One of the many '100 Greatest' programmes from Channel 4. As the title suggests, this one involved viewers selecting the 100 greatest kids TV shows.

Voting opened on both telephones and the Channel 4 website at the end of June 2001. 100 kids TV shows
were selected by Channel 4, and the public selected their 10 favourite ones. The reason this entry is here, though, is because of what lay at 47 in the alphabetical list - Knightmare. Ch4's description of the show was "Recent but famous Children's ITV fantasy game show adored by kids and populated by weird characters", which was interesting, as there were no less than 10 shows on the list which postdated Knightmare (Bob the Builder, Byker Grove, Maid Marian and her Merry Men, Pokémon, Press Gang, The Simpsons (discounting the Tracy Ullman shorts), SM:TV Live, Teletubbies, Tweenies, and Wallace and Gromit).

Voting closed after about a month, and the programme was shown at 8.30pm on the 27th August 2001. A running commentary was done on the Knightmare Forum as the show unfolded. Had Knightmare done well?

Yes it had! After Hong Kong Phooey, Knightmare appeared at number 16, making it the highest position on the list for a game show. Celebrity fan Iain Lee expressed his love of the programme, interspersed with clips of Series 1 Episode 1, before the programme moved onto Wallace and Gromit. Although only lasting about two minutes, that was still quite a bit more than other programmes on the list (like The Sooty Show), and, unlike some, there was no scathing criticism. Some wondered why CiTV presenter Tommy Boyd didn't say anything about the show, despite appearing earlier on in the programme.

Despite some saying that 16th place "wasn't good enough" and it should have gone top ten, Knightmare's appearance resulted in a huge visitor surge to Knightmare.com, the biggest ever. The pristine quality clips of Series 1 were a revelation to many, seeing as the only other ways to see it at the time were through low quality RealPlayer or multi-gen VHS. It was also the first time Knightmare had been seen on UK-wide terrestrial TV since 1994; clips were shown on a documentary celebrating 40 years of Anglia Television in 1999, but in that ITV region only.

After the programme finished, the 'final and definitive order of results' was posted on the Channel 4
website. Confusingly, this was significantly different to the list seen on TV, and Knightmare now appeared at 21st place. However, subsequent repeats of the programme have seen Knightmare keep its 16th place, as well as further visitor surges to Knightmare.com. In 2005 eight more shows were added to the list, including two other shows Hugo Myatt has appeared in, Chucklevision and Dick & Dom In Da Bungalow.

The Knightmare.com page on the programme is available here, which features a video clip of the Knightmare segment, pictures, the full list as transmitted, and a graph showing the original visitor surge.

login to vote