Canadanne

Another thoroughly enjoyable episode this week. I completely agree about how brilliant David Learner and Rayner Bourton are, and what a shame it was to lose them both from the show! (Rayner does well not to show any amusement at being told to "GIVE ME THE HORN OR ELSE". )

On the discussion about how many girl teams auditioned and appeared on the show, it's interesting that the Spanish version was quite proactive about its gender balance and nearly always cast evenly mixed teams, rather than having an open application process.

"If you can deliver insults well, then you can kind of almost see past somebody being fundamentally quite a horrible person, if they're funny with it." As perfectly illustrated by Tim Curry's Captain Hook in my latest fandom - Cedric and Elita, eat your heart out!

Dreadnorts: "I can't imagine they can move easily from one level to another, especially as one of the legs don't bend, so if there's stairs involved they're in trouble." Another very funny observation from Paul and a great point too!!

I was browsing the Christmas section in Wilkinson and saw something called "Elf Booties"!

Impossible not to hear the clue for 10 across in Lawrence Werber's voice: https://bigdave44.com/2026/11/05/dt-31389/

Technically off-topic but RoseTintedSpectrum's reaction to Ghostwatch is well worth your time - I laughed so hard at this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i41exnxgf6M

@JamesA said:

@Canadanne I've been listening to the Temporal Discussion podcast on the Knightmare computer game and Ewen reveals who Katharine will be playing.

I won't reveal who exactly though as my advice is... have a listen to the podcast for yourself.

Yes, I heard that earlier!

Another double episode video uploaded this week.

From the new regular episode - I was similarly confused about where Hordriss is supposed to be when they summon him with TRICK! It always looks to me like he's floating in the foreground, but it seems he's meant to be standing on the bank where the dig markers are, hence Ben being turned around to face him. Still not certain though!!

I've been revisiting Peter Pan And The Pirates lately (R.I.P. Tim Curry) and a number of things reminded me of Knightmare: a quest that featured a Causeway-like floor puzzle; the characters pursuing a lost laugh; the inclusion of certain phrases ("The bloom is off the rose", "Cut the cackle", "Fair exchange is no robbery"); a sound effect reminiscent of the Corridor of Blades entrance but played at a different speed; a slight variant of the calling name method (call their name three times and you travel to wherever they are); and even a duel of insults! Some of Captain Hook's great one-liners are quite Lord Fear-esque, too.

I'm intrigued to find out who Katharine is playing - perhaps someone like Lillith whose original actor is no longer available? (Unless the game includes an advisor for the player and she's just being herself!!)

Wow! What a cast, I hope they will share more clips on the channel.

Re: Fanfic: Woodland Trust (~8,000 words)

Canadanne said:

A bit of a geeky one, featuring (some of) my Tolkien-inspired headcanons - blame The Rings Of Power for reigniting my interest in this stuff! - plus more fun with characters who never met in the show.

http://www.canadanne.co.uk/writing/km_woodland/ch1.html

If anyone else wondered what Gwendoline did next after this story, my brain insisted on telling me:
http://www.canadanne.co.uk/writing/km_girl/

I also had an idea for a third story while I was still planning this one, so it seems this is going to be a trilogy!

@Drassil said:

I'm pleased to tell you that there are now four restored Knightmare Teletext games available to play:

• Eagle Quest (1993)
• To the Ice Palace of Aesandre (1993)
• Journey through the Lairsdale (1993)
• Swamp Quest (1994)

https://andrewnile.co.uk/tt/

Wow, brilliant that they've all been found!

Eagle Quest is the only one I remember playing back in the day. I never managed to complete it and apparently I am still no better at it.

Jake's intro this week gave me a proper LOL!

Mark Knight cheekily suggesting "Syphiris?" when Ben can't make out Sidriss' name - one of Knightmare's "near the knuckle for a kids' show" moments!

I love Ridolfo, I'm not sure if I've ever given him the praise he deserves. Always a great fun performance from Adrian.

On the subject of locations, we still need to know where that Wooded Area is...

I've never noticed this before, but when Treguard gives his little speech about hoping they've got something to pay Smirkenorff, the advisor on the right with the pencil in his mouth appears to go "Shiiit" under his breath!

@Mystara said:

Dunstan insisted on telling this particular joke and whomever voiced Skirkenorff didn’t know the format. In the original take, Smirkenorff burst out laughing as soon as Dunstan said “to get his pension”. Right at the end of our quest they brought Paul Valentine back in to rerecord the audio and tell the joke properly. If you listen very carefully, you can tell the audio changes.

Oh yeah! I always figured that joke must have been pre-arranged since Paul knew how to respond, but I hadn't noticed the audio difference where it's been redubbed.

Canadanne said:

I have to conclude there are multiple Dreadnorts, even if I find it difficult to visualise!

I just remembered that I made reference to multiple Dreadnorts in a parody of Hotel California I wrote back in 2011. "How he laughs as the Dreadnorts leave them all dead / Some choose to dismember / Some choose to behead."

Was it actually Clifford Norgate doing Smirkenorff's voice in the scene with Dunstan? It's the only time they put that weird effect on his voice, which makes me wonder if they were trying to disguise that it was someone else standing in. It sounds a little like Bill Cashmore doing Bhal-Shebah at one point, but then more like Clifford towards the end, so I'm not sure!

Made a crude little map of Smirkenorff's flights around the Gower Peninsula. I dunno how the forum will display this but you'll probably have to enlarge it!

After a long delay, the latest 'American Reacts to Knightmare' video is finally up, covering the next 3 episodes of Series 5.

@Mystara said:

I will need to look it up. But I have a stack of Clifford Norgate’s scripts and in some cases I seem to recall him rewriting the spells.

Oh wow, that would be interesting to see...

Intriguingly, I've just noticed another example of something that sounds like Black Speech: the weird landing command Kelly has to use for Smirkenorff, "Avash kraf" (or however it might be spelt).