From TES issue 19 (January 2003)

Series 1/2. Level 2.
CEDRIC

Knightmare's first monk was played by Lawrence Werber. He wore a traditional brown friar's costume and carried a hefty quarterstaff. Cedric's role in the Dungeon was as a level two guard, and his initial duties involved accosting dungeoneers as they entered level two and forcing them to challenge him to combat. This was achieved by a masterful combination of extreme rudeness and semi-disguised threats. ("You can challenge me, and exercise that pea they've given you for a brain, or else you and me can have a spot of quarterstaff practice. Only you don't get a staff!" - Cedric.) The traditional three riddles followed, then more rudeness and insults from the monk, regardless of how well the team had fared in the challenge. Having said that, Cedric's help was very important to the quest, and failure in his challenge could result in death later on, as the defenceless Claire of series 2 discovered when faced with a cavern wraith. A high score, however, could earn the team information, passwords or spells vital for the completion of level two, or even Cedric's personal services in the form of a short escort. In series 1, Danny used an ANVIL spell from Cedric to see off Gumboil, and later on Richard used the password Cyclops to escape the level, which had been told to him by Cedric after the monk's famous battle of insults with Folly. In series 2 (which was when Cedric was first called by name, incidentally, having been simply The Monk in series 1) Steven used Cedric's AVAUNT spell to get rid of a wraith. The monk accompanied both Mark and Jamie further into level two to save them from Gumboil and a toad-like monster respectively. Despite his rude and hard-faced appearance, series 2 did reveal a softer side to Cedric's nature. His joy at making friends with Mark, and his subsequent insurmountable fear of spiders, mark the whole range of emotions that the "mad monk" revealed to us. Series 2 also introduced a secondary role for Cedric, that of guarding exits and collecting passwords, just as Gumboil and Olaf usually did. It was in this capacity that Cedric claimed his only victim, Neil Payne. The team didn't have the password, but they should have been able to pass him by casting the spell SHOVEL, which the Dwarf gave them shortly before. The scene with Cedric and Neil in the wellway room is an absolute classic, as the advisors desperately try to spellcast SPADE over and over again. What led them to make this stupid mistake is beyond me, but that's entirely another story. After giving Neil plenty of time and chances to save himself, Cedric clonked Neil on the head, and he looked very happy about it: ("Ouch! Well, we always knew that Cedric would clobber someone sometime." - Treguard.) To summarise, then, Cedric was outwardly extremely rude and vulgar, and presented a serious challenge to the quest, which, if beaten, gave vital rewards.

Fear Factor: 8 Very intimidating and hard to befriend.
Killer Instinct: 7 Always threatening to kill, and allowed to do so by dimness.
Humour Rating: 6 We were supposed to laugh at him quite a bit, I think.
Oscar Standard: 7 Very rude and threatening, but somewhat one-dimensional.

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If the question is 'Has a member of the Knightmare Discussion Forum' ever named himself after Cedric?' then the answer is yes. Cedric the Mad Monk (username: Cedric) joined the forum in January 2003, and made all 29 of his posts to date in that month. He was, unsurprisingly, a fan of 'Cedric - as played wonderfully by Lawrence Werber in series 1 & 2.'

Two months later, a member with the username MethodGit joined the forum, adopting the screen name Cedric The Entertainer (though that is, in its own right, the stage name of an actor and comedian - more information here). He has made just a couple of posts to date.

[Previous version: 2007-12-20 18:36:58]

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This rude loudmouthed person is called Cedric. He appeared between series 1 and 2, and was usually the first person dungeoneers would meet when arriving in level 2. To get past Cedric, the dungeoneer would have to answer his 3 riddles.

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