He would generally buoy up the teams when they were doing well, although he wasn’t above a few digs and jokes at their expense when they displayed particular incompetence.
#The crystal maze tv show skin
In his full length leopard skin coat (in the first two series at least, in three and four this changed to a black and white one) and sporting a very smooth and shiny head, the contestants’ pressure was added to by his overly-energetic leaping about and often nonsensical commentary. O’Brien really held the show together – it was his eccentric personality and vaguely camp presenting style that made it worth watching. The number of crystals they got would determine how long they got to attempt the final part of their challenge collecting gold foil tokens in the Crystal Dome (a sort of round greenhouse with a very large draft) in order to win a generally underwhelming prize.Įach team was comprised of three women and three men, with two of them taking the roles of team captain and vice-captain and they were directed around the set by the unforgettable Richard O’Brien (The Rocky Horror Show). The Crystal Maze was a slightly peculiar, totally immersive game show where teams of contestants would take part in a series of tasks in order to win (or more often spectacularly fail to win) crystals. (For those of you young enough to now be thinking ‘What on earth is a video recorder? – it’s a bit like your Sky+ box, only you had to find a big plastic tape before you wanted to record something, check that you weren’t about to wipe off your sister’s wedding video, programme the ludicrously complicated timer and then hope the programme itself didn’t over-run or else you’d lose the crucial cliffhanger at the end of Neighbours.
Oh, and if you were particularly fond of foil and big fans then you would definitely have programmed your video recorder to ensure you didn’t miss it. If brightly coloured jumpsuits and accountants from Nottingham not being able to solve ridiculously easy challenges are your cup of tea then The Crystal Maze would have been your kind of television event.