The Adventure Game

Inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy', and the BBC microcomputer, 'The Adventure Game' was a particularly charming piece of children's television. Watching it now on DVD, a number of things strike you: how well-spoken everybody is, how the male contenstants casually patronise the female ones, and the preposterousness of inviting the presenter of 'Play School' to solve logic problems based on recongising Tschiakovsky's '1812 Overture' or the title of Lawrence of Arabia's book 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom'. Also that it's a strange example of reality T.V., with scripted aliens interacting with mostly genuine contenstants; and above all else, that no-one really seems to have a clue what they're doing. The problems are too hard, some of the gags are brilliant while others fall flat, the early episodes varied in length because they couldn't edit them into a consistent format (and apparently, in some instances, they even ran out of time in filiming them). And yet there's a magic here, with its bizarre sense of humour and challenges far more engaging than those seen on other vaguely similar programmes. Series 1 (featuring Moira Stewart, of all people) is the most improbable, it really feels like the producers are winging it; series 3, with the vortex, the aspidistra, and the backwards speaking man, is the one that surely sticks in most people's minds. They really don't make them like this any more.

Grandpa, the pot plant, and the vortex game: good memories!

For years I could never remember the name of the show but I always could remember what happened. This was like a very early Crystal Maze where you had to work problems/puzzles out in order to win the crystals. At the end before you were allowed to leave you had to walk along a space type maze and avoid a white beam of electricity to get home.

BBC 2. The 80's.

The Drogna Game... The Vortex... Chegwin... This is what classic TV is about: Minor celebrities of the era grovelling to a potted plant which just so happens to be royalty. Genius.

Can't really remember what exactly it was all about, or if indeed there was a point to it all - I just have incredibly fond memories of this show, mainly due to how daft and baffling it all was.

I seem to recall Moira Stewert being in there somewhere, Noel Edmonds, Fern Britton, Cheggers... probably Richard Stilgoe or the likes of...

They certainly don't make 'em like THIS anymore...

This show always stuck in my memory when I originally watched it as a young lad. The bizarre characters that sprung from some weird imagination would leave a scar on any young persons mind - a guy talking sdrawkcab, a shaking aspadistra, a challenging salamander & an invisible vortex - The Adventure Game was like nothing else on tv at that time. Minor celebs trying to solve problems in what was technically a series of 'escape rooms'. This show certainly predicted the future. It was also a great inspiration for me as I went on to design games for its offspring show, The Crystal Maze !!!