Hey all!

Just to let you know I've put some of my Knightmare memorablila on Ebay. The books aren't worth much, but at least 2 of the photos (Smirky, and Scarkill) are probably quite rare, if not bordering on unique.

Here's the link...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4729410947&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

Here's a list of the bundle of goodies...

KNIGHTMARE MEMORABILIA!

All seven Knightmare books:

Knightmare - quite tatty and old, but pages are sound

Knightmare: The Labyrinths of Fear - old but not bad

Knightmare: Fortress of Assassins - old but ok

Knightmare: The Sorcerer's Isle - Old but ok

Knightmare: Lord Fear's Domain - good condition

Knightmare: The Forbidden Gate - excellent condition

Knightmare: The Dragon's Lair - excellent condition

A set of 5 mini coloured pencils in a case with the Knightmare logo

A blue Knightmare mug with a silver Frightknight logo - never used

Cast photos

Treguard and Pickle - signatures printed on card (not handwritten)

Treguard and Majida - signatures printed on card (not handwritten)

Photo of Elita, autographed in black pen by Stephanie Hesp

Photo of Gwendaline, autographed in blue ink by Juliet Henry Massy

Photo of Iceandra, autographed in blue ink by Juliet Henry Massy

Photo of Scarkill and one of his goblins (this was given to me by the producer, to draw for the first edition of the Knightmare Knews!)

Photo of Smirkenorff the Dragon (this was also given to me by the producer, to draw for Knightmare Knews!)

Did they give you free coke as well? That would put the icing on the cake
Not only free coke, but FREE ICED BUNS TOO!!! (And yes, I actually did make myself sick. How dumb?!) Basically, we could help ourselves to ANYTHING from the canteen, FREE, and buy any food we wanted, and charge it to them. We also went to the cinema to see Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, and Naked Gun 2 1/2, and went on a boat trip. All charged to Anglia TV.

So when you realised it was game over was it a huge bummer or were you just happy to get the opportunity?
I have never been so depressed in all my life! We were on the train going home, and I experienced my first ever case of really bad anti-climax! I felt AWFUL! I didn't want to get out of bed the next day, and I kept thinking about how I wanted to relive it. I was secretly hoping the tape would accidentally be destroyed, and that we'd have to film it again!

But it was all great.

Did they clap sarcastically?
No no, it was all very pleasant. The crew were wonderful.

an hour inbetween each room.

!!!!

Wow, what took them so long?! So when you were filming, was it sort of like it wasn't really an adventure at all? Also, did you speak to any of the actors behind the scenes, and were they generally nice friendly people?
I think it took a while to set up each room, and they were probably running though different scenarios with the cast. (We were busy playing Lemmings on the computer in the Green room.) It was certainly a very very disjointed adventure. You forgot where you were by the time you got into the next scene. Quite weird. And yes, I think we met all the cast, and they were all wonderful. I can't speak highly enough of Hugo Myatt and David Learner - they were sweet, entertaining, and extremely funny. They were all brilliant. I have photos of us with different cast members but just haven't got around to scanning them.

We started the scene, and as soon as the screen came up, we're thinking, C***, what the hell's this?! (You get the picture.) It was around 5 or 6 O'clock on our first day of filming, and we were all completely knackered. We'd already filmed about half an hour's worth of footage, in 3 minute clips, with an hour inbetween each room.

To my knowledge, I don't think we'd ever seen a floor puzzle quite like this before, but I think we had a pretty good idea that the whole thing was going to collapse. Treguard said something like "ah, the path of agression, or the path of defence, it's your choice team, but make it quickly." So we're thinking "what the heck?" again. I turn to Kelly and say, it's got to be the path of defense (which I think they cut).

Then we're looking at the symbols, worrying about the fact we've sat there for a good few seconds trying to work out what's going on, and Treguard and Pickle keep telling us to hurry up. (They cut out some of us flaffing around.) So we manage to get Jenna onto one of the shapes, but we haven't been looking far enough ahead. (For the record, I was short-sighted, but didn't know at the time. It's only when I started to drive that I realised I couldn't read number-plates. I'd never realised that I couldn't see properly before then.)

We're looking at the sword (which is obviously a "defensive" item) and looking at the shape which appears to be a Frightnight's helmet (obviously "agression"), so we decide to head for the sword. We haven't got much time to think, because one of the hexagons has already dropped behind us, so we're panicking. We get Jenna onto the sword, the screen cuts, the crew clap, and we're told that we're dead. Next morning we come back and film the end bit, and have a tour of the studio.

I can't emphasis enough how DIFFERENT it is being in the studio, to how it looks on telly. And how much you just don't know is going to happen. Each series is very different, with different characters, and different ideas. You don't know whether to trust characters (like Gwendaline and Julius), and you don't know what's about to happen in the next scene. The places are completely unfamiliar to you.

And as for "don't open the box" on the scroll on the previous episode, I asked Jenna if the box opened, meaning to say "is it unlocked". If the box was locked, and the key on the table opened it, then we needn't have taken any other objects. It wasn't as dumb as it sounded.

We never really got chance to prove ourselves. If we'd had a floor puzzle with the pattern spelt out - wind, fire, water or rock, scissors, paper, I think we'd have made it across. The next scene was going to be a ride on Smirky. But I think they wanted to drop us in it. They'd already had the team before us do well, and they knew exactly what they were doing when they gave us that particular puzzle. We're not the only team to have died on it, and that other team had it on level 2, not level one!!!

Hmm. That looks like a tough floor puzzle those girls died on. Would suit level 3 better than level 2.

I pity any team that had to try to cross it on level 1...

At this moment in time I'd snatch the hand off ANY A&R guy who showed an interest! But we've already turned down one production deal and one manager this year, so we're not about to do anything stupid. We're looking for the right deal.

I hear comments all the time in Knightmare that you can tell are in jokes, especially at the start and end of episodes.

I'm trying to get my rock band signed.

Jenna's an English teacher in West Sussex.

Kelly does some kind of boring job I think.

Anna - last thing I heard - had just joined the police force...

We were just figuring out where to go next from the sword, and the screen went blank. We didn't actually know what had happened. They put on the hexagon falling with Jenna afterwards.

were the intro/end scenes for shows filmed after your quest or did your quest actually pause at the point when the "time-out gong" went at the end of the show.
We filmed the start of episode 10 several scenes after the Julius Scaramonger scene (where it paused), when they knew roughly where they were going to freeze it. Then we kept on with the quest.

They filmed the end of episode 9 (while we were frozen) after we'd died - so when Tregaurd asks Pickle if we're potential winners, and he says "not in my book, master", it's because he knows we're already dead!

I liked the Sylvester Hands incident, with Pixel...
Actually, that whole thing was a bit of an accident. Jenna put down the box because she was struggling to get the food into the knapsack, allowing Sly to pick the box up. We didn't have to "use" it as such. When he'd been scared off, we couldn't actually hear a word Pixel was saying - the sound was awful, so when Pixel asked if we wanted to take her to Mount Fear, we didn't know what she was on about!

For the record, when the scroll said "Don't open the box" and I asked Jenna if the box opened, what I specifically meant was is the box locked? If the box was locked, we might have needed to take the key too, to open it. She only had to see if it were able to open, not to actually open it.

Oh, also my mate wants to know if it was an easy task...
Eh?

Anything interesting, that was different in the final show from what you guys experienced in the studio, I.e edited bits
Yeah - they edited out a lot of us flaffing around. Jenna refused to give Julius Scaramonger the gold, so they cut about 5 minutes of us being indecisive. I think they also cut out a bit of conversation we had while we were stood on the floor puzzle, because I remember quite distinctly discussing with Kelly the fact that the helmet or shield shape looked like a Fright Knight's helmet, and that we should head for the sword because it was defensive. (We were following the "path of defense", and the Fright Knight's helmet suggested aggression.)

Was every room shot in one take?
We only had one take of each scene, but there were breaks inbetween every single room, sometimes up to two hours long. By the time you went back in, you'd forgotten what was going on.

Did you get any quest advice that we didn't see?
Tim Child came into the Green room after most scenes and discussed it with us, but more to tell us off than anything. He was generally quite a jolly man, but quite scary too when he was talking about the game. The only advice we had was from the pre-printed sheets which spelt out the rules of the show.

Did you have to re-film any scenes because of any mistakes?
We weren't allowed to re-film anything, although Tregaurd and Pickle got 3 or 4 attempts at the episode 10 intro. The first time they filmed it, Treguard was stood in front of the screen, with the title sequence finishing - then as he started talking, the credits started rolling backwards again behind him!

Then Pickle kept messing up the names "we have Andrea, Jenna, and Anna, guiding Andrea's sister, Anna" etc. They took it in good spirit though, and made us laugh the whole time. Jenna had three takes at entering the dungeon in the first place since she kept walking into the set wall beside the doorway - first the left wall, then the right wall! She also walks into the blue room wall at one point, and they even left the bump noise in, which is amusing.

Any other questions?

I'm actually chuffed to bits that I'm in semi-contact with a team member I watched die when I was 4 years old.
That's just plain weird.

Wasn't your team from Exeter, Andrea? Cos if you were, that's my birthplace!
Yeah, I was born here too, although my parents were living in Exmouth at the time. I've been here 25 years now.

Anyway, nice to see you on here Andrea....You didn't do too badly at all, just didn't get the right path sadly! I hope to hear more from your experience on the show.
Anything specific you want to know, I'll be happy to answer, if I've got time.

I'm just really proud I was involved with such a top-notch show. It's better than any kids' shows I've seen in the last decade. (Not that I make a habit of watching children's tv.)

We were picked out of thousands of wannabees for that series, because Jenna and I flew through the audition, and we earnt our place on there. It was just very different when we were in the studio.

Jennas team were not as bad as some others, but they didnt bring anything special to the floor. I wonder why one adviser chose to say nothing at all?
I was team captain so that makes it Andrea's team. Jenna was just the dungeoneer, and you didn't even see her face through the quest.

And what did you want us to bring to the floor? Flashy smiles, and sharp-witted humour?

One adviser chose to say nothing because she was 1) shy 2) hadn't seen the programme before 3) didn't know what was going on 4) was only there to make up numbers. I didn't even KNOW her!

I find it a teensy bit sad that people are still analysing episodes in depth, 17 years on. It's a bit like Star Wars fans - they scrutinise every last minute, and discuss everything like they're experts. Just watch the show, enjoy it, and CHILL!

If you didn't make it on to the programme, you DON'T have a CLUE what it was like filming it. It's COMPLETELY different to how it comes out. It's very disjointed, very overwhelming, and quite frankly, you don't have time to think. It's only afterwards that you get a pretty good idea of what's going on, but when you're filming a series you've never seen before, it's all brand new, and you don't know what they have planned. You also don't have years-worth of analysing previous episodes, because you may have watched the programme in the past when you were 11 years old, but you never actually expect to get on it. You're not watching every little thing, and taking in every little rule, phrase, comment, and mistake that every pervious team has ever made. It doesn't work like that.

And now I've refreshed my mind on series one, our team lasted a HELL of a lot longer than most of the early teams ever did. And at least we knew the phrase "side-step".

Hi all, esp. Zagor and Deaddungeoneer. I'm new, but instead of posting in the 'I'm new' category, I thought I'd jump right in here...

I'm team captain from team 5, series 5, and although Jenna's done some excellent explaining already, I thought I'd post a few of my own comments here.

Firstly - to the person who said they didn't like either of the teams on episode 9 - thanks. Nice to have positive feedback.

So, here are a few points which contributed to Jenna's death...

1. I had poor eyesight but only found out a few years later, and have had to wear glasses ever since. The screen is a hell of a long way away too, so you really have to strain to see what's going on - coupled with my bad vision, I really couldn't make out that floor puzzle. For what it's worth, the sound quality there was also bad, and you couldn't make out what people were saying a lot of the time.

2. Like Jenna said, it's disjointed. The scenes were shot one at a time, with an hour break inbetween each. It was 5 o'clock on a Monday evening, we were all exhausted, and we CERTAINLY didn't expect to be confronted with a floor puzzle as our last scene of the day!

3. I didn't know Kelly and Anna very well, but Kelly was the only person in my YEAR willing to go on the show with us. She dragged along her quiet friend Anna who'd never seen the programme before. All 4 of us were shy types, and none of us were outspoken. We didn't know eachother well, so the communication wasn't likely to be great!

4. When faced with the 'path of aggression or path of defence', naturally we selected the latter. We couldn't see that well because Jenna was stood in the way, but that second symbol looked like a Frightknight's helmet from where I was sat. They cut it out, but Kelly and I both agreed that's what it was, and that we should head for the sword. We were also under a lot of pressure from Treguard who kept telling us to hurry. (Also edited out.)

Under any other circumstances, when teams are faced with a Frightknight symbol (over a door for example) they are meant to avoid it. We did too, thinking it was a safe bet to take the sword symbol - after all, you defend yourself with a sword. There ARE times in the dungeon when taking a weapon can be acceptable - ie. an arrow for Gwendoline.

But the producer had obviously decided to throw us in at the deep end, because that was probably the hardest out of the hexagon floor puzzles (in my opinion). If we'd  been given the pattern on a plate (earth wind fire, rock paper scissors) I think we'd have made it accross. Other teams also struggled on that particular one.

If the next team do well, it's because we gave them quite a few hints before they filmed. I still keep in touch with Ray from the team before, he's a really nice bloke. I don't see Kelly much, and I've heard Anna (the quiet one) is now a policewoman. Who'd have thought!

Always happy to talk Knightmare with anyone. Any questions gladly answered. I have some wonderful photos at home, but have never scanned them. I was also responsible for some of the illustations in Knightmare Knews, which can be seen on the Knightmare website.

So then, it's nice to meet you all!

Andrea

www.faceparty.com/grohlsguitar