A painting of Knightmare castle on a hill

Events in 2003

Developments in the world of Knightmare in 2003

January

4th January 2003: Knightmare Wins Challenge Cult poll

On 1 January 2003, Challenge announced the result of its Christmas Cult Selection. Knightmare came in first place! The poll was recently held on the Challenge website, and viewers voted for their favourite game show from a selection.

The results were:

  1. Knightmare
  2. The Adventure Game
  3. Crackerjack
  4. Going for Gold
  5. Sale of the Century
  6. The Golden Shot
  7. 3-2-1
  8. Bullseye
  9. The Generation Game
  10. Name That Tune

Thanks to Grimaldine Grimwold on the forum for providing the above details.

Challenge's short Knightmare documentary featuring Tim Child and Hugo Myatt was shown again, duly followed by episode 3 of Series 3.

Meanwhile, further repeats of series 3 have commenced on Challenge, and continue every Saturday and Sunday at 10am (repeated 5pm). It is very likely that the rest of the series will be scheduled, but we will let you know when announcements have been made.

27th January 2003: More Guestbook Signings

Paul Valentine, who played the key character of Motley (and a few others) signed the guestbook back in July last year (2002).

More recently, Steve Ryde, the continuity announcer of CITV from 1993-1998, signed the guestbook in November 2002. Steve described Knightmare as one of his favourite shows during his time doing the live voices, which brought back a lot of happy memories.

Steve is now a producer for CBBC, and is making a live show called 'Dick & Dom In Da Bungalow' for the CBBC channel.

27th January 2003: Knightmare Continues on Challenge

Knightmare Series 3 broadcasts will be continuing throughout February in the same scheduled slots - Saturdays and Sundays at 10am, repeated at 5pm.

The schedule is therefore as follows:

March

3rd March 2003: Knightmare to end on Challenge

Challenge has announced that it will not be showing any more series due to a change in strategy, but that it may consider Knightmare again in the future.

The statement largely blames ratings for Knightmare, which were described as 'respectable' but not as good as other shows in the schedule to justify the expense. Challenge are, however, keen to make it clear that they are not ruling out the possibility of purchasing further series of Knightmare in the future.

3rd March 2003: Mark Knight on Stage

Mark Knight (Lord Fear) appeared on stage in Bill Hollenbach's Severed Heads on 3rd March 2003.

Severed Heads brings together two former campus radical activists now at opposite ends of the scale of success, in an eerie confrontation complicated by dire deeds of the past and the ghost of a long-dead playwright. Its funny, frightening, crazy and yet makes sense.

Mark plays George Buechner, a dead playwright. Sometimes mischievous, sometimes chillingly amoral, the ghost of Buechner is given new physical and intellectual life by Knight, who says of himself:

I think I've got a lot in common with Buechner; someone who saw a play I wrote years ago said they thought I wrote like a dead playwright... now I think about it I'm not sure how he meant that.

Mark Knight

Severed Heads can be seen at the New Freedom Theater
1346 N. Broad Street
(Broad and Master Streets)
Philadelphia, PA 19121
Monday, March 3rd 2003,

Curtain up: 7:30 PM

Thanks to Kieran for forwarding these details.

3rd March 2003: Warwick Radio

Ben Cottam from Warwick Radio (Warwick University's radio station) has been in contact to say he co-presents a show every Friday 5-7pm, and it is their 'unofficial policy to mention Knightmare and Hugo Myatt every episode'!

You can listen online at http://www.radio.warwick.ac.uk.

3rd March 2003: Edmund Dehn and Dickon Sign Guestbook

Edmund Dehn (who played Gumboil) has signed the guestbook.

Fascinating! Good to hear that people are still interested and that things are going on. I have fond memories. Does anyone remember the Giant?!

Edmund Dehn

Also Dickon, the winning dungeonner from Series 4, says:

I was a winner on the show and watching on Challenge Tv flooded back the memories of me blowing the horn and running into the goblins.

Dickon

Please note it is not always possible to verify the authenticity of guestbook postings.

3rd March 2003: Hugo Myatt in Doctor Who

Hugo Myatt has recently recorded an appearance in a Doctor Who audio play, Omega, playing the role of Daland.

It will be released in August. More details.

Thanks to Ian Farrington for the news.

3rd March 2003: Remaining Challenge Schedule, Series 3

Series 3, episodes 4-13 will be repeated again during March 2003. Episodes 1-3 will not be repeated again as they have already been shown twice. Episodes 14-16 will be shown in May 2003 during another Cult Selection slot.

Please check the listings on the Challenge? website for exact broadcast times.

Each episode is scheduled for repeat later in each day or overnight.

April

17th April 2003: Challenge Announce Series 4!

Good news! Challenge has today announced that it will be showing Series 4 of Knightmare from June.

Here is the official announcement from Challenge:

Starting June 2nd, due to overwhelming viewer demand, we will be running Knightmare daily... Weekdays at 6:30pm (following Takeshi's Castle at 6pm!) and weekends at 10am.

Challenge

May

19th May 2003: Jason Karl

Some news from a winning dungeoneer of Series 2 - Jason Karl (formerly known as Julian Smith).

Since the appearance on Knightmare, Jason became an actor (recently presenting Most Haunted on LivingTV) and is now the director of Talisman TV.

19th May 2003: Challenge Series 4 Schedule

The schedule for Series 4 on Challenge has just been announced, and Knightmare will be on every day!

Starting 2nd June 2003:

Series 4 will be followed by Series 3 again.

Please remember that schedules are subject to change and you should double check Challenge? for the latest details.

June

17th June 2003: Petition to Release Knightmare on DVD

We have heard that Granada Media are interested in releasing the original episodes of Knightmare on DVD, hopefully with extra content such as the 1992 US pilot episode, 'Lords of the Game'.

However, they are not sure how large the market is. To help convince them to go ahead with a release, we have created a new petition aimed at Granada Enterprises. If you would like to see Knightmare on DVD, please take a minute to sign the petition [received almost 1,000 signatures].

July

10th July 2003: Challenge Ratings for Series 3

Challenge has been broadcasting Series 4 from 2nd June. This was followed by another repeat of Series 3 and then Series 4 again. The all-important ratings for Series 4 have proved inconclusive and therefore Challenge will not be acquiring further series for the time being, but this has not been ruled out for the future.

Full ratings information are not available to the public. However, the top 10 programmes on Challenge for the week ending 22/06/2003 showed that Knightmare had 80,000 viewers for the repeat of the first episode of Series 3 on Wednesday 18th June 2003. Knightmare has not appeared in the top ten for any other weeks so far.

  1. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Wed 1833) 0.14
  2. FAMILY FORTUNES (Mon 2132) 0.12
  3. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Sun 1900) 0.12
  4. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Mon 1830) 0.11
  5. FORT BOYARD (Wed 1700) 0.09
  6. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Thu 1832) 0.09
  7. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Sun 2000) 0.09
  8. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Tue 1830) 0.09
  9. KNIGHTMARE (Wed 1800) 0.08
  10. FAMILY FORTUNES (Wed 2133) 0.08

Source: BARB

September

1st September 2003: Visitor Poll

The first Knightmare.com visitor poll was set up to find out more about the visitors to this website. Over the last seven weeks, nearly 1,500 people have selected their age group.

The final results are as follows:

Nearly a third of visitors are aged 18-20. This is followed by 21-23 year olds, who make up over a quarter of visitors.

The results show that 15-26 year olds make up 86% of the visitors to this site. This was expected as this is the age group most likely to remember the original broadcasts of Knightmare.

It is also interesting to see we have a few visitors ages under 12 who may not have seen the original broadcasts but could be watching the repeats on Challenge.

Thanks to everyone who voted.

1st September 2003: Knightmare DVD Petition Closed

The 'Release Knightmare on DVD' Petition closed in August with over 1000 signatures collected in less than two months.

This response to the petition has been great, and thanks to all those who have signed it. It will shortly be printed and sent to Granada Enterprises. We will let you know of any response.

October

30th October 2003: Knightmare Series 5 Ratings

The main evening slot for Series 5 on Challenge moved from 6pm to 7pm since 10th November 2003. This is good news since the later prime time slot means more people are available to watch it.

Challenge has now just completed a full run of Series 5. From Monday 1st December the full series will run again every weeknight at 7pm (repeated 1.15/1.30am). Check the Challenge website for exact times for the daily repeats.

Knightmare rated in the top ten viewing figures for Challenge (week ending 26 October 2003 - the first week of Series 5):

  1. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Thu 1829) 0.15
  2. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Tue 1829) 0.13
  3. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Thu 1759) 0.12
  4. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Sun 1800) 0.12
  5. FORT BOYARD (Mon 1700) 0.11
  6. KNIGHTMARE (Wed 1759) 0.10
  7. FORT BOYARD (Fri 1700) 0.10
  8. FORT BOYARD (Sat 1700) 0.10
  9. FORT BOYARD (Wed 1700) 0.09
  10. TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Sun 1831)

Source: BARB

November

30th November 2003: Anglia Gold

Anglia Television's 'Anglia Gold' website was launched three years ago, and features a section on Knightmare. Unfortunately we have been informed that the site is due to close very soon, possibly due to a restructuring at ITV.

Other Years

Our record of Knightmare-related events, including appearances and cast/crew events are organised by year. You can see the events for any particular year by clicking on the relevant link below.

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