Knightmare was the ultimate kids’ TV game show. Perfectly capturing the contemporary crazes of the late 80s, the programme took its influences from the embryonic computer games scene and the immense popularity of pencil-and-paper role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, added a few fresh ideas of its own and turned it all into one of the most watchable contestant-participation events ever. The dungeon was a dark and dangerous place, but not without the odd friendly face or two. The dungeoneer might meet a wizard, a maid or other such character who helped him on his way with a password, a handy hint or timely and sage advice. Other characters and creatures he might meet could be conspiring against the team, like monsters and human enemies who tried to kill the dungeoneer. Some simply demanded a spell, a password or an object found within the dungeon before they allowed our intrepid explorer to pass, a game dynamic which will be familiar to fans of computer adventure games.Knightmare was a game of brains as well as brawn. In fact, it was almost totally a game of brains, with clear thinking and a spirit of co-operation between the teammates proving essential skills. The ‘floor tiles’ puzzle was a favourite task. Between the dungeoneer and his goal was a series of tiles marked with letters, numbers or symbols. To get from A to B, the hapless adventurer had to tread on the correct markers – put a foot wrong and it’s instant death. Solving the puzzle and working out which tiles could be stepped on with impunity usually involved a mathematical puzzle or a riddle. These were straightforward affairs on the first of the dungeon’s three levels, but by the time the team made it to Level Three, they’d need all their wits about them to get through unscathed. Other cunning hazards included rooms where timing was of the essence, with the dungeoneer guided through spikes, bombs or other such hazards by his teammates, who had to call out an instruction at exactly the right time to help him dodge the danger or move him very quickly to avoid impending doom. And remember, even if he avoided these instant deaths, the counter was ticking down on his Life Force too… Although the basic schematic of Knightmare remained the same throughout its eight-year run, the show developed and added some new features along the way. In the first of Knightmare’s eight series, broadcast in 1987, the aim of the game was simply to escape from the dungeon’s three levels. For Series Two in 1988, the team embarked on a quest to retrieve one of four items, namely the Sword of Justice (later Freedom), The Shield of Liberty (later Justice), The Cup that Heals and The Crowning Glory. And through it all, the irrepressible Treguard of Dunshelm was at hand to motivate and inspire the team, his floating head appearing above the dungeoneer at opportune moments. Not that the dungeoneer could see it, of course – this particular effect was added in post-production. But the team could certainly hear him, dispensing clues, nudging them in the right direction and making fun of any particularly silly errors. Our host and master wasn’t above a little sarcasm, that’s for sure. As master of ceremonies, he held the whole show together and provided the perfect backdrop for the action as the team explored the dungeon and interacted with the colourful characters therein. Did you Know? • Knightmare was the first TV game show with interaction between humans and computer-generated surroundings. • After the first series, quest items were added to the show’s format, with the teams looking for one of four objects. No team ever retrieved The Cup that Heals. • At its peak, Knightmare attracted over five million viewers an episode. • A sequel series, Knightmare VR, was piloted in 2004, but the project was eventually shelved. The new show would’ve used virtual reality technology, hence the title. • Spells were cast by literally spelling out the name of the incantation in question; a play on the word ‘spell’. A team in Series Two was frustrated by consistently bad spelling, despite the best efforts of Treguard to help them along. • For the first five series, a dungeoneer’s Life Force was represented by a helmeted head which decayed to a bare head, a skull and finally a pair of dismembered eyes which rolled off the screen, indicating death. This was replaced by a knight whose armour and then flesh decayed, and in the child-friendly Series Eight, a pie which diminished slice by slice.