The TV channel Challenge began showing repeats of Knightmare in December 2002 for its Cult Selection season. A short documentary was shown ahead of the first episodes.
Challenge began showing Series 3 of Knightmare on 23 December 2002 as part of its Christmas Cult Selection.
Like the other shows in the selection, each episode in the Cult Selection season was preceded by a short documentary.
The Knightmare documentary featured contributions from Tim Child and Hugo Myatt.
DownloadWatch a clip (9.64MB)
The Challenge Documentary (2002)
Voiceover: "ITV's pioneering virtual reality adventure Knightmare has a special place in the hearts of children born in the late 70s. The name might not ring any bells, but mention a terrified kid with a bucket on his head, and suddenly you're back behind the sofa."
Tim Child: "The kids were really the stars. The great games-playing age is in that last few months when raging hormones are just about kicking in, but they're not quite there."
Give me games players of that age with the ability to communicate with each other, and you'll always get a great game.
Tim Child: "It sort of started in the mid-1980s. My eldest sister at the time was a sidekick for Clive Sinclair, who invented home computers and things like that. So the idea of taking the idea of a computer game - an interactive computer game - and operating it in a television scenario and playing it live in a television studio came about."
"If they tilted their heads far enough back, they could see the clue tables across the room. When they did that, they were told that the blindfold would go on underneath if they didn't behave themselves."
Hugo Myatt: "Once you got into the game, there were no retakes, and that, I think, is one of the reasons it has this feeling it's on the edge. I mean, you do sit on the edge of your seat, you get so involved. Their decision-making was incredible."
Tim Child: "The adventure is their adventure to play. Its not just a series of hurdles that they have to go through. We went out of our way to make it a serious challenge."
This was a major experience being away from home by some youngsters of 11 years old, staying in hotels for the first time, in a large studio full of wizards, monsters and goodness knows what else. It's quite amazing how well they stood up to it really.
Voiceover: "Knightmare was tough, but these kids already had a sense of where they were going in life. Out of 70 teams, only eight completed the game.
"Dealing with fools and maniacs, teamwork and stress, leading to eventual failure and offhand dismissal, were adult lessons learnt at a tender age.
"And where are these bright kids now? Well, you're probably working for them."
More on Challenge
Challenge produced additional trailers for Knightmare in 2003, which can be found below.
DownloadTrailer for Knightmare (Spring 2003) (494.19kB)
DownloadTrailer for Knightmare (Summer 2003) (2.09MB)
DownloadKnightmare ratings Jan-June 2003 (9.91kB)
