Telly Talk: Shiver me timbers!
Do you remember the kids’ show Knightmare? It had a team of four, three of whom stayed with the dungeon master and used their clever noggins while the fourth put on the ‘helmet of justice’, rendering him or her blind, and went forward into the realm of the green screen with goblins, princesses and wizards scattering clues in their wake like Smarties out of the bottom of a half-chewed bumper tube. It was epic. And ran for eight seasons, drawing to a close in 1994. This year Knightmare will be found at the Edinburgh Fringe giving everyone who always wanted to get closer the chance, and tickets are selling fast, proving that all the best game shows are the ones aimed at kids.
It may be a sweeping statement, but if it’s too complicated, too boring or takes too long then the kids will just lose interest. It’s brutal but fair. So if you’ve got a new game show set with pirates, a pirate ship to clamber about and jewels to re-capture while ducking the “naughty pirates” and their self-appointed pirate queen, you’re onto a winner already. Welcome on board the good ship Swashbuckle.
“There is no greater endorsement than the bunny hops of unrepressed excitement”
With players and live studio audience around the six- to seven-year-old mark, there is no greater endorsement than the bunny hops of unrepressed excitement demonstrated. Deal Or No Deal could definitely benefit from such raw enthusiasm. Actually, one of the great things about Swashbuckle is the fact that there are no prizes apart from kudos for winning – which the four players do by working together against the “naughty pirates” – and the opportunity to see one of the defeated pirates walk the plank at the end and into the slop. That’s enough. That’s more than enough. That’s plenty and seems to deliver as much excitement as a family size of jelly tots consumed in a single sitting. In these times of belt-tightening the last thing we need our ex-tots and tweens-in-waiting doing is watching something that delivers more things to covet that they just don’t need. Instead, having them all work together, cunningly introducing orienteering, balance, and strategy, while climbing and excitedly bunny hopping in the wings, seems just the ticket.
Knightmare was aimed for a slightly older child audience than Swashbuckle, but that doesn’t mean this hasn’t got a chance at its own devoted legacy.
Just ask the generation who still want more than anything the opportunity to dive headfirst into the madness that was Fun House. Or the older lot who still grin at the thought of Tiswas’ Phantom Flan Flinger. The opportunity for interactivity gets those small butts off the sofa and running around doing things, even if it is asking you to help them write to apply to have a go on that fabulous climbing ship themselves. I mean, who could resist a ship that you disembark via a slide?
Swashbuckle, CBeebies, Saturday 6 July
