Even if it didn't have its own popular
Dungeon, London would still have plenty of connections to
Knightmare. In addition to countless
Watchers, six
teams hailed from there:
Team 5 of Series 4 (
Treguard's opinion: "Capital!")
Team 7 of Series 5
Team 2 of Series 6 (Treguard's opinion: "Ah, London. I'm not surprised, I don't suppose they have many adventures there.")
Team 3 of Series 7
Team 4 of Series 7
Team 2 of Series 8
There were many other hopefuls who auditioned in London, including those who became
Team 1 of Series 8, and Nicholas Lam, future webmaster of
knightmare.clara.net. These auditions took place in Anglia TV's Central London offices, within the 'Communications building' in Leicester Square. Some years earlier, in Spring 1991,
Tim Child had held London auditions for new Knightmare cast members, and it was at these auditions that
Mark Knight sowed the seeds for four
seasons of
Lord Fear. What's more, Mark Knight once worked at London's Museum Of the Moving Image, alongside Cliff
Barry.
According to The Quest,
Motley is a 'charming scoundrel from the back streets of Olde London Towne', though the novella section of
The Labyrinths Of Fear suggests that he merely spent time in London as a runaway. The gamebook section of that book mentions London too: at one point,
Mordred presents the player with a tart,
pie and pudding, informing them that 'London will burn down' before they succeed in telling him the odd one out. The correct answer relates to the Great
Fire of London (an event that takes place 4 centuries after the gamebook is set). The children in
The Forbidden Gate story are South Londoners. William in
The Dragon's Lair has been to the Natural History Museum in London, but when he sees a real-life
dragon, the museum's robotic dinosaurs pale in comparison.
London has maintained its Knightmare-related significance beyond the 1990s. In 2003, Knightmare RPG spin-off The Bigger Job was filmed in the London area. A year later in May,
Knightmare VR was launched in London: 'a live demonstration ... spanning a day and a half in front of invited guests from the UK TV industry.' (
Knightmare.com.) On a personal note, during a visit to the Tower of London in that same month, I heard music that I recognised as ambient music from
Series 4's
Crazed Heifer. The use of this music has since been confirmed in
TES Issue 49, and specified as being 'at one point along the Wall Walk'. Incidentally, the Tower of London was the answer to a Londonian question asked by
Snapper-Jack to Team 2 of Series 8.
Lexicon entries on a couple of other British towns,
Norwich and
Manchester, are available.
[Earlier versions: 2007-06-16 16:22:46, 2007-01-14 20:54:40, 2006-12-28 17:05:00, 2006-05-11 17:32:43]
Provided By:
David, 2012-12-11 18:42:47