Live Experience plugged on Radio X

This morning, the old tablet I use as a radio alarm clock woke me up to the sound of Chris Moyles talking about visiting the Live Experience at its now month old venue in Piccadilly, London. He always spends the first half hour just chatting with his producers and newsreader and after an obligatory chat about Avengers: Endgame (Go see it, if you haven't yet, stop reading and just go. Don't let the internet have a chance to spoil it, go watch it now.) the topic came up about a visit to our favourite London attraction.

A good helping of the original end credits theme to set up a really good, enthusiastic chat about their visit to the LE yesterday afternoon. Chris, his producers James, Matt and Pippa and her other half/the 10am host on Radio X/Chris Tarrant's son Toby.

Matt, Toby, Chris, Pippa, James

Cheapshow podcast visited the new Live Experience venue/Cheapshow cheap plug

Last week, as my podcast subscriptions updated, one of them started off with a brief description of one of a visit to the Trocadero on opening day.
'Cheapshow', hosted by Gamesmaster alumnus Paul and his pet gremlin Eli, is an unusual mix of Bottom, The Price is Right and Bargain Hunt.
I won't get too far into what was said as I'd rather leave you to find it and listen yourself. Although I will say if you aren't a fan of adult humour, foul language or charity shops, then the economy comedy podcast 'Cheapshow' isn't for you. It's got 'Explicit' on it for a reason, one of those reasons being I was once listening on an overnight coach and the point my Bluetooth headphones decided to disconnect was the moment one of them started repeatedly shouting the one word you can't say on TV until after 10pm. So if you don't want to listen, I'll sum his experience up with 'teething problems'.

The Crystal Maze is possibly getting a US version

Before I say this, it must be taken with a wheelbarrow sized pinch of salt so prepare accordingly. An article popped up online today suggesting the possibility of a US version of everyone's favourite British game show devised by a Frenchman.

https://www.c21media.net/banijays-crystal-maze-leads-to-us/

For a bit of background, as I understand it, the ownership of the show is as follows:

TCM is produced by Fizz, which is owned by RDF Television, which itself is a subsidiary of Banijay Group after BG bought RDF's parent company Zodiak Media. I think this is how it goes, I may not be 100% accurate but I know the name above the door at the top of the pile is Banijay Group.

An American producer by the name of Bunim Murray Productions, which is also under the Banijay Group umbrella, is wanting to shop the format around to US broadcasters. BMP being the people who brought the world 'Surviving R Kelly' and some unknown thing called 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians', so TCM seems like something a bit different for them.

The Crystal Maze Fan Group - Get involved

As an administrator for The Crystal Maze Fan Blog / Fan Group - I am delighted that this blog is becoming such a success. We are getting a wide global readership with lots of people getting in touch with us to talk about the Maze. A few years ago, the Maze didn't even exist on Social Media, so it's nice that it has been brought up to date with the times. I absolutely love the show and it's always so fascinating to hear production and contestant stories, as well as the inspirations behind the various games. Next year The Crystal Maze reaches 30 years old, (as old as me!). I am so chuffed that three decades later, the show is still so popular. Please feel free to comment on any of our posts, or message us if you'd like to contribute towards an article, or even join our Crystal Maze Fan Facebook Messenger Group.

- Neil (Admin, Crystal Maze Fan Blog).

Interview with the games designer of the new West End Live Experience Maze - Charlie Wheeler

Designing games for the Crystal Maze must be a very rewarding process, and while Anna Kidd designs fantastic games for the new TV Series, today we interview Charlie Wheeler, who is only 22 years old and was not even born when the Crystal Maze originally aired. Yet the Maze still captivated him enough to design all 32 games in the brand new West End London Live Experience maze.

When did you start coming up with ideas for the West End Maze games? Did you design games for the previous experiences? How many have you devised?

I guess "to devise" is not really a singular task as so many elements make a Crystal Maze game a reality. The whole design and development process is quite huge and involves loads of people! The rough process of getting a game from start to finish began with the Crystal Maze directors, we would talk (about a year ago now) about ideas, often having an old favourite from the TV show or maybe someone might have seen something out and about and thought ‘that would make a cracking game!’, and from this the directors’ treatments would be created. Each treatment would be totally different: some just a sting of an idea or a sketch or for others much more of a solid vision for a game. This is where I joined the ‘production line’ as it were, attaching this idea to reality (and the space it would soon inhabit) and turning an idea or a brief into a full size digital 3D representation of how the game and room would turn out like, fully dressed and decorated and lit as it would turn out in the end. This - I guess fairly unique - prototyping method really helped everyone get a feel for just how immersive each idea could become. From me the designs were passed onto the production team or the games manufacturers to make the physical products. In terms of numbers, there were 32 games used but almost double that number designed.