Greatly popular and innovative musician (1947-2016), born David Jones, who also achieved success as an actor and music producer. With Knightmare also renowned for its groundbreaking vision and cult status, it should be little surprise that there are connections, albeit indirect, between the two.

When Bowie appeared in 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth, playing Jareth the Goblin King, his influential performance seemingly sowed the seed for a misunderstanding on Knightmare two years later. When Merlin asked Team 7 of Series 2 what monster Theseus encountered in the labyrinth, they answered not "the Minotaur" (of King Minos' mystical labyrinth), but "the Goblin King". Merlin, who was evidently more into Greek mythology than '80s movies - and in fairness, it is a difficult choice - rejected the team's answer as falsehood.

Years later, during the filming of Knightmare RPG Season 5, the participants, including Emii (Kully), watched Labyrinth together. Emii, whose old website The Crystal Labyrinth was apparently inspired by the film, would later write of the RPG group that 'everyone likes Labyrinth a little bit more than they should at our age'.

The music of David Bowie has also proved to be an inspiration among Knightmare fans. The lyrics of two of his songs, Changes and Space Oddity, have been reworked as Knightmare filks and can be read on the Knightmare.com Forum. The lyrics of another of Bowie's songs, Life on Mars?, formed the basis of a magical vision experienced by Knightmare Roleplay characters Young Grimwold and Zyssa on the KMRP Forum in 2010/2011.

A number of Bowie's other tracks have titles that evoke Knightmare and dungeoneering, including Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), Heroes, It Ain't Easy, Friday On My Mind (cover version), Subterraneans, Underground, Fantastic Voyage, It's No Game, Strangers When We Meet, Fly, Too Dizzy (for dungeoneers who stumbled on the spindizzy), Slow Burn (for selected bomb room fuses), Shadow Man (for assassins), Magic Dance (for McGrew, Leo and Skarkill), Blackout (for Team 12 of Series 2), Quicksand (for Team 1 of Series 3), Starman (for Team 3 of Series 3), Jump They Say (for Team 9 of Series 3), Chilly Down (for Team 4 of Series 5), Brilliant Adventure and Win.

According to some sources, David Bowie's name comes from a type of knife, a trait shared by Knightmare character Stiletta (the Bowie knife and stiletto respectively).

In 2012 on Twitter, Bowie's son Duncan Jones responded to a tweet saying, 'I bet you was on Knightmare' with the admission that he 'DREAMED of being on that show! :)' This raises the exciting possibility that David Bowie watched Knightmare himself.

In 2016, Duncan Jones was a guest on The Nerdist podcast (Episode 808). During a discussion about the history of gaming and interactive television, Duncan recalled Knightmare but not its name:

"There was a British gameshow for kids [with] a dungeonmaster type character ... the kids would put on this helmet [so] that they couldn't see ... and then someone ... on the side would basically tell them which direction to walk."

Off-mic comments wrongly identified the programme as "Master of the Maze". (A mid-1990s US children's gameshow called Masters of the Maze included a round in which a blindfolded contestant was guided through a maze by a teammate.)

In 2018, Duncan made a series of tweets in relation to the film Ready Player One. The first of these tweets was retweeted over 50 times and liked over 640 times.

Real Player Ones got NOTHING on Knightmare!

I have not seen RP1. I am looking forward to it. This was a joke tweet made because Knightmare was a daft tv show from many years ago with its own version of VR...

I am not saying that Knightmare was “daft” as a pejorative. I loved the show. Remember it affectionately, to be more precise.

In 2015, Knightmare illustrator David Rowe revealed that he 'once had a discussion with David Bowie while he changed in his bedroom for a gig. [My wife] and I were going to paint a mural in his apartment in Beckenham. The mural didn't happen.' He later elaborated that David Bowie 'was off to a club called Implosions for the gig. He and his girlfriend Angie shared the place with Tony Visconti ... Bowie did duets with [my wife]'s brother ... in the Three Tuns in Beckenham, so we got an intro.'

[Earlier version: 2012-08-23 17:41:25]

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