So we got a rather excitable e-mail this morning from one of our French chums, Cosser, and they’ve found an advert for a contestant call for Les Cles de Fort Boyard. Interesting so far, but who is that bald guy in the mustard shirt watching the team? Did they use footage from the English pilot? We know the Fort wasn’t fully converted for a full series when they went to film, but they’d have certainly have had something as a proof of concept.
It is literally blink and you’ll miss it but you can watch it all here, skip forward to 9:10.
Evidently this is the show in the very early stages, the tigers are there but those aren’t the cages they’ve been using for television, and whilst the first series of the show had a different treasure room (involving 18 treasure chests) that looks to just be a large rock, and evidently people can run in and out as they please (not possible in the original).
Very interesting.
Edit:
@BothersBar This took some precision pausing: pic.twitter.com/V0f2J9X2DH
— CJJC (@cjjc) August 11, 2015
I know he’s spoken about the French show in a way that suggests he had seen it (and didn’t approve), but I didn’t think they did a pilot for the UK – going straight to the maze instead. I’ll use technology to look at this later and see if I can make him out.
No need, someone has already done so and it is definitely him, so I guess they did film some English language stuff after all.
They definitely went over there, there’s quite a funny story about the UK TV people sneakily attempting to put the Union Jack on its flagpole, I’m deffo interested to see if they filmed that bit on Fort Boyard or in a studio somewhere.
I just want to see anything pre-sears one of The Crystal Maze in terms of pilots, bits filmed on the Fort I’d be fascinated. With the Live Experience due to open later this year. I feel a documentary is due about The Crystal Maze.
The lighting looks it’s more of a studio than on the Fort, but wouldn’t be surprised to be wrong.
Great stuff, always wondered about this. Fascinating find.
Incidentally, it was twenty years ago yesterday the show ended. There’s something to make you feel old.
More here: http://www.robcrusade.com/articles/adhoc.html
“I was supposed to do The Keys to Fort Boyard, that was the show I was supposed to do. I did a pilot for the French and English of the Keys to Fort Boyard, and Channel Four went, yes, we’ll take it”
Don’t know what he means by did a pilot for the French and English whether it was one pilot or he did one in French and English I’ve no idea. But the idea that somewhere exists Richard O’Brien’s Fort Boyard is exciting and I just hope someone can do enough digging around to find it/
There’s a bit more about it here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/to-the-crystal-dome
They don’t mention the pilot anywhere here, though there is a lot of talk about going to and from France, and he uses the exact same souffle metaphor in both pieces.
Worth pointing out that the first series of (Les Cles De) Fort Boyard was rather different to the 25 that have followed it (no fear factor, for example), but there some other quite interesting questions to answer, who would have been their Wise Old Man/Guardian of the Keys? I had always assumed that Mumsey came about as a sort of direct alternate to Father/Pere Fouras, but recent interviews suggest that the Fortune Teller was intended as a one series deal until Richard accidentally on purpose started referring to her as his Mum and it really stuck, and it sort of happened that they have basically the same role.
There was also supposed to be one resident person per zone.
I always thought it was a shame they didn’t replace the Mumsey role in the Ed Tudor-Pole ara of the maze perhaps not in the same zone but a character for Ed Tudor-Pole to interact with and to add a bit more depth. Perhaps they felt Tudor-Pole’s Maze Master portrayal was very much one of a loner however.