Team 4: Danny, Nigel, Tom and Mark from Portsmouth.
The fourth quest of Series 1 was for the Cup and lasted 38 minutes.
Level 1
In the opening room, the team encounter Folly the Jester, making his first appearance.
Folly: "Folly Tours, a personal guided tour of the dungeon, including all the sights and sound and history... Money or your life back, if not fully satisfied!"
Treguard tells the jester to 'hint but not harass'. Folly’s riddle helps the team select the right exit.
In the following chamber, Danny easily evades an advancing snake.
The Level 1 clue room is guarded by Granitas. The team must face its riddles.
They score two and learn that the key is not required. Danny takes a Buddha statue and a bag of salt.
The team escapes a long bomb room with impressive speed.
Danny arrives at Lillith’s domain and offers the Buddha for safe passage. She rewards Danny with a spell: ITCH.
Lillith: "Just be sure you don't use it when you're alone."
So much for sympathy. Danny slides straight into the serpent's stomach! He drops the salt to cause an upset.
The team enters the Corridor of the Catacombs (at the top, unusually). They guide Danny to an exit marked by a Chalice.
The wellway to Level 2 is guarded by a knight called Gumboil.
Gumboil: "The password at once, or you perish.
The team spell-cast ITCH to unsettle him.
It's the first time we see a dungeoneer climb down the well!
Level 2
Danny encounters Cedric, the belligerent monk.
Treguard: "Despite his hostility, he could help you if you’ve wit enough to convert him to your cause."
The team answer two correctly. Cedric offers Danny food, and gifts him a spell, ANVIL.
Cedric: "I'm off to have a sulk now - I don't like losing!"
The next room is guarded by Gumboil, who senses revenge.
The advisors spell-cast ANVIL, which defeats him again. They quickly dispel it before the weapon turns on Danny.
The Level 2 clue room has two items of food on the table - a fish and some grapes. A red herring? Treguard stirs doubt among the advisors.
They eventually decide to consume the grapes.
We were determined to enjoy it but not rush ourselves, hence our approach of thinking long and hard about everything (including me hacking the other three off by debating about that fish for quite a while!)
The key turns out to be Casper, Merlin's talking device. Once the team takes it, Casper offers another clue, "time in hand", so they also take an egg timer.
The team seeks Casper's help at the "old moving keyhole", where the lock shifts from door to door. Casper struggles to guide Danny quickly enough to stop the lock.
The team arrive at the 'Hall of Folly' (Merlin's antechamber). Casper helps Danny assemble the blocks and summon the wizard.
They answer all three riddles correctly and earn a record three spells: FLARE, FREEZER and ENERGY.
Merlin: "Already you have defeated fear. Now you have defeated folly."
Danny leaves Merlin's key and his egg-timer and proceeds to the Corridor of Spears.
The team consider spellcasting FREEZER but remember that the magic only works on living objects.
The advisors ask Danny to crawl under the second set of spears – which was never attempted by any other team.
Danny enters a room with four doors, two of which are locked. Folly appears and gives them a rhyming clue.
Folly: "Says the right hand to the left hand, 'I don't know the way'. Says the left hand to the right hand, 'I'm in disarray'. 'Very well', quoth the right hand. 'Then I'll have the say'."
Despite splendid progress to this point, the team is baffled. Folly repeats the riddle then runs off screen left, with yet another blatant hint.
Folly: "Don't follow me. Follow your nose, if you knows what I mean."
The advisors guide Danny towards one of the locked doors. After Treguard points out their error, they backtrack and take the left door.
It's nice to know that a snap decision we made as twelve-year-olds back in 1987 still causes so much mocking. We knew as soon as we finished filming the room that we had made the wrong decision
Death
Bomb room. The team were fast, but the fuse was faster. Bang!
Treguard: "Oooh, nasty! And I can't imagine why you did it - take the wrong path, I mean. Folly clearly indicated right and yet you went left!"
This was the first use of Treguard's famous catchphrase "Ooh, nasty". Hugo Myatt tells us it was never scripted. Yet it went on to become a cult expression for the show.
Treguard: "The path lies ahead. Only, this time remember to stay on the right!"
Hear from the team
In April 2006, Mark Cheetham signed the Guestbook:
Just found this site after a friend told me about it. I was on the first series as an advisor, with Danny as our dungeoneer. Nice to see the pictures again (Although seeing us as a group of twelve year olds was slightly embarassing!).
Later in 2006, Mark posted on the Knightmare.com Forum:
It was certainly a shock to see this again and quite a shock to know that there were that many of you who still cared about the show.
I must be honest: at the time, we didn't think much would become of Knightmare (this was still the first season, remember) and so thought that after a brief bit of publicity back in the 1980s we would fade into obscurity. How wrong we were!
It's nice to know that a snap decision we made as twelve year olds back in 1987 (whether to go left or right) still causes so much mocking. We knew as soon as we finished filming the room that we had made the wrong decision.
Looking back, it does seem as if the final quest was edited, but our quest panned out exactly as it was shown, with no "extra" rooms.
The only thing we had to film again was our introduction in Treguard's chamber, as we were all (especially Danny), very nervous before the quest got going.
Danny was so nervous that we were considering putting another member of the team in as dungeoneer, but they told us that the team had to be as listed. We filmed it about 5 times and when Tom stuttered his name it was left in as they didn't want to film it again!
We got calmer as the quest went on, with our start being quite slow. We were just determined to enjoy it, but not rush ourselves, hence our approach of thinking long and hard about everything (including me hacking the other three off by debating about that fish for quite a while!)
