goreilly40 Every Friday afternoon at 4:30pm I was in front of the TV watching this show without fail. It was innovative, original, captivating and what made it stand out from other kids quiz shows at the time was its level of difficulty, very few teams completed it during its 8 series. When a team got to the promised third level you began to get excited and think, they might do it. The use of CGI was ahead of its time and having the dungeoneer having to be guided by his/her team was simply genius. Onto the host, Treguard was one of the most memorable characters on kids television, Hugo Wyatt played him perfectly and his evolution from a neutral character to outright protagonist matched the times and the good verses evil element added to the show and give the quest a sense of purpose. Lord Fear the main villain was an inspired addition and viewers wondered, what is he going to do now when he appeared, and he and Treguard are some of the most enduring images of my childhood. Another thing which made this show great was it wasn't sanitized, parts of it were frightening, it wasn't easy to complete and it actually challenged children which is what made it so captivating. Anyway I will always look on this show with nothing but fond memories, and hope for future generations shows like it can be produced.

marcehjones Knightmare (1987-1994) A team of three contestants have to guide a fourth contestant (who's vision is impaired by a helmet) through a dungeon on a quest. Usually their goal was to recover a special object such as a crown or sword but they were rarely successful. During their adventure the group would have to solve riddles, avoid traps, and would encounter a wide range of characters and monsters (including goblins, wizards, dragons, witches, jesters, ogres, maidens and potion sellers). Some of these would be very pantomime-esquire such as the charismatic Hordris, the immortal Lord Fear, and of course the captivating Tregar.The dungeon is generated using painted backgrounds and the same blue screen technique used by weathermen (Chroma Key). Despite its innovative format and huge following it never quite got the attention or praise it deserved (probably because it was on ITV rather than BBC).It was recently repeated on Challenge TV during the mornings. There are apparently no plans to start a new series.For more information see: http://www.knightmare.com/

bob the moo I have weird memories of this show. Like many childhood shows that go unseen for many years afterwards, time fogs the memory and the fondness that we look back on simpler times tend to infect other things we remember from the same period. For Knightmare my memory is also touched by the fact that for years my mother strongly disapproved of her children watching this show. A Northern Ireland Protestant woman, anything that suggest the occult, witchcraft, spells and so on was to be frowned upon so the idea of children being sent into a world of dragons, skulls, spells and so on was clearly not going to be anything suitable for kids.However we did watch it anyway with her occasional tut-tutting in the background and generally it was pretty enjoyable stuff. Nowadays the special effects will look ridiculous and even at the time they weren't brilliant but they were still pretty good for the time. The idea of the show was basically Dungeons and Dragons. Of a team of children, one would don a helmet that covered their eyes totally and wandered off into a green-screen room, while the rest of the team stay with the Dungeon Master and watch on a TV that is where the effects are added. Considering it was in the mid 1980's, it was actually pretty smart and innovative to set a gameshow in a virtual world. Sure it was clunky and the performances of the actors playing the various goblins etc were mostly hammy as hell but it worked for a kids audience mainly by virtue of being different and imaginative in concept and delivery.It would probably be terrible rubbish if I tried to watch it now, but then why would I watch it now? Of its time so it was and the fact that I remember it clearly as something that I enjoyed showed how well orientated to its target audience it was and how effective it was even if eight seasons of it was probably pushing its luck!

Chi. Well what is there to say about Knightmare? It was a kids TV programme/game show broadcast here in the UK. A team of teenagers would attempt to conquer the dungeons of doom by sending in the bravest among them into the dungeon... however there was a minor twist, the adventurer entering the dungeon had to wear a helmet which completely stops him from seeing anything except the exact spot where he was (so he could pick up and look at items he found etc) - the rest of the team had the arduous task of guiding him to safety by telling him which way to go.Memorable aspects:1) The "energy" of the adventurer is displayed as a helmed head, and as time progresses or danger threatens pieces of the helmet begin to strip off... then pieces of flesh and the finally pieces of the skull... the last thing to go is a pair of (by then) floating eyes and thats game over... you can replenish your energy by placing food in your knapsack.2) spellcasting... sometimes you could answer challenges set by "nice" characters met in the dungeon and they would give you a spell... to spell you literally had to spell... "Spellcasting... S.. L.. E.. E.. P.." kinda thing...3) big clanking gears and cogs and things and if the hapless adventurer missed his footing... well bye bye...4) At the end of each episode a gong would sound and the team of teenagers would freeze in time until the next episode...5) Tregard the dungeon master... a bearded rogue-ish looking fellow who would add strange cryptic comments after the team had frozen at the end of an episode.6) Some random jester type blokey who I don't remember anything about except he was annoying...7) Random evil-blokey (Lord Fear) who would just strut around and look menacing... usually only seen in a crystal ball..8) Crystal balls where the foe would announce his master plan and give some sort of a hint before leering menacingly towards the adventurers at which point they would all panick and shout "drop it... drop it..."9) The comments by the characters after you have answered one of their questions... "Truth accepted!" if it was correct... "Falsehood!" if it was wrong...It was a very bizarre but yet strangely amusing programme (and completely non-violent... If I recall correctly the hero would die instantly if he attempted to brandish a weapon)... it was made into a computer game for several platforms at the time, and remade as a RPG for the Amiga a few years on, but none of these managed to capture the atmosphere of the programme...