11/11/2019

A Rare In-Depth Crystal Maze Interview With Ed Tudor-Pole


Second maze master Ed Tudor-Pole is usually reluctant to talk about his time on the show, preferring to talk about his music rather than his film and TV career. A few interviews I've read and listened to over the years have all featured mentions of The Crystal Maze being moved on from very quickly. One that particularly sticks out in my memory is the one from Demon FM from 2009 which features Ed's responses to a series of Crystal Maze questions being "You've got to bear in mind I did it for 5 weeks about 12 years ago and I've only seen one and a half episodes so I'm not an expert on it" and also "Frankly I wasn't sent to this world to present gameshows". 


To be fair, I can understand when your passion is music and it's something you've done for over 30 years and you constantly get asked about the same thing which happened so long ago which lasted all of a few weeks of their working career and you want to move on to the next new thing. The Crystal Maze has always been in the public eye since the ending of the original series thanks to the Challenge TV repeats and now the reboot. So since the end of Ed's tenure on the show in 1995, there's been many new fans to the show, that may not know his music background with Tenpole Tudor. I've always wished that just once he would give an in-depth chat about his time on the show.


Well, one day I stumbled upon one such interview on Soundcloud where Ed DID talk in detail about the show... and then it disappeared! Thankfully the interview has now resurfaced online, thanks to Carl Eggett for this great interview.

The Crystal Maze chat starts from 7:23


6 comments:

  1. oh my word! its Carl Eggett here THANKYOU for posting this!! yes Ed was a top man and a great interview i hope you guys Enjoyed it i would be more than up for talking about the experience with ed more if u are at all interested just throw me an email :)

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  2. Dan Gallagher1 May 2022 at 03:07

    I'm Dan. I was a massive fan of the original version of the show. I would personally say that Ed was a excellent replacement for Richard O'Brien for series 5 and 6 the last 2 series of the original version of the show. His celebratory cosmic handshake that he gave to contestants as congratulations when they won their games were absolute legend. It would have been nice if the original version of the show had carried on for a little bit longer and to see if he would have been as highly esteemed as Richard O'Brien.

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  3. Ed's banter with Paul Mann who was the team captain in episode 6 of series 6 was absolute legend. The best had to be before the final game of the episode in Ocean Raise the raft when before he entered the cell to play the game Ed said to Paul Now I'm not saying you are going to get wet and then after Paul came out after winning the game I'm like a water baby. I wouldn't be surprised if he mentioned aquaphobia in his application form for the show as 2 out of the 3 games that he played in the episode involved water and saw him get very wet.

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  4. Hello Carl!

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  5. Hi Carl it's Dan. I must state that Ed Tudor-Pole was very overlooked during his time as the presenter on the show because he had such a hard act to follow when he replaced the show's original presenter Richard O'Brien when he left the show after series 4 of the original version of the show. To be fair I must say that Ed wasn't a bad presenter of the show by any means but following such a legend as O'Brien was always going to be very difficult for him. He was mostly just learning the basics of presenting the show in series 5 and for the first half of series 6 but he was really coming well into his stride in the second half of series 6 as he was much more serious than he was before then. It was a shame that the original version of the show was cancelled after series 6 because Tudor-Pole was really coming well into his stride as the presenter of the show and he was going to get even better as the presenter if the original version of the show had continued after series 6. I hope you accept my comments and opinion about how I felt Ed Tudor-Pole was perceived during his time as the presenter of the show. Thank you Carl and look after yourself mate.

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  6. I meant to say I hope you accept my comments and opinion about Ed Tudor-Pole respectfully. Thank you Carl and look after yourself mate.

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