The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze - An Experts Account, Photos and Mid 90's Cosplay

From the desktop of Phil Newton England, original series games designer:

Now I’m sure most of you reading this will have, at some point, visited the London or Manchester Crystal Maze Live Experiences. But did you know that back in the early ’90s there were actually 6 interactive Crystal Maze venues around - not just 4 in the UK, but also 1 in Japan & 1 in Dubai!

More Names For Part Two of This Years Series

I've already covered a multitude of names after picking apart a trailer the social media team put up but thanks to a tiny little slip by whoever manages the Youtube channel, a thumbnail for a future show has shown us a couple of names to add to the list.

On the left, we can see former Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United and Manchester United player Michael Owen. The man who scored THAT goal against Argentina in 1998. Alongside him is Kimberly Wyatt, the second former Pussycat Doll to take on the challenge after Ashley Roberts last year. In the middle is someone who I have no idea about but I'm going to take a wild swing at him being from a reality show, probably Love Island. (Thanks to Danker1990, it's Kem from Love Island) Bringing up the rear are two names we've already established: Radio 1 DJ (who always sounds surprised with himself) Matt Edmondson and finally the lovely Debbie McGee. Not my word, simply the often-repeated line by her late husband, magic icon Paul Daniels.

Meet Next Week's (26th July) Celebrity Crystal Maze Contestants

Alas, it's that time again, next week sees the last in the current run of The Crystal Maze before it takes a break. Fear not however as it's not the end of this year's series, it will be back later in the Autumn and again at Christmas. If you struggle between now and then, there's always TCM's sister show Fort Boyard. So for now, let's meet 5 more faces you probably can't place.

Aztec floor plan - this series game cells (2019)

Our blog member Phil has been busy drawing up this year's games held within the sunny Aztec Zone.

Did You Know You Can Watch French Fort Boyard For Free Online And Not In A Piratey Way?

Well, you do now.

EDIT: Seems they've made more recent content private, but there's still plenty available on YouTube

In the last few weeks, following on from the post which featured a clip of Richard O'Brien hosting the British pilot episode of Fort Boyard, I've found myself watching the full French episodes of the newest series on YouTube, and it's only just hit me that I was doing so on the official Fort Boyard YouTube page. As such I wasn't watching something that a fan had uploaded to share with the world, I was watching it because the production company was letting me.

Floor Plans of Eastern Zone and Futuristic Zone - 2019 series

Thanks to our very own blog member Phil, he has created these hand-drawn plans of the brand new Eastern Zone, as well as Futuristic and the games that appear within them. Phil designed a few games for the original 90s series. Top work Phil!

Possible Hosts for Nickelodeon's Crystal Maze, From Someone Who Hasn't Watched Nickelodeon in Well Over 15 Years

There's going to be more than a hint of guesswork here as I haven't actively watched Nickelodeon in the UK in a very, very long time. I've no idea who's a current presenter on 99% of the UK network, never mind the US channel making the show, so I apologize beforehand for being ill-informed and just generally wrong and old.

Meet Next Week's (19th July) Celebrity Crystal Maze Contestants

It seems tonights choice of contestant, naming no names, has been a sore topic online. Hasn't so much been a kick of a hornets' nest as it has been a good, hard, wet towel flick to a raging bulls danglers. However it's over, done with and out the way. 

Moving on, here's next weeks intrepid interlopers.

Melvin Odoom (Captain)

Currently heard on BBC Radio 1's 9-11pm show Mondays through to Thursdays alongside Rickie Haywood-Williams and Charlie Hedges, the trio having worked together on the Kiss FM breakfast show previously. However to those of a certain age/immaturity level, he'd be more recognizable as a regular on mid-00's BBC Saturday morning show Dick and Dom in da Bungalow, joking and dancing his way through various sequences usually whilst covered in a variety of... everything.

Are you in the market for a new puzzle book whilst you jet off for the summer?

Friend of the blog, previous interviewee and live experience game designer Charlie Wheeler has added puzzle book writer to his CV.

It's Not 'Mumsie', It's 'Mumsey' ( I'm Looking At You @CrystalMazeHQ )

I don't usually intend on going all grammar nazi during my day to day activities, although I'd consider this closer to the level of spelling community support officer.

Allow me to share with you a little ditty from Series 3 Episode 9, with Richard O'Brien tinkling the Medieval ivories (anyone points out the anachronism, I'm going after your spelling, somehow)

Meet Next Week's (12th July) Celebrity Crystal Maze Contestants

It's Friday again, which means tonight it's another episode of that game show we have always gone on about (and always will). Next week, I'd say it's some faces which are slightly more obscure than normal that you may not have seen before, so here they are in the regular comment and clip form.

Sunetra Sarker

Starting as an actress in her teens on the Channel 4 soap 'Brookside', Sarker has appeared in numerous shows since her TV debut in 1988. Counting dramas such as 'Casualty' and 'Ackley Bridge' amongst her credits, Sarker has also, like many celebrities seem to have done now, taken part in 'Strictly Come Dancing' doing so in 2014.

Fort Boyard PS4 released in UK tomorrow!

After a slight delay, Fort Boyard for Playstation 4 will be released in the UK tomorrow, Friday 5th July 2019. This is the closest to The Crystal Maze on the Playstation we will get yet. (Here's hoping for that one day). The game is already available to order on Amazon UK right now. My copy is arriving tomorrow. Very excited to see TCMs sister show on the Playstation for the first time ever.

Two Tiny Issues With The Show So Far

I'm going to preface this by saying "Yes, we were involved in testing, but we didn't test this game so couldn't raise any issue at the time". Now that little disclaimer is out the way, onto my main first point.

So far, I'm loving the new games. I love the look of them, I love the details behind some of them, a good example being the cause and effect mechanical crystal release for the Aztec wobble board game. However, there's something niggling at me in regards to the Eastern Ying Yang game.

Who Are Next Week's (5th July) Celebrity Crystal Maze Contestants?

Another week passes, another Friday is upon us which means tonight at 8PM on Channel 4, the five celebs I covered last week have their turn on the games in the maze. That also means that next week is the turn of five more celebs of whom you may or may not be aware of, so here's a quick introduction for you to peruse between now and then.

Nancy Sorrell

Whilst she may be mostly known as the wife of Vic Reeves (more on him in a minute), Nancy has had a career in her own right. Starting as a model for high street fashion brands, she's been a TV presenter and appeared on such celebrity based shows as 'Hole in the Wall' and 'Celebrity Antiques Roadtrip'.

Fort Boyards 30th Anniversary Celebration Reveals Some Interesting Richard O'Brien Footage

 Up until now, we'd only ever seen two seconds of the back of Richard's head, so we knew it existed but it hadn't been seen online in any longer form. However last night, as part of the start of the new series of Fort Boyard in France, footage of the UK pilot appeared.

 The UK was the first country to buy the format after seeing the French pilot episode, then titled 'The Keys to Fort Boyard'. Chatsworth Television decided to devise a British version. A non-televised pilot of the British version was filmed with Richard O'Brien as presenter. However, it soon became clear the fort would not available for filming due to its renovations during 1989.

Who Are Next Week's (28th June) Celebrity Crystal Maze Contestants?

So it has begun, and I think we can all agree she was loud wasn't she. However in under a week, a new team of five famous faces enter the maze. For the uninitiated, let's meet them.

Anita Rani

Rani has been the presenter of a number of shows since the late 00's ranging from 'Cricket AM' on Sky Sports through to long-running consumer advice show 'Watchdog'. She can currently be seen as one of the hosts of another long-running show, 'Countryfile' which covers a range of rural and environmental topics.

An Interview with Executive Producer of The Crystal Maze, Neale Simpson!

Earlier this year, myself & team superfans were once again invited to take part in helping The Crystal Maze as Games Testers.

This time round, we had a more intense experience as Camera Blocking was taking place, so this meant all the cameras were cranking & rolling, and we were doing all the new entry methods into the maze for Aztec, Industrial & Future.

We also got to hang out briefly in the new zone, Eastern, and bumped into James Dillon who designed this wonderful masterpiece of a zone. Whilst we did not get to play any of the games in Eastern, we had a full day (9 Hours!) inside the wonderful world of the Crystal Maze.

Following our 9 hour marathon of gaming the maze, we went home almost euphoric and feeling like we left a dream state. We had a lot of questions, and Executive Producer Neale Simpson was kind enough to go through the interrogation we lined up for him.

Neale, firstly please let me re-iterate the thanks from all of us on Team Superfans and The Crystal Maze Fansite Blog for allowing us to enter the Maze again this year, and for your time in answering our questions about the 3^rd season of filming!

An absolute pleasure on all fronts!

Tomorrow, 8PM, Channel 4. Let's meet the celebrity contestants.

1 day to go so, for those unfamiliar with the names, let's introduce tomorrows celebs:

Gemma Collins

Featured on reality show 'The Only Way Is Essex' (and I'm using 'reality' in it's loosest form), self-confessed diva (Professionally self centered) Gemma has featured in such celebrity shows as 'Dancing on Ice' and was briefly on a series of 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here'. Pondered for a while for what clip to use but this one won the day.

Win a Crystal Competition

It looks like the Crystal Maze Social Media team are going to be running their annual 'win a Series Crystal' competition again on social media. Keep your eyes peeled on their Facebook page.

For competition rules, visit: https://m.facebook.com/notes/the-crystal-maze-tv/the-crystal-maze-online-competition-2019-rules-ep1/2343793565865973/

2 Days To Go, Another Day, Another Video On Social Media, More Celebrity Names

Another video has been put out by the lovely people in charge of marketing the show on social media and this one shows a lot more faces than has so far been named ahead of the showing of the first 6 episodes. Names I recognized include:

• Richard Blackwood (Actor)
• Nick Helm (Comedian)
• John Thompson (Actor/Comedian)

3 Days To Go, New Games, Including Knightmare meets Tron

Here's today's offering as we close in on Friday. A couple of clips, first a montage taken from Facebook showing a few new games, then secondly a look at our favourite game we've seen thus far.

4 Days To Go. First America, Now Let's Conquer The World #bringcrystalmazetoindia

I thought I'd be racking my brains all day to come up with something for today by 8PM, but today's post dropped into my lap. Well strictly speaking it dropped into the blog Twitter. I keep vigilant on Twitter looking for Crystal Maze discussion and one thing that crops up a lot is people around the world, particularly in India and the Middle East, having 90's memories often accompanied by a gif of Richard O'Brien. It turns out there are so many people who have fond memories of the original show who are completely unaware it's made a return.

It's already showing in Australia on SBS, but let's see if we can get it somewhere else.

Launch Week, What's Coming Up?

With under 5 days left until UK broadcast, we're a bit eager for Friday to hurry up and come round. Not least because it's been a long wait to see the new series on screen, but because after broadcast we'll have an exclusive interview with executive producer, and author of the series tie-in book 'The Crystal Maze Challenge, Let The Games Begin!', Neale Simpson here for your reading pleasure.

But not a moment before, can't be having spoilers now can we?

New Games Trailer

With a week to go before the new series starts, a trailer has been released showing off some of the new games and Eastern zone. Now we can finally show off some of (games designer) Anna Kidd's marvelous creations.

5 More Shows Worth of Crystal Maze Celebrity Teams

Thanks to chortle.co.uk we now have a lot more names for this summers series. As well as those already named for the 1st episode on the 21st, aiming to win money for Stand Up 2 Cancer will be:

• Anita Rani (Captain) - Presenter
• AJ Pritchard - Dancer
• Tom Rosenthal - Actor/Comedian "Friday Night Dinner"
• Hannah Cockcroft - Wheelchair Racer
• Jeff Stelling - 'Unbelievable' Football Host

Casting Info for Nickelodeon's 'The Crystal Maze'

Casting has started for the US version and we've got the following info from it:

• There will be a "Huge Cash Prize"
• They are asking for families of five, including at least two kids age 9-13 (could well stick to the UK format, two games each)
• Everyone needs a valid passport valid in August 2019
• Casting closes on the 5th of July.
• Applications can be made at kidscasting.com

Celebrity Names For Episode One, Maybe

I've been trawling the vast expanses of the information superhighway to try and find more names to sit alongside Gemma Collins (I will never say 'The GC'. I'm a grown-up... physically), James Argent and Sir Chris Hoy, and I may have found a snippet of info as to the line up for the first episode.

Realitytitbit.com is reporting that Collins and Argent will be on the first episode alongside:


'Impossible' host Rick Edwards,

'The Mash Report' comedian Ellie Taylor

and Channel 4 legend Carol Vorderman.

The Crystal Maze Fan Blog can now be followed on Twitter

Are you an avid reader of our but you never know when we've posted something new. Well we'll take the blame for that but not anymore as we can now be followed on Twitter @maze_blog

New posts, relevant links and general maze musings will all be on there.

And for anyone wondering, we're 90% certain the new series starts June 21st at 9pm on Channel 4.

EDIT: no sooner than half an hour after posting, Channel 4 confirmed that is indeed the date and time. It's going to be a long two weeks, look for celebrity names coming soon.

CORRECTION: 8PM! It's 8PM, not 9

Nickelodeon Producing The Crystal Maze: How Well Could It Go?

Right, we got a couple of posts out to catch the tide of TCM news, and there's plenty of that about now. So let's just have a calm consideration of what this new series could be like.

The Crystal Maze gets an International Version - USA Edition confirmed!

Today we have received huge Crystal Maze news...(again). Nearly thirty years after its inception, The Crystal Maze will finally be exported transatlantic to the United States. Rightly it deserves so, credited as one of the original forerunners of the Escape Room phenomenon we are witnessing today. It is such an exciting time to be a Crystal Maze fan at the moment. A new Zone, (Eastern), and now fittingly at the same time, the show goes West. Finally it earns an International Version.

America: Nickelodeon greenlights The Crystal Maze

Well this is exciting, isn't it? Following on from our blog in April where there was rumours of a US version, it seems those rumours have become reality. Bunim Murray Productions have had the green light from Nickelodeon to make a US series of 'The Crystal Maze'

As can be read here, 10 one hour episodes are set to go into production using the set at the Bottleyard, Bristol as we predicted. It's going to be family teams so expect communication breakdowns and parental embarrassment.

Celebrity Names For The New Series (to be updated)

Whilst nobody has been confirmed by Channel 4, we do have a few names that have managed to slip the secrecy net online.

Gemma Collins and James Argent: These stars of The Only Way Is Essex let slip their involvement on social media

Fort Boyard on the Nintendo Switch and PS4

The Crystal Maze would not be without its sister show, known as "Fort Boyard".

Fort Boyard had a brief airing in the UK but did not take as well to our culture, as both Channel 5 and Challenge TV commissioned runs.

Crystal Maze Sketches/Parodies Extra Extra (I need to learn to remember all of these at once)

In Britain, we love a panel show. Any excuse to cram a load of comedians and presenters on screen so they can all bounce off one another and have a joke about life, events, and everything in between. Since 2004, Channel 4 has marked the end of every year with 'The Big Fat Quiz of the Year' hosted by Jimmy Carr.

There have been a few spinoff versions over the years, BFG of the 80's/90's/00's, BFG of Everything but the one in question was the Big Fat Anniversary Quiz celebrating 25 years of Channel 4. With future mazemaster Richard Ayoade partnered with David Mitchell, after a couple of hours of questions covering everything from Oliver Reed getting lecherous to Shaun Ryder getting TFI Friday in more trouble than anyone had ever been in on the network, the BFAQ ended with a Crystal Maze clip, question and budget dome. It's a loose fit for "Sketch/Parody" but I'm counting it just based on the dome.

The Crystal Maze New Zone

Following on from the huge official announcement that The Crystal Maze is to get a brand new zone for the first time since Ocean Zone replaced Industrial, we've made some mock-up graphics of what the new map and Eastern Zone logo may look like. This is a prime opportunity for the producers to update the graphic map and make it feel a bit more classic. But let's not get our hopes up. However the new zone is truly breathtaking (We've been around the new zone, but are not allowed to say anything more than that right now!). It's an opportunity for a colourful new zone, moving away from the dark and dinginess of Medieval. This will keep the show fresh, and we will also get to see newly themed games. James Dillion, production designer of the original Maze has brought us the new Eastern Zone. Amazing work.

The (Maneki Neko) Cat is out of the Bag

A press release went out and the Radio Times reported it today so we can finally say:

There's a new zone

Thank Thor for that, I hate keeping secrets. Anyway, I was midway through typing up another Sketch/Parody post when it came to my attention that the Radio Times website had let loose the news we discovered in March that Medieval is no more and the castle has been replaced with an Eastern palace.

Richard Ayoade in the new zone with a new suit

Crystal Maze Parodies/Sketches Extra (Another Video)

The bane of many a schoolteacher having to deal with their kids shouting 'Bogies', Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow was a weekend morning show (Two hours on a Saturday, one on a Sunday) that had kid contestants playing daft games throughout the mornings. Examples of such games saw them having to stick toast to themselves with chocolate spread, betting on who would win a race between a group of crawling one-year-olds, and spending points on forfeits for their friends, one of which saw a girl wearing a large gutted fish on her head. The finale of the Saturday show was always an overblown excuse for everyone to throw custard at each other to the sound of 'Ace of Spades' by Motorhead, often punctuated by a bucket of the yellow stuff slipping from one kid's hands to crack another in the head. For the last series, they made this segment into a game show parody which culminated in a muck-muck fight. 'Bullseye' was reincarnated as 'Bullsmuck' complete with original co-host Tony Green calling the scores, 'Strike It Lucky' became 'Strike It Mucky', and The Crystal Maze became...

TV Choice Awards Voting

Throughout the year TV awards from different groups come and go, and the longlist for the TV Choice Awards features our favourite game show in the Best Entertainment category. So if you get a spare 3 minutes, feel free to go onto the TV Choice site, vote for whatever you like in the other categories but when you get to the Best Entertainment grouping, save your click/tap for The Crystal Maze.

https://awards.tvchoicemagazine.co.uk/vote-here

Crystal Maze Parodies/Sketches (Video-heavy Post)

In 1992 Kurt Cobain, of the grunge group Nirvana, said that he felt like the band had finally made it after 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was the basis for a parody by Weird Al Yankovic. Comedic tributes for things don't happen out of malice, they happen because the subject involved is highly ingrained in the public consciousness. Over the years there's been a few tributes to TCM featured on TV, so for those that haven't seen them (I'd guess mostly through age or these shows not being shown wherever you may be reading), here's a few.


The Mary Whitehouse Experience

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