Guardian article

[HobGoblin]

Has everyone seen this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/ ... knightmare

Interviews by Ben Child - is that Tim's son?

[Canadanne]

Whoa, cool and totally unexpected! Thanks for the link!

Strange quote: "Quite a lot of teams were killed off by goblins because they miscast very simple spells." Off the top of my head I can't recall a single example of that, let alone "quite a lot"! An even stranger quote is Tim's belief that the show ran for 9 series.

This made me LOL: "But sometimes I'd just get: "Do something, Hugo!" You can't reply: "Like what?" You just had to say anything, which probably accounts for the glassy look in my eyes much of the time."

Good to finally learn the identity of the foul-mouthed female dungeoneer, and very nice that they linked to James' documentary at the end!

[shadow6162]

Well I have now! One of my YouTube videos was linked on it!

[Drassil]

Well done to Amy for getting two videos linked to as well.

Thank you for the link, Chris. While there isn't that much that's new in this article, it's always good to see Knightmare's profile raised and to hear again from Tim and Hugo.

'There will always be hardcore fans clamouring for its return': It's worth pointing out that not all hardcore Knightmare fans clamour for its return, and not all who clamour for its return are hardcore fans.

'At first, it was literally a nightmare. I had to supply the menace as well as the avuncular guidance, because we didn't have any villains until Lord Fear came along in season five or six.': I like the way that Hugo expresses this, even if he has overlooked Mogdred et al. If anyone can get away with the (K)nightmare pun, Hugo Myatt's the one.

It's pleasing to read Hugo's praise of Paul Valentine and Michael Cule's performances.

'We had a splendid team of girls who achieved a rare victory by completing their particular themed quest. The one they put under the helmet was a bit of a strider; they guided her towards a door, and she bumped straight into the blue screen. She let out an expletive we didn't think she'd know at that age.': For those that don't know, this dungeoneer was first mentioned anonymously by Hugo in Debbie Glover's 2002 interview with him. The black eye team was previously mentioned by David Learner in one of his interviews, and remains unidentified.

[shadow6162]

Whoa! I didn't realise TWO of my videos were linked XD

[Canadanne]

Oh yeah, I didn't click on most of the YouTube links so didn't notice they used some of Amy's! Awesome.

[JamesA]

Despite the inaccuracies contained within the article, it was still a very good read and nice to see Knightmare mentioned once more - certainly breathed some life back into the KM bandwagon after a couple of months or so of dormancy.

And it was great indeed to see various links to Youtube-based videos of all kinds featured within the content.

[pjmlfc05]

Loved the article! So good to hear from Tim and Hugo. I didn't know one of the teams had a fight, wonder what team that was? The make up team did a good job to cover up the person with the black eye! Can't begin to guess who this team was! Thanks for pointing out the article HobGoblin.

[JamesA]

I should also point out that the Guardian article has undoubtedly played a huge part in helping to increase the number of views of the documentary.... which as of today has gone past the 10,000 mark.

[Mystara]

Incidentally, Ben Child is Tim Child's son.

[SpectralScorpion]

A good read, though given some of the things Tim Child said it makes me wonder if they weren't listening to him or he's got a bit bored of being asked the same questions and decided to mix it up a bit.

[Mystara]

Incidentally, despite the caption, I'm almost certain that the dungeoneer in that picture is NOT a contestant.

Firstly, the lighting looks completely wrong.
Secondly, all contestants were told to NOT wear jeans, since it interferes with the chromakey. I'm actually surprised that image has worked at all.

I would say it's a test-shot. However, I'm not sure why Treguard's face is superimposed. Perhaps someone with encyclopaedic knowledge of all the episodes can confirm whether my initial statement is true.


Oi! Drassil! Get over here!

[Drassil]

A fortune I spent registering a calling name, and you summon me like that. I also have a real name that I got at a fraction of the cost.

It looks, as you say, all wrong for an in-quest photo. I'd guess it's a pre-Series 2 publicity shot, as the dungeoneer's outfit doesn't match those of the pre-S1 and pre-S3 publicity shots we've seen previously. The fact that the photo credit names Rex Features may support that.

Incidentally, Ben Child is Tim Child's son.

Do we know whether or not he's the boy in the Series 6-8 opening sequence, as Illusion/Nic once suggested he was?

[Canadanne]

Incidentally, Ben Child is Tim Child's son.

Do we know whether or not he's the boy in the Series 6-8 opening sequence, as Illusion/Nic once suggested he was?

Try asking him on Twitter maybe? @BenChildFilm - would be interesting to find out!

[Mystara]

I have no idea.

Ben and his sister both acted as runners in (at least) series 8. I would have placed them in at least their late teens at the time. So I'd guess Ben was the right age.

Reasons I think not:
- I suspect that simply assigning the role to your son would break all kinds of acting union rules.
- The opening sequence obviously involves some tricky element of choreography - potentially without sight if the helmet is real rather than a CGI affectation. It's quite possible that this would involve an element of experience and expertise and that an actor would be needed.
- Opening sequences and theme music usually aren't done in-house. I'm not sure Tim would be in a position to contract out such a job and insist that his son was used.

Counter-arguments:
- The role is uncredited, so using your son might not break acting union rules.
- Given the nature of the opening sequence, this sequence really might have been done in-house.