraid that questions posted after the specified deadline can not be considered.

For Brother Mace, did he have any Latin taught to him beforehand?

Did he have any favorite characters during his time at Knightmare?

Don't forget he voiced Doorkis, too! Then again, maybe that is best forgotten.

-- As one of the show's most magnificent improvisers, did he enjoy having to think on his feet? Quite a lot of his lines appeared to be unscripted!

-- Does he remember the rather amusing cockup with Brother Mace offering Giles the wrong playing card? How flustered did he feel when that happened? Was it ever a struggle not to laugh during scenes?

-- Brother Mace took over the Dungeon Master role when Queen's University Belfast held their Qnightmare event. Would he have liked to step into Treguard's boots on the programme?

-- Memories of his fellow cast members?

-- Having played a Powers That Be representative (Mace), an Opposition minion (Fatilla) and a neutral character (the Gatemaster), which allegiance would Michael choose?

"Ah! Magnificum!" This is excellent. I'm so glad that Michael Cule has agreed to be interviewed.

What do you remember about your audition for Knightmare?

What proportion of Brother Mace's fabulous forays into Shakespeare, Marlowe, Latin and French was given to you to say and how much came from you? Did you have the freedom to make Mace your own?

Did you receive much fan mail while working on Knightmare?

Were you disappointed about only being in Knightmare for two series, or did it feel like enough?

You had a range of costumes on Knightmare, which appeared to vary in comfort, accessories and... ventilation. What were they like to wear?

Information on the Knightmare Teletext adventures is scarce, but it's said that you were involved in writing them. Any information you could give us would be most welcome.

You once wrote an article in the Knightmare newsletter about tabletop gaming. Is this still a passion of yours? How do you think Knightmare would work as an RPG?

You have The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy on your CV - as do two of your fellow Knightmare actors, David Learner (Pickle) and Rayner Bourton (Julius Scaramonger). In between being elves and monks, did you ever reminisce with them about being androids and aliens?

Your final scene as Brother Mace was part of a quest that has foxed the living daylights out of Knightmare fans ever since, and if we could bore you with the details, just maybe you could help shed some light on it! The scene involved a dungeoneer, Chris, who had been turned into a goblin. Mace told Chris that Motley could change him back, and Mace had a finding spell that could locate Motley - but it needed Motley's fool-on-a-stick to work. Chris didn't have it so Mace had to send him on his way. It's a long shot, but can you remember what would have happened if Chris had had Motley's stick, and what exactly Motley would have done for Chris?

Did Tim Child, or anyone else on the cast/crew, give you a rollicking for 'that' moment in the last episode of season 4 when you drew the wrong card from the deck?

Thanks for all the questions. Once again it was fantastic to meet and talk to another Knightmare actor! Here are the answers to those questions I was able to ask Michael:

As one of the show's most magnificent improvisers, ("Oh, thank you very much!" - Michael) did you enjoy having to think on your feet?
The improvisation was one of the most enjoyable parts of it, for good and ill. I remember one occasion where I was playing Fatilla and the dungeoneer was being really flattering and saying how wonderful I was, and Tim Child through the earpiece was just encouraging me to go with it! I ended up just being as complimentary and let them go past, not worrying about what was originally planned.

Do you remember the rather amusing cockup with Brother Mace offering Giles the wrong playing card, and how flustered did you feel when that happened?
Yes - sheer bloody panic! But I'm told it doesn't look bad, and you can actually see me looking towards the camera as a result for one moment.

What are your memories of your fellow cast members?
Hugo was very reliable as Treguard, always focused and capable of holding things. David Learner as Pickle had the harder job in my estimation - he was there to pick up the things that Treguard couldn't do in character and had to guide the kids along the line, giving them the warning where appropriate.

Having played a Powers That Be representative (Brother Mace), an Opposition minion (Fatilla), and a neutral character (The Gatemaster), which allegiance would you choose?
Whilst I think Fatilla was more fun from my point of view as an actor, I'd say Brother Mace as I tend to play the good guys in my own roleplaying tendencies - they're more annoying to the other players than the bad guys!

For Brother Mace, did you have any Latin taught to you beforehand?
I did Latin 'O' Level, and some of it is me - the rest is Tim digging stuff out of a Latin dictionary. Brother Mace had huge amounts of info dump and scripts to learn a fair amount of the time, and all of this had to be crammed into my memory within a very limited period.

You once wrote an article in the Knightmare newsletter about tabletop gaming, is this still a passion of yours?
Yes its still a passion, I run an RPG once or twice a week. I attend conventions and occasionally write a few things - you'll find me on RPGnet which is a very geeky place to hang out. Nowadays I think the young kids are into much heavier stuff like World Of Warcraft and Guild Wars. I gave Guild Wars a try but I'm old and haven't got the reaction time for online gaming, that's the one form of RPGs I don't get into.

Did you receive much fan mail whilst working on Knightmare?
Occasionally, yes - people did write and I always tried to reply if I could. Sometimes I even get the odd bit of fan mail now.

Were you disappointed in only being in Knightmare for two series, or did it feel like enough?
I would be doing it now if Tim had let me and the channel recommissioned it - I would have happilly gone on doing it but that wasn't the way it worked out. I also got to do Tim's other project Timebusters and even got to write one of the scripts for that, so I can not complain that Tim and his production team didn't give me a good run for my money.

Entertaining and informative - lovely to hear from him! Thanks again to interviewer and interviewee!