General Discussion

Yes, I think that was basically David's point in his initial post.

Good to see you back Peter! Yes, it is indeed wonderful that we now have a legal and hopefully permanent way to watch Knightmare again.! Here's hoping that this is just a litmus test for the eventual adding of the other series...

Regarding David Rowe's book. Does he give any information on the stained glass window itself, where it came from? I asked David Rowe about the window in 2012 but he didn't know where it came from. It was added in by the Travelling Matte Company, so we'd probably need to ask Robert Harris or someone! It looks a bit like those small stained-glass suncatcher things everyone had in the 80s and 90s (That you stuck onto the window with a sucker).

Treguard was once an uncompromising and awe-inspiring authority figure. Here he is reduced to a doting uncle who contradicts himself in two consecutive lines to stop a team failing a challenge that seemed to be contrived so they couldn't fail it anyway. Lord Dunshelm and Hugo Myatt deserved better. I have always found the idea of "you can make it up, as long as you're convincing" very odd and not at all in keeping with Knightmare, which was famously rather unforgiving when it came to getting things wrong. Personally, I wonder if there was something else behind the scenes happening. Perhaps they needed to keep the team alive a little longer to wait for the next team to arrive? Hugo Myatt's apparent contradiction suggests to me that he was also confused by what was going on and instructed via earpiece. Several teams' fates rested on their answer to a single question, be that a situation where they had to score 1/1 or a situation where they had to score 2/2. In other words, one wrong answer put them in losing status. Truth acknowledged. Or, indeed, I vaguely recall that some of the early series needed 3/3 to command the wall monster in order to get a clue necessary to know which of two clue objects to take? So without getting all three clues right, you'd have a 50/50 chance of losing - though whether that actually results in any deaths, I couldn't immediately tell you. I'm undecided on the questions. On the one hand, they very clearly slow down gameplay (especially when being handed three questions per clue room). On the other hand, floor puzzle after floor puzzle (as in Chevalier) would kill teams off very quickly. Probably the best balance would be to have single questions quite frequently. But then, either failure has no consequence or you need to hit 100% of them in order to win.

the shovel one was funny. lol. Could you imagine if they had spellcast SHOVEL correctly but got the dispelling wrong (like earlier in their quest when they were trying to dispel SHROUD and kept forgetting the letter O), assuming the SHOVEL would’ve turned on the dungeoneer? They would’ve been clobbered on the head regardless.

I have mixed feelings about the ending of S3 T6, coz their quest could have become even more exciting. It had the great appearance of a sinister new antagonist, who made it quite clear that she would encounter them again soon, but then Ross fell off the path. It seemed like such a waste of a great plotline. In fairness to the team, it woz an extremely tricky path and they almost guided Ross to the exit. They just started too slowly and ended up rushing.

I suppose this is a bit of a shot in the dark question, but does anybody know the name of the hill Knightmare Castle is perched on top of? I don't think I've seen it given a name. There is supposedly a nearby abandoned village the castle was originally built to defend from marauders, called Dunsholm, but the hill? Nothing I can find. Checking the first KM novella, all it says is that Dunshelm Castle towers "eight hundred feet above [Treguard and Folly's vantage point], atop a bleak crag which had been left by a retreating glacier ten thousand years before." That's all it has to say about it. The portrayal of the hill in the original titles sequence is hopelessly unrealistic of course, and judging by the end of the winning quest in season 5, at some point it must have ceased to be on a hill altogether. But does anyone know? And if there isn't one, should we come up with a name for it ourselves?

Brilliant - I'll track down x2 of that on eBay and it'll complete the game. Thank you so much for all your help

Regarding Series 3 Team 4, I think if they had cast GLORY in the Stained Glass Window room, then a chalice would have then appeared showing them the correct path to take. Only for Mogdred to lie in wait for them in the next room with a rather unpleasant surprise... I like that theory. Mogdred did say that Leo would "be a winner" if he used GLORY. This way he would have been a winner, but only temporarily. Also worth considering is Series 3 Team 11: specifically, Merlin's warning to dungeoneer Martin not to trust Morghanna. This is curious advice because Morghanna never even gave Martin the chance to trust her. It was hardly her style. When that line was scripted for Merlin, was Tim Child considering a scenario where Morghanna asks the dungeoneer to pledge, or offers something? If Martin had acquired Owen's dragon magic, would Morghanna have tried to bargain for it (and then used it against him)?

I'd argue that the crown was possibly that of Charlemagne who held a mythical status in many European countries that resonates in some form to the present day. I like this interpretation. I assumed at the time (and continue to assume) that the name of the quest object was the "Crown in Glory" - a play on "crowning glory" in addition to naming the object as a crown (unless it's a "glory"!), ie. a glorious crown, but that is just conjecture. There also could be a Biblical connection, as there are references throughout to a "Crown of Glory": *She will place on your head an ornament of grace; A crown of glory she will deliver to you.* (Proverbs 4:9) Biblical scholars have connected the "crown of glory" in Proverbs as a mark of wisdom and knowledge, coming from advanced age and experience (hence the white colour of the crown, from white hair) coupled with honouring God, eg.: *The hoary head is a crown of glory, If it be found in the way of righteousness.* (Proverbs 16:31) 1 Peter 5:4 also references it as "a crown of glory that fades not away". If this interpretation pertains to Knightmare at all, the Crown could not only be one of glory, but of wisdom, knowledge and honour.

At the moment I am watching my box set of 'The Adventure Game'. Ha! I love the Adventure Game. My Mum introduced me to it when I was younger. Escape rooms, riddles, shapeshifting space dragons... What’s not to love? But back on point, I only have a few memories of watching as a young kid mainly of series 1 and 2 but I’m willing to share them. First: Owen. Once again, the dragon catches my attention. I remember really liking the animation on the blinking eye. He remains my favourite character, Gwendoline the Green Warden being second. Next: The life force clock. I actually missed a couple of episodes, it frightened me so much, but it soon dragged me back in. I was convinced that the life force was the dungeoneer’s soul, and that they would return home as an empty husk. Strange how your mind loves to make things even scarier than they actually were. Next: Lillith. There was something gloriously sinister about her and little 5-year-old me believed every word she said. When you’re more powerful than the powers that be... Finally: Wall monsters, or just clue rooms in general. I only remembered Granitas and Igneous, though. Olgarth was completely wiped from my memory. Maybe because his name doesn’t have anything to do with rocks. The clue object that really stuck with me was the ruby in the first episode. I always picture it when I think of Knightmare. Personally, I think the second series was the greatest, but I quite liked seeing outdoor locations. What I didn’t like was when they used a photo for a room background. I always found that the lighting was slightly problematic

Good detailed list here Drassil. To help kickstart this discussion, I thought I'd add a couple of further points to the following: If you were lucky enough to be... S1 T6 on Level 2 S2 T2 on Level 1 S2 T5 on Level 1 S2 T10 (winners) on Level 1 and Level 3 S3 T11 on Level 1 S6 T1 on Level 1 S6 T5 (winners) on Level 1 and Level 3 S8 T4 on Level 1 ...then you only needed one of your two clue objects and were therefore spared this risk. S2 T10 - can also be argued that they could have got through Level 2 with no genuine clue items. The bottle prior to the Clue Room of course turned out to be a hindrance and the Sorcerer's Stone trick was a decoy action to fool Olaf so that they could access the wellway. S8 T4 - interesting to note that the scroll in the Level 1 Clue Room stated "Keep Your Eye On The Clock", which was a reference to the hourglass that wasn't actually needed to progress to the next level. Bit of a random theory here, but perhaps the fireball chamber could have had the fireballs speeded up and the hourglass would have to be tipped over here in order to slow them down? S4 T6 (winners) - perhaps also worthy of an honourable mention as they could only carry one other clue item due to transporting the bottle from Hordriss in Level 1 over to Brother Mace in Level 2.

Well, let's necro the** smeg** out of this. Is sixteen years a record? Anyway.... A number of points: lords are not known for speaking in regional accents. The Duke of Northumberland sounds nothing like a Northumbrian, because he speaks in an RP accent. Hugo Myatt also speaks in an RP accent. Certainly, he sounds "posher" than he did as Treguard, when he was amping up the drama in his voice. There are plenty of people who come from a region and sound nothing like the plebs who live there, because they were from a family who usually spoke RP. A good example would be the actress Rose Leslie, who speaks in a cut-glass RP way, because she went to boarding school as a child (I think in Somerset), but is actually Scottish.

I’m glad you caught my references. I didn’t know about the reused scenario, Drassil, and after reading about it, it has sparked a few more theories. First of all, it says that Fay’s two main scenes, the one where she is under the ice and the one where she gives the prophecy to Will, were both originally done by those who are dead (e.g. the spirits and an undead creature. Leading to my new theory: Fay is dead. It makes sense. Treguard would have certainly had nieces and nephews. He had three older brothers, and all of them would have been expected to get married and have children. And all the Dunshelms died. So maybe Fay perished in the fight, but her spirit lived on. Why? Well I’m moving on to that. The early dungeon was full of hauntings; cavern wraiths and skull ghosts to name a few. A place like Knightmare Castle is bound to have some spirits lurking about, so why not the ones of people killed within its very walls. It makes sense for them to be vengeful. Although if Treguard knew they were his relations… Maybe let’s not go there. But I’m pretty sure Fay was not a floating sheet, nor a skull. She seemed very human. Which takes me to part two of the theory: Fay is an oracle. So maybe the oracles aren’t dead, but they don’t look very alive either. They certainly look other-worldly. And where did Treguard get that prophecy from? Maybe from Fay herself. Finally a second theory. Canadanne, your point about her being Treguard’s wife’s niece is interesting. And from that, I give you Fay, niece of Anna, the girl from the fen. Are these theories ridiculous? Yes, they are. Did I really enjoy making them? Absolutely!

We've added a new game to Knightmare chat - Sheeple, based on the game of the same name. A category is randomly selected (e.g. Knightmare characters), and players have 60 seconds to privately list items belonging in that category. The game plays a little bit like pointless in that more obscure answers score better. However, if your answer is too obscure (or wrong), you lose points. For each other player that fails to list the same answer as you, you score 2 points. But if you provide an answer that nobody else gives, you score -3 points.

Nice 'shopping there Re: Video documenting some of the Knightmare locations We did have a plan to start doing some more behind-the-scenes videos of this nature. We still have a bunch of footage from when we went to visit David Rowe a couple of years back, which I need to see if I can try and rescue in some way. We also had some more advanced plans regarding behind the scenes footage, but in practice they have turned out to be a logistical (k)nightamre and expensive to boot, which hasn't helped. Perhaps when the current situation is a bit more open, we might look at them again. On the other hand, I now have a big collection of completed Notmare videos ready to upload

Thanks for the heads up on these David. I was able to locate the vids in question, one of them was largely helped by the inclusion of a certain spider in the title.

Here are some more tweets with scans of TV listings that feature Knightmare. Some of these are brilliant as sources of publicity photos we were previously unaware of. For convenience, I've included the ones I posted about earlier. TV Times, 12th October 1987: Series 1 Episode 6 TV Times, 5th September 1988: Series 2 Episode 1; photo of Gretel and Folly Radio Times, 17th October 1988: Series 2 Episode 7; includes article about catacombite Radio Times, 12th December 1988: Series 2 Episode 15 Radio Times, 19th December 1988: Series 2 Episode 16 TV Times, 8th September 1989: Series 3 Episode 1; photos of Velda and Treguard TV Times, 15th September 1989: Series 3 Episode 2; photo of Merlin TV Times, 22nd September 1989: Series 3 Episode 3 TV Times, 29th September 1989: Series 3 Episode 4; photo of Folly being menaced by the Troll (obviously a Series 2 photo) TV Times, 6th October 1989: Series 3 Episode 5 TV Times, 13th October 1989: Series 3 Episode 6 TV Times, 20th October 1989: Series 3 Episode 7; photo of Mellisandre TV Times, 27th October 1989: Series 3 Episode 8 TV Times, 3rd November 1989: Series 3 Episode 9 TV Times, 10th November 1989: Series 3 Episode 10 TV Times, 17th November 1989: Series 3 Episode 11; I like the description of Treguard TV Times, 24th November 1989: Series 3 Episode 12; photo of Hordriss TV Times, 15th December 1989: Series 3 Episode 15 TV Times, 7th September 1990: Series 4 Episode 1; photo of Treguard and Pickle TV Times, 14th September 1990: Series 4 Episode 2; spot the typo TV Times, 21st September 1990: Series 4 Episode 3 TV Times, 28th September 1990: Series 4 Episode 4; photo of Fatilla TV Times, 5th October 1990: Series 4 Episode 5; long description that refers to Dunswater and the Tower of Time TV Times, 12th October 1990: Series 4 Episode 6; photo of Motley TV Times, 19th October 1990: Series 4 Episode 7; photo of Gundrada and Mellisandre; unusually, episode description gives the dungeoneer's full name TV Times, 26th October 1990: Series 4 Episode 8; refers to 'the annual Knightmare competition' TV Times, 2nd November 1990: Series 4 Episode 9 TV Times, 9th November 1990: Series 4 Episode 10 TV Times, 16th November 1990: Series 4 Episode 11; note the photo/caption mismatch in the Channel 4 section TV Times, 23rd November 1990: Series 4 Episode 12 TV Times, 30th November 1990: Series 4 Episode 13 TV Times, 7th December 1990: Series 4 Episode 14 TV Times, 14th December 1990: Series 4 Episode 15 TV Times, 21st December 1990: Series 4 Episode 16 Radio Times, 6th September 1991: Series 5 Episode 1; photo of Pickle Radio Times, 13th September 1991: Series 5 Episode 2; photo of Hordriss Radio Times, 20th September 1991; Series 5 Episode 3; no details of episode Radio Times, 27th September 1991; Series 5 Episode 4; no details of episode Radio Times, 4th October 1991; Series 5 Episode 5; photo of Lord Fear Radio Times, 11th October 1991; Series 5 Episode 6 Radio Times, 18th October 1991; Series 5 Episode 7; no details of episode Radio Times, 25th October 1991; Series 5 Episode 8; photo of Gwendoline with Smirkenorff Radio Times, 1st November 1991; Series 5 Episode 9; no details of episode Radio Times, 8th November 1991; Series 5 Episode 10; photo of Skarkill Radio Times, 29th November 1991; Series 5 Episode 13; photo of Pickle and Elita Radio Times, 20th December 1991; Series 5 Episode 16 Radio Times, 13th November 1992; Series 6 Episode 10; includes dungeoneer's full name Radio Times, 9th September 1994: Series 8 Episode 1; photo of Treguard and Majida with description referring to the Brollachan for some reason

Heya dudes, first of all; long time no see. Hard to believe I joined this place when I was 16 and now I'm nearly 33. Fright(knight)ening! But here I am again to see how much things have changed since my last visit. Which doesn't seem long ago, but I needed to say hello Welcome back, Glenn. It seems appropriate for Fidjit to be around during a lockdown. I hope you and your family (how many nieces and nephews do you have these days?) are keeping well.