Knightmare

Knightmare is a British television program for children, produced by Broadsword Productions for Anglia Television and was broadcast on ITV from 7 September 1987 to 11 November 1994 (for 8 series). The show is most noted for its use of blue screen chroma key (an idea borrowed by Tim Child from weather forecasts, where it had just started to be used) and use of 'virtual reality' interactive gameplay on television.

Overview
The show features teams of four children (around 11–16 years old). On the call of "Enter, Stranger", the first member of the team (the "dungeoneer") enters Knightmare Castle via an antechamber belonging to Treguard of Dunshelm (played by Hugo Myatt). After giving his or her name, the dungeoneer is asked by Treguard to call their three advisors, who magically appear next to the viewing apparatus beside them (though, in Series 8, all members of the team appeared at once). Before entering the dungeon, the dungeoneer is given a knapsack to wear, in which they are to place food found along the way, in order to replenish Life Force (see below). In addition, the "Helmet of Justice" is put on the dungeoneer's head, blocking their vision except for the area immediately around them. The story is that this is to protect the dungeoneer from seeing the real danger ahead.

The dungeoneer then enters Treguard's partly computer-generated, partly hand-drawn fantasy dungeon which was accomplished through bluescreen chromakey—hence the need for the helmet, as the dungeoneer otherwise just sees a large blue room. The team watches the dungeoneer from a screen in the antechamber, and guides the player using hurried descriptions and shouts instructions, overcoming a variety of puzzles and traps in the dungeon. The instructions might be "Sidestep left, walk forward, take a small step to your right, pick up the key", much like many text-based computer games (for example the appropriately named "multi-user dungeons") that relies on description and commands rather than any visuals.

Spells can also be cast, which enables the dungeoneer to attack, open doors, restore one's life force, reveal clues and perform other special abilities. This is accomplished by spelling out the name of the spell the team wishes to cast. For example, to cast a WELL spell that reveals a wellway to the next level, an advisor calls out: "Spellcasting: W-E-L-L". It is also possible to reverse or stop a previously cast spell by dispelling, which can be done by calling out "Dispel", followed by the letters of the spell in an incorrect order, but not necessarily in reverse order. One team (Team 7 of Series 2) is confounded by bad spelling, continually missing out the letter O of a SHROUD spell that is put on their dungeoneer while the antagonist Mogdred laughs evilly, while Treguard, apparently constrains by magic, tries to tell them ("Let...ter...O!"). Later on, that same team are killed off, again due to bad spelling (in this case, misinterpreting a SHOVEL spell that they were given prior as SPADE).

There are three levels in the dungeon. The object of the game is to collect various items, meeting a selection of the many inhabitants of the dungeon along the way, and get out 'alive' after finding a specified treasure. In some series, the teams could choose one of four treasures to pursue. Their choice would only change the first room that they enter, and the prize found. It would always be located towards the end of level 3. There are different ways of travelling between the levels, including wellways, mine cart rides, lifts ('descenders') and even airborne rides on Smirkenorff, a dragon. The dungeon's inhabitants includes jesters, maids, and wizards, who helps the dungeoneer along the way, and guards, witches, and sorcerers, who either demand passwords, spells, useful objects they need or simply try to kill the dungeoneer. Mary Whitehouse was initially critical of this latter aspect of the programme (i.e. the simulated fatal demise of the dungeoneers) after having been given a macabre description of Knightmare by the press. However, she apologised after she saw Knightmare for herself, noting that there was no gore and Treguard always made it clear that the dungeoneers still survived in "their own time".

If the team manages to complete all three levels and master the dungeon, they are awarded with a prize, which changed over the years from the "Silver Spurs of Squiredom", to medallions (Series 4), to "Frightknight" trophies (a design of a Knight holding a sword). Unlike most other children's shows, Knightmare had no qualms over having a very high difficulty level. In its eight-year history, only eight teams managed to successfully conquer the dungeon: two in Series 2 (teams 4 and 10), one in Series 4 (team 6), one in series 5 (team 4), one in series 6 (team 5), two in Series 7 (teams 6 and 7) and a final one in Series 8 (team 6). The last team to play in each series would often face an impossible quest, as the dungeon would inevitably collapse (indicating the end of the series) before they had time to reach the conclusion.

While the essence of Knightmare remained the same, there was also much change and development throughout its series. In Series 2 (1988), a quest object system was introduced, so that dungeoneers now had a specific item to reclaim at the end. There were four main quest items: The Sword of Freedom (originally The Sword of Justice, retrieved once), The Shield of Justice (originally The Shield of Liberty, retrieved twice), The Cup that Heals (never retrieved), and The Crowning Glory (retrieved three times). There were occasionally others, such as "Free the Maid" (used twice, freed once) or "Find the Talisman" (used once, retrieved once).

In its early series, Knightmare lacked a single major antagonist or 'baddie'. Indeed, originally Treguard was specifically a neutral character, neither on the side of good nor evil. The closest there was to a main villain was Mogdred (portrayed by John Woodnutt), but his main duty was, according to Merlin (a wizard, and Mogdred's 'alter ego' in the first series) in the penultimate episode of Series 2, to "scare you into making a mistake", though he did kill two dungeoneers, one in Series 2 and another early in Series 4. In Series 5 (1991), however, changes were made. The majority of the characters were split into two sides: the righteous "Powers that Be", and the villainous "Opposition", the leader of which was Lord Fear played by Mark Knight. By this time, Treguard's stance had now fully evolved into that of a strictly good character.

History
Knightmare was conceived by Tim Child in 1985, inspired by the two ZX Spectrum games Atic Atac and Dragontorc. Figuring that if a Spectrum could do these types of adventure games, then a television programme could revolutionise the genre, he enlisted the help of artist David Rowe to design realistic looking backgrounds with an airbrush. Borrowing the technique used in weather forecasts, Child devised a large blue room, which would be set up in Studio A of Anglia Studios. The advanced computer graphic environments were created by the Travelling Matte Company using a Spaceward SuperNova computer.

Eventually, in early 1986, a 15 minute pilot under the name of Dungeon Doom was recorded. Even at this stage it featured Hugo Myatt, the husband of Christine Webber who was a presenter of Anglia's regional news programme About Anglia. A second 20 minute pilot was filmed on 27 and 28 January 1987, with the name changed from Dungeon Doom to Knightmare, and 'life force' added, an idea borrowed from the computer game Atic Atac, which also influenced the show in other ways. For this he recruited Robert Harris, who used a Spaceward Computer to design an animation of a knight's head that could indicate varying degrees of damage. Child sent this second pilot to the ITV Children's Committee in February, who commissioned a series of 8 half-hour-long episodes.

The show was an instant hit with viewers, so much so that a second series twice as long as the last was commissioned the next year, closely followed by a third the year after that. By the time this third series finished, Child felt the dungeon format was getting too restrictive, and he needed something new. Because of this, the fourth series saw the introduction of many 'outdoor' scenes, filmed around places such as medieval castles across the UK, and composited into the blue room using the usual chromakey technique. This series also saw the introduction of the "Eye Shield", which acted as an 'eye' for the dungeoneer. Using pre-recorded footage filmed on location, it would follow the progress of the dungeoneer as they explored the dungeon. A new onscreen status bar was also introduced, generated by a Commodore Amiga 2000 computer.

At its peak in 1991/1992, Knightmare attracted approximately 4-5 million viewers an episode (at that time a very high figure for a children's TV series). By 1993, the year which saw the programme's seventh series, it was the most popular non-animated show on CITV. However, changes had recently occurred. Late the previous year, the ITV Children's Committee was replaced by a single Controller of CITV, Dawn Airey. Although she thought well of Knightmare, the average audience age of CITV was now 6-10, down from 6-15 in 1985. It was believed the older audience were moving to satellite television and video games, and that programmes for a younger audience were needed. After two meetings, it was agreed that an 8th series of Knightmare would go ahead in 1994, but it would be a shorter run (10 episodes instead of 15/16 episodes), and the remainder of the season's timeslot would be taken over by Virtually Impossible, a new virtual reality show from Broadsword, the same production company as Knightmare, and aimed at this younger audience. Shortly after this decision was made, Airey left for Channel 4, and was replaced as Controller by Vanessa Chapman.

Despite the diminishing older audience, Knightmare's eighth series performed well, and gained a higher audience than Virtually Impossible did later that autumn. Changes introduced in this series saw a return to the dungeon format of Series 1-3, albeit now completely computer generated, and a new piece of dungeoneering equipment was added, the wand called "Reach". This allowed dungeoneers to push, touch, and open things from a distance. At this point, there was still hope that Knightmare was to return for a ninth series in 1995, as a postal address for future contestants was displayed on screen after the end of the final episode. The chances of the eighth series being the last were also strong, however, and so the series ended on an ambiguous note.

In the event, Knightmare was 'rested' for the foreseeable future, partly due to the declining older audience, and partly because Tim Child felt that, while Knightmare should employ high-quality virtual reality in order to remain a cutting-edge show, such technology was not affordable at that time.

In August 2009, a campaign was started by the official Knightmare fan site to get a release of the series on DVD after other failed attempts and lack of interest from ITV Entertainment.

On 17 March 2008, Tim Child announced that it was "very early days", but that fans "will have something to talk about in 2008, and perhaps something to beguile you in 2009". Although as of 2011 there has been no further official news on the project's development, the bankruptcy and closure of Broadsword Productions's parent company Intermedialab Limited (formerly known as Televirtual) now means that a new series is very unlikely.

Life Force
The life force was a combined clock and progress meter used to track the energy status of the dungeoneer (the main contestant). It could be reduced by the dungeoneer taking too long (Treguard would often tell the team "You're wasting Life Force"), taking "damage" through being attacked by monsters or obstacles, taking the wrong route or making bad decisions. However, it could be refuelled by placing food in the knapsack.

In the first five series, the life force was a computer animated image of an adventurer wearing a helmet. When healthy the image was complete, it would be shown against a Green background. As life force was lost the background would turn Amber and parts of the helmet would break off into pieces. Once the helmet was gone completely, pieces of skin would break off to reveal a skull underneath (though no blood was seen), now with a red background. If life force diminished further the skull would start to crumble away, ending with the eyes rolling away past the camera as a death knell tolled.

In series six and seven, the life force was a picture of a walking knight losing armour to gradually reveal the skeleton which eventually crumbled to bits.

In the final series, the life force was a picture of an animated pie, its slices slowly dissolving. This particular life force only appeared whenever the dungeoneer picked up food.

The Dungeoneer's "death" was indicated by the life force sequence ending, either by the second eye rolling off-screen or the skeleton collapsing (though the latter was rarely used). Unlike the first two sequences, the "pie" life force was never used to indicate a death. Also, Team 3's death in Series 2 never used the death sequence.

During filming, the life force animation was never shown on the adviser's screen (it was only shown on the audience's viewpoint), although changes to its status were announced by Treguard (e.g. "Life Force damaged!"). No dungeoneer ever died due to their life force simply running out - there was always an additional factor that caused the death.

Certain traps and pits would cause instant death, regardless of remaining life force. For example, if the dungeoneer stepped off the edge of a platform, they would "fall to their death". Occasionally, the dungeoneer's death would be animated. The most common death showed the challenger falling straight downwards while waving his arms. If he comes in contact with a moving saw, sometimes it would appear that the dungeoneer got split into two pieces. These animations were made in post-production.

Treguard
A Saxon Knight named Treguard, or Treguard of Dunshelm, was the dungeon master and was played by Hugo Myatt for the entire length of the show's eight series. Information about his supposed background can be found in the related literature (see merchandise section). During the show, it was Treguard's job to assist the dungeoneer and his/her team of helpers wherever possible.

At first, Treguard directed the contestants on his own. However from Series 4, Treguard had an assistant; Pickle the elf, played by David Learner and, from Series 7 after Pickle had "gone back to the forest", Majida, a princess and genie of Arabian descent played by Jackie Sawiris. (Majida originally claimed her name was "Daughter of the Setting Moon Whose Eyes are Like Daggers in the Hearts of Men Who Ride the Great Caravan of the Sultan".)

During the early series Treguard was portrayed as a neutral character, most notably between Series 1 and 3. During the start of Episode 14 of Series 3 (when no team had yet completed that series' dungeon) he went as far as to say "we're celebrating an unbeaten record", apparently siding against the dungeoneers. However, from Series 5 onwards there was a clear distinction made between 'The Powers that Be' and 'The Opposition', against which Treguard became less neutral and more inclined to actively aid and assist the dungeoneer to complete their quest.

Over the course of the series Treguard became well known for his catchphrase "Ooh, nasty!", regularly used just after a dungeoneer had died. Intended only as a passing remark, this was originally an ad lib by Myatt.

Merchandise
A number of items of Knightmare merchandise were produced over the show's run, including seven books written by Dave Morris:


 * Knightmare: Can you beat the challenge? (ISBN 0-552-52540-5, 1988)
 * The Labyrinths of Fear (ISBN 0-552-52608-8, 1989)
 * Fortress of Assassins (ISBN 0-552-52638-X, 1990)
 * The Sorcerer's Isle (ISBN 0-552-52714-9, 1991)
 * The Forbidden Gate (ISBN 0-440-86317-1, 1992)
 * The Dragon's Lair (ISBN 0-440-86328-7, 1993)
 * Lord Fear's Domain (ISBN 0-440-86336-8, 1994)

The first of these, Knightmare, told the story of how Treguard came to inhabit Knightmare Castle, revealed once to have been Dunshelm Castle, which Treguard owned by birthright. The next four books were intended for older readers, and took the format of half-fiction, half-interactive story. In these, the first half of the book was a novellette about one of Treguard's adventures, serving as a lead-in to the second half, composed of numbered sections where the reader directed the narrative, similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. The next two books retained the interactive story format, but were aimed at a younger audience. Throughout the interactive portions of the books the reader had to keep track of their Life Force and objects collected, and some books had additional statistics or special skills to keep track of. Finally, Lord Fear's Domain was a puzzle book.

There were also two Knightmare computer games released. The first was in 1987, released on the Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, and Commodore 64, and the second Knightmare game in 1991, released on the Amiga and Atari ST. A PC version was proposed for 1995, but the programme finishing put an end to these plans. The latter game was an RPG similar to the Dungeon Master and Eye Of The Beholder games which, whilst well received at the time, had very little to do with the TV series besides the fantasy setting.

A Knightmare board game was also released in 1992, by MB Games.

Repeats
After Knightmare ended on ITV, it was quickly picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel, which broadcast all eight series starting from the channel's launch in November 1995. However, ratings were low, perhaps exacerbated by the satellite sharing that meant UK fans were unable to receive the Sci Fi Channel at the times when the show was being broadcast. (Cable television was also relatively uncommon in the UK at this time, and completely unavailable in some areas, further limiting the show's existing fanbase.) Sci-Fi's contract ran out on 31 October 1998, midway through Series 5. Knightmare's only appearances on television after that were as clips in "40 Years of Anglia" in 1999, and Channel 4's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows in 2001, where it came 16th, the highest position on the list for a game show.

In the United States, Series 5 and 6 were shown for a short time on local Long Island, New York independent station WLNY.

In December 2002, the UK satellite channel Challenge held a group of programmes called the "Christmas Cult Selection", featuring a group of classic game shows from the 1960s (The Golden Shot) right through to the 1980s. Knightmare was included in this, and the repeats started on 23 December 2002, with Series 3, Episode 1 preceded by a short 2.5 minute documentary featuring Tim Child and Hugo Myatt. Just over a week later, Knightmare went on to reach first place in an Internet poll held by Challenge, asking viewers to decide the best show out of the Cult Selection.

Reasonable ratings, combined with the high fanbase, ensured that the other seven series went on to be bought and shown over the next two years. It took until 8 July 2004 for all the episodes to be shown, when Episode 16 of Series 2 was broadcast 563 days after the repeats started. Knightmare continued to run on Challenge until 31 March 2007, when the rights to the series expired. By this time only five of the eight series were still being repeated, as the rights to Series 3 expired at the end of 2004, Series 4 on 31 May 2006, and Series 5 on 30 September 2006, the latter two following a final showing of those series.

Knightmare VR
On 25 November 2002, only 6 days after the Challenge repeats were confirmed, it was announced that a reformat of Knightmare was to be undertaken by Televirtual, founded by Tim Child. Known as Knightmare VR, this would use avatar technology to place the dungeoneer in a full 3D computer generated world. A £40,000 National Lottery grant for the programme was awarded in July 2003.

In 2004 test images and clips continued to appear on the Televirtual website and finally on 17 August 2004, the full 13 minute pilot was posted on the Internet.

A brand new theme tune was created for Knightmare VR and for the very first time it had lyrics, Which consisted of the words "Knightmare, it's a Knightmare" being vocoded to the music. The new theme tune and all of the incidental music for it was provided by Madmanmoon, founder of Norwich-based company "Madmanmusic".

The VR pilot kept a lot of the original elements that appeared in the original show such as Wall Monsters, Clue Rooms and the dark and grimy dungeon setting. Original Knightmare actors Hugo Myatt and Mark Knight reprised their roles as Treguard and Lord Fear respectively, while several additional actors (including Tim Child himself) were introduced, playing new additions to the cast.

The pilot introduced some new elements, including a new main host named Garstang, who was an orc. Treguard was now relegated to an avatar head who would occasionally appear to give the dungeoneer advice. The dungeoneer and all of the in-dungeon characters were now fully computer generated, along with the rooms themselves, which meant that the dungeoneer could now explore much larger and grander surroundings than previously seen. All of the rooms could now be seen more thoroughly from different camera angles, an element which the original programme could not do easily due to the limits of its technology.

The Helmet of Justice was no longer used, enabling the dungeoneer to now clearly see his surroundings. As a result of this, only one advisor was now needed, instead of three.

Reactions to the pilot were mixed, with some saying that the lack of a Helmet of Justice and the associated "guiding" element meant a lot of the essence of the original show was lost. The new theme tune was dismissed by some as being overly "cheesy" and unrelated to the dark sense of the programme. On 10 May 2005, it was announced that the project was to be shelved, with Child saying that he had decided that Knightmare would work best under a mixture of virtual reality and the original format.

Other versions
Two other versions of Knightmare were also made: one in France (Le Chevalier Du Labyrinthe), which ran from 19 September 1990 to 31 August 1991, and the other in Spain (El Rescate Del Talisman) which ran from 29 May 1991 to 1994. Both versions were sponsored by Sega.

Possible versions for Germany (in 1991) and the United States (in 1993, called Lords of the Game) were also considered, with a pilot for the US version recorded. This pilot was a full-length episode featuring the original UK cast and young American actors that played the contestants. The lead contestant role was played by Chad Price of CRC (Cary Reconstruction) from Apex, North Carolina. The pilot was filmed in Ipswich, UK in 1993. However, full series for these were not commissioned; for the US version, it was due to production companies not liking the idea of a complex chromakey-based show.