A room in Knightmare Castle from which Treguard, Pickle and Majida would greet the Watchers and the Knightmare contestants and would view the progress of the dungeoneer, alongside the three advisors. The prefix ante- means before, and hints at the role of the room, as the place in which teams arrived and from which the dungeoneers were sent into the Dungeon.
One crucial feature of the antechamber was that it lacked a fourth wall, or rather, had an extremely breakable one. It was, in reality, a studio set located close to the chromakey room in which Dungeon encounters would take place.
The design of the antechamber changed over the course of the eight series. Treguard often conducted two-way communications with Dungeon dwellers from the antechamber, including Lord Fear. It was visited in person by Merlin and Hordriss, and once by a troll. Unexpectedly, it received an array of Christmas decorations at the end of Series 4, courtesy of Merlin - possibly a cry for help by the wizard as he plummeted into the depths of senility.

The word "antechamber" was only heard occasionally on Knightmare. One notable mention came during the quest of Team 7 of Series 7, when Lord Fear was heard discussing his plan to attack the castle.

In the gamebook sections of the Knightmare books, the antechamber is referred to as the Great Hall of Knightmare Castle, even though its on-screen appearance does not suggest a grandiose room.

Many of Knightmare's publicity photos were taken on the antechamber set, including this one, published in Issue 37 of Look In magazine (14/09/1991).


In 2013, Knightmare floor manager Tom Hunt explained that the antechamber was almost the setting for real danger, when 'we left Treguard's fire burning when the safety asbestos had been forgotten, but thankfully, quick action stopped a blaze in the studio.'

A CGI rendering of the original antechamber design was reportedly created by David Rowe for the 2013 YouTube Geek Week episode of Knightmare. It is thought to be this design that was used as a video background for his 2013-14 Art of Knightmare crowdfunding campaign.

[Highest image courtesy of Rex Features. Lowest image provided by Jamie Hall.

Earlier versions of this entry provided on: 2007-12-12 00:17:44, 2007-01-21 19:13:57, 2006-07-31 19:05:44, 2004-11-03 23:44:53]

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