A baked food consisting of savoury or sweet ingredients encased in or topped with pastry.
Pies were placed in many a dungeoneer's knapsack during the early years of Knightmare - indeed, the first food item ever seen on the programme was a "meat pie" found by David on the Level 1 clue table.
< Team 3 of Series 1 found a lattice pie in the same clue room. When the last dungeoneer of the series picked up a similar prop (awkwardly placed beneath a catacombite), it fell apart and was never seen again.
> Team 1 of Series 2 identified this pastry item as a cake, but it might have been a pie. It can be so hard to tell the difference...
< Dungeoneer Claire (Team 2 of Series 2) inaccurately described this pie as an apple tart, despite the obvious presence of a top crust.
> A small pie was found in Level 1 by Team 4 of Series 2.

Team 5 of Series 2 found an unguarded pie as they arrived in Level 2. No doubt Cedric was less than pleased when he returned from the gents' to find that someone had nicked his lunch.
< Julian (Team 10 of Series 2) picked up a "meat pie" in the Level 1 clue room. A few rooms later, Mildread - in disguise as Gretel - tried to trick him into eating a poisonous "collywobble pie", which looked more like a suet pudding.

Team 12 of Series 2 took a pie from the Level 2 clue room.


When Treguard advised Team 5 of Series 3 to seek food in the kitchen, their dungeoneer spotted a pie from halfway across the room - a classic example of the Tilt Your Head Back technique! Team 11 of Series 3 also attempted to steal a pie from the kitchen, but were stopped by Motley, who explained that it had been left out for Grimwold the ogre.
> Team 12 of Series 3 found a pie among their Level 1 clue objects.

Pies were absent from Series 4, but made a comeback the following year when Team 3 of Series 5 found one on the clue table in Level 2. Team 4 also found a "pork pie" in Level 2, guarded by a Blocker, and a similar-looking food item was discovered on a barrel by Team 6. After Series 5, presumably Treguard got sick of the phone calls from Jamie Oliver, and pies disappeared from the dungeon menu in favour of healthier options.
However, perhaps the most infamous pie in Knightmare history is the one that featured in Series 8, replacing the walking skeleton (and its popular predecessor, the peeling skull) as the visual representation of the dungeoneer's life force sprite. It would appear in half-eaten form whenever the team picked up a food item, and restore itself to full pie status with a 'ping'. (The animation didn't even bother showing up when the last ever food item was collected, although the sound effect was still heard.) Unsurprisingly it was never used to illustrate death sequences, and was widely regarded as being a bit rubbish. This life force clock was the subject of passionate debate for a number of years, with fans unable to agree whether it was a pie, a cake or even a quiche, until Tim Child eventually confirmed "It was supposed to be pie".

Several of the Knightmare gamebooks include pies for restoring life force. In two of the three quests in Can You Beat The Challenge, a crusty pork pie can be found in the Level 1 clue room. In The Labyrinths of Fear, Treguard gifts the player a meat pie before they begin, and one is later used as a prop for a riddle by Mordred; it may either be won as a food item or shoved into his mouth while the dungeoneer makes their escape. A meat pie can be purchased from the village market in The Sorcerer’s Isle, or stolen from a troll's cottage in The Future King. The latter is edible but may get you into trouble, as it turns out to be made from human flesh!

Other pie-related Knightmare trivia:
~ Caei, one of the resident bots in Knightmare Chat, is known to be a fan of pie.
~ Forum user Canadanne answers to the name of Pie, shortened from Annie Pie.
~ KM actor Bill Cashmore played the Pieman of Shrewsbury in a 1996 Fist of Fun sketch.

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