Applying for the 1994 Crystal Maze Christmas Special

 Regular contributor Phil Newton-England emailed me over this yesterday, photos of an application form for the 1994 Crystal Maze Christmas Special, the last kids Christmas special that would be produced.

It's as you'd think it would be really, none of the questions are too unexpected. Starts off by saying to include a phot and that you have to be between 10 and 15.

Once it's past the basic personal info, it asks if you've applied for any of the previous specials. Good to show constant interest. Asks for your school details so they can clear letting anyone out of school to film. Bottom of page one asks about an interest in drama, I'd assume to help find the more expressive candidates.

Then they start trying to gauge a candidates abilities. The thing about the show, you don't want anyone who's going to breeze through any challenge placed in front of them. That's not interesting TV. If someone here said that they did the Daily Telegraph crossword on a daily basis, that's immediately putting them on the backfoot. 

It also asks for fears for a rather important reason. Crystal Maze is not Fort Boyard or I'm a Celebrity, it's not a show for exploiting fears as a means of challenging someone. For example, if someone here says they're claustrophobic, it's them saying "I won't be doing any tunnel crawling". It also asks if the applicant has been on any other TV shows. This could be to an applicants advantage as it means they'll be more familiar with the long process of TV production.

At the bottom it asks for a doctor to say the applicant is healthy, that'll be for the producers insurance. If something happened to someone with an underlying problem, things could get very expensive and litigious very quickly. 

 Next it mentions a parent will have to accompany you for two days of shooting. The first day has the bulk of filming, running through the game as you'd expect. Then day two is all the extra shots from varying angles. Close ups of a hand grabbing a crystal, that sort of thing. 

Then it asks for a personal statement, a bit I'd hate doing as I'm terrible at selling myself but necessarily in telling the casting people why you should one of the six on screen at Christmas. Then it asks you to name a moment from the show the applicant found memorable, seeing how much of a fan of the show they are. Page 3 finishes with a little riddle more akin to what Mumsey would have been asking.

Last page, measurements. Need to make sure if the applicant gets through, they have measurements for an outfit on file.

Thanks to Phil for sending this over. At the time I would only have been 7 so I had no chance. A couple of games in the special were designed by Phil himself. 

Phil can be found on Twitter at twitter.com/philnew98167545

And here's the successful applicants with Ed in 1994: