Incredible Games. Remember The One With The 'Dark Knight' That Wasn't Batman, That One

In the early 90's, with the success of The Crystal Maze doing wonders for Channel 4, it was inevitable that others would jump on the adventure gameshow bandwagon. So I thought I'd make my next few Friday posts all about the shows that sprung up on TV that had a lot more imagination behind them than a simple process of standing at some podiums and answering questions.

The first show that sprung to mind was a childhood favourite of mine from CBBC, and the one that is normally the answer to "What was that kids game show I don't really remember?"

Take 3 kids and shove them in a lift that could take them to different games within a tower block, each with elaborate settings ranging from a giant soup bowl to a dungeon to a Victorian school classroom, and you've got yourself 'Incredible Games'.

'Incredible Games' was created by Stephen Leahy and Andrew O'Connor, who is now known as the producer behind Derren Brown's shows and was also a game show host in the 90's hosting 'Talk About' for ITV and 'Family Catchphrase' for The Family Channel (Now Challenge TV) amongst others. IG ran for two series and was hosted initially by the chromakeyed head of a youngish David Walliams. For the second series Gary Parker took over and everything was given an updated look, the lift now led into a corridor in the building rather than directly just into the game, there was a wider range of games used and there was a final game introduced rather than the team just aiming for a fixed points total.

Hair by Scratchy & Co

The first series went out on Sunday mornings on CBBC Two. Hosted by the aforementioned head and used only a small selection of large scale games, which were padded out with smaller games carried out from within the lift, such as identifying a celebrity on the security screen or identifying objects from some extreme close ups. 

Of the main large scale games, there was a game which involved cleaning oversized litter from the surface of the planet Susan, another which had them retrieving glowworms from a dungeon type environment whilst blindfolded, and then there was the Dark Knight. Not that one, this legally different one.

Tinky Winky in his pre-fame emo phase

It's always on seeing this bloke that people suddenly remember the show. The three contestants would take him on on a large grid, moving from square to square alternating moves between them and the Knight. The contestants would alternate their moves between advancing and sidestepping, while the Knight could only see the illuminated positions showing where they just were with the aim of catching them. The Knight was portrayed by Simon Shelton, who later donned the oversized purple garb of Tinky Winky for 'The Teletubbies', and was also the uncle of actress Emily Atack.

 After getting through those few games, the end game would always be a dive into a suspiciously clear bowl of soup. The kids would enter a regular looking kitchen, be shrunk down with some no-expense-used SFX and they'd be on a set with a giant bowl, giant branded food items and some giant fridge magnet letters to spell out enough 4 and 5 letter words to push their score beyond the 400 point threshold needed to win the game.

Series two saw a few changes, starting with its broadcast slot. It moved from Sunday mornings on CBBC Two to the much more viewed after school slot in the afternoon on CBBC One. For anyone outside of the UK, in the '90s CBBC wasn't its own channel, it was just a daily segment of either BBC One or BBC Two given over to children's programming. It was only with the advent of digital TV that CBBC became it's own channel instead of occupying 2-3 hours of the main BBC output each day.

Other series two changes saw a lot more games, one of which introduced the ghostly Victorian teacher Mr Branville Gravel and his gunge-squirting cane, who would ask questions and only accept the answer to the previous question. Whilst being similar to the Two Ronnies Mastermind sketch in what it was asking of the contestants, it didn't have the questions written to allow equally funny answers. It also introduced the basement, along the lines of a punishment for failing games such as the Dark Knight or Gravels questions.

Other new games in series two included the Reactor, which saw one of the team guide the other two in blindly passing balloons full of gunge around some obstacles, and the Crystal Cave, a team-based floor puzzle. The final game would be the Penthouse, where they would have to find four keys hidden in the penthouse to unlock their prize. However, the time limit to do this was dictated by their performance in their previous games (familiar idea).

It's a shame it only lasted two series, it was a fun show with some distinctive elements that stick in the mind, such as the Dark Knight.