Snapper-Jack, the Fool Taker. Played by Bill Cashmore.

Snapper-Jack, the Fool Taker

By Keith McDonald

Snapper-Jack was a sinister figure who prowled around like the child-catcher and threatened to kidnap dungeoneers who didn't answer enough of his riddles.


The eerie Snapper-Jack skulked around the second and third levels with a giant net and a snapdragon arm.

Snipper-snap, snipper-snap, fool about and we'll be back.

Snapper-Jack

As a fool taker, Snapper-Jack could ask three riddles and kidnap any challenger who answered fewer than two correctly.

He didn't say whether an answer was correct or how many the team answered successfully. It was purely a pass or fail exercise.

Snapper-Jack, the Fool Taker played by Bill Cashmore in Series 8 of Knightmare (1994).

Finding a fool

Perhaps the closest Snapper-Jack came to a victim was Sidriss, the ditzy daughter of Hordriss.

One dungeoneer enters the scene halfway through Snapper-Jack's interrogation of Sidriss. The team saves her by providing the answer to his final question.

Snapper-Jack almost exacts revenge by pursuing the same dungeoneer across a floor puzzle, which would have made the fool taker an assassin.

Guard the Cup

Perhaps Snapper-Jack had objectives beyond simply weeding out fools.

When Lord Fear runs out of patience with Bhal-Shebah, he proposes a large bribe for Snapper-Jack to guard the quest object. This implies that the final encounter might not be the standard head-to-head with Lord Fear.

Fear says the riddles must be based on Greek mythology so they cannot be easily guessed. The team in quest acquires a talking book to answer the riddles for them.

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