To mark 30 years since the final episode of Knightmare, dungeoneer Oliver Duhl talks us through the whirlwind experience of starting (and ending) his quest at the very end of Series 8 in 1994.
From the start, we knew it would be a little unusual for our team.
From a last-minute application to a strong audition, an early filming slot (which had to be moved) and a truncated Series 8, we traversed a real gauntlet even outside of the Knightmare dungeon.
Apparently, our audition had been one of the best since the process had been revamped for Series 5. And when we got the call advising us of the filming schedule, we were told that we were due to go second (out of the seven).
Unfortunately, Matthew (our centre advisor of the three on TV) was due to be abroad on holiday. Tim Child was cool about it, but said we'd have to go last instead.
And thus, it was. We travelled to Norwich by train on Monday 08 August 1994. We filmed our intro scene, a practice room and one or two others on Tuesday afternoon. We spent all of Wednesday filming and then we were done! Three memorable days in the height of that year's summer.
We had to be there on standby during Dunstan's quest, as there was no way of knowing how that would play out. As it happened, by the time they had completed, we were left with what amounted to just shy of 20 minutes' screen time.
The short cut
Inevitably, it meant the options laid out by the production team would be different. A short cut to Level 3 was introduced, but it was discretionary.
The notion of a shortcut was previously laid out in the "Adventurer's Code" sheet we received in the post prior to shooting. It was worded – from memory – as though it was merely a rumour but could exist.
Tim advised us, like he had Dunstan's team, that we may not get to complete, but that there would be too much time left not to start another quest. That was as much as they could tell before editing took place.
In between rooms, we received regular updates of how run times were shaping up. There was a belief that we had a chance – very small, but still a chance – at completing (an admittedly shorter than usual quest), if we took the shortcut.
We all got the impression that's what the production team wanted as well – a gamble and some late drama. I distinctly recall the Assistant Director, Ian, saying he hoped we'd take the short cut.
You don't want a complete anticlimax after Dunston's victory and just to limp to an insipid end in Level 2 – not after previous seasons had ended with epic showdowns against red dragons and trolls.
I used to wonder what might have happened instead had everyone known for sure Series 8 would be the final series. Who knows whether Treguard and Lord Fear might have had a different sign-off?
We weren't forced to take that option – it was our decision how to proceed. But it guaranteed a crack at the Corridor of Blades, my favourite of all Knightmare's traps. I wasn't going to turn down the chance to have a go at it.
We'd certainly practised it enough, with Anthony giving me very clear, cool-headed directions.
Tempus Fugit
I still don't think any of us on the team were ever aware of just how little time left there was. Filming seemed to take long enough (time creeps when you're a kid and flies when you're not) and the lengthy pauses in the Green Room between rooms being filmed seemed to take forever.
Certainly, at the time, it felt like we travelled through plenty of rooms. I suppose the average for a full quest is around 25. With the short cut, at best we'd have had around 16.
At least two, possibly three rooms were cut, plus a couple of short sequences (such as casting our spell in the Corridor of Blades).
Plus, we still had to be introduced and equipped like any other team, and then the series ending takes up time too – though I did get an escape flight on Smirkenorff.
The real injustice was that Series 8 had only ten episodes. The previous two series also had seven teams each but spread over 15 episodes. Perhaps it's not surprising that it was tough to predict how long we might have or how much could be compressed.
Having to drop to last place in the filming schedule was just something else that conspired against us, but it couldn't be helped.
Why was Knightmare's final season cut short?
Either way, my team never had an unrestricted crack at the whip. But at least we got to play. It would hardly have been fair on a team of excited 12/13-year-olds to have come so far, only to be told, "Sorry kids, no deal. Safe home."
On the one hand, it is a shame that my team didn't get the chance to have a proper go. On the other hand, though we didn't win, we also didn't die. And I do at least get the unique achievement of being the final dungeoneer from the original series.
The number of suspicious eyebrows that gets from people when they first learn of it is uncanny!
30 years on
Looking back after 30 years seems to be a gravitational pull.
I fondly remember being at school when the final episode aired (my school had us work until 17:50 on Fridays!) and my history teacher allowing us all to watch it instead of the normal lesson.
And I seem to have been bitten by the Knightmare bug again. I'm working on a Knightmare D&D-lite board game for my nephew. I also make liberal use of many Knightmare sound effects for my D&D games, most notably the death bell when a PC dies (my players dread it).
But reuniting with Hugo again at FanX Live in October after all these years was a real delight, probably the highlight of my year.
Hugo was very generous with his time. He and I spent over an hour and a half chatting, reminiscing and just hanging out.
And hanging out with Treguard feels like a dream, all these years later.
