50 Fun Facts About The Crystal Maze

Which actor, Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, was the first host of The Crystal Maze?

Richard O'Brien presented the first four series, and his asides straight to camera began as jokes with the cameramen that the producers then asked him to keep doing.

What happened to a Crystal Maze contestant still inside a game cell when the time limit ran out?

They were locked in, crystal or no crystal, and stayed there unless the captain gave up one of the team's hard-won crystals to buy their freedom.

Inside the Crystal Dome on The Crystal Maze, tokens of which colour cancelled out a team's gold ones?

Silver tokens each wiped one gold from the count, which is why a team grabbing blindly in the swirl could end the final challenge with a total below zero.

The Crystal Maze was devised after plans for a British version of which French series fell through?

Fort Boyard's sea fortress was being refurbished in 1989, so creator Jacques Antoine sketched a new format built around a glass dome, and the concept was worked up in two days.

Which star of The IT Crowd became host of The Crystal Maze when it was revived in 2017?

Richard Ayoade got the job after the 2016 special's presenter turned down the full series, and his deadpan style drew comparisons with Moss, the awkward technician he played in the sitcom.

Which zone replaced Industrial on The Crystal Maze after the show's first three series?

Ocean arrived in 1993 as the SS Atlantis, a sunken ship sitting in an air bubble on the seabed, complete with a grand piano, a saloon staircase and a boiler room.

Which luxury glassmaker made the golf ball-sized time crystals won by teams on The Crystal Maze?

Swarovski, the Austrian jewellery house, supplied the glass crystals, and every contestant went home with a commemorative one even if the team lost.

Who made up the teams in the Christmas specials of The Crystal Maze shown during the 1990s?

Children aged 10 to 15 played easier games with gentler time limits and extra clues, and unlike the adult teams they were always given the prize at the end.

The Crystal Maze was regularly the highest-rated programme on which British television network?

Channel 4 had first wanted a British remake of a French series, and when that proved impossible it commissioned this home-grown alternative instead.

The first host of The Crystal Maze would pull which instrument from his pocket during the games?

A harmonica supplied one short, repetitive tune that he played while contestants struggled, and now and then he would find other instruments around the set and burst into song.

On The Crystal Maze, how much time inside the Crystal Dome did each crystal won buy a team?

Five seconds per crystal meant a typical haul of four to eight bought well under a minute, counted down by lights beneath the crystals going dark one at a time.

How many gold tokens, after deductions, did a team on The Crystal Maze need to win the grand prize?

100 was the target, and in the first series a score of 50 to 99 still earned a runner-up prize, a consolation scrapped before the second series began.

Alongside Mental, Physical and Skill, what was the fourth type of game on The Crystal Maze?

Mystery games ranged from hunts for hidden objects to large-scale mazes, and in the original series the team itself picked which category to attempt next.

The Futuristic zone of The Crystal Maze, entered through an airlock, was designed as what?

A space station orbiting an unknown planet was the setting, deliberately run-down in the 1990s with exposed wiring, then rebuilt clean and sleek for the revival.

Teams starting in the Medieval zone of the original Crystal Maze first had to raise what?

A portcullis barred the castle entrance, and the team had to find the right chain to lift it; in later series they simply climbed over it.

Mumsie, played by Sandra Caron in the Medieval zone of The Crystal Maze, was what kind of character?

A fortune teller who set brainteasers, she began as an unnamed game character until the host's banter cast her as his mother, and the name stuck in later series.

Which co-creator of The Office hosted a one-off celebrity edition of The Crystal Maze in 2016?

Stephen Merchant guided the first ever celebrity team around a replica maze built for paying visitors, and the response persuaded the broadcaster to order a full revival.

The celebrity special of The Crystal Maze shown in October 2016 raised money for which campaign?

Stand Up to Cancer also benefited from the celebrity episodes of the later revival, where the size of the donation rose with the number of gold tokens a team collected.

The first host of The Crystal Maze later voiced the father, Lawrence Fletcher, in which Disney cartoon?

Phineas and Ferb kept him busy for years: he voiced the part in both of the films as well, and came back to it when the series was revived.

On The Crystal Maze, what sent the gold tokens swirling around the team inside the Crystal Dome?

Fans under the floor blew the tokens up through a mesh the team stood on, though much of the real collecting was done on hands and knees as they settled round the sides.

Which punk singer of the hit Swords of a Thousand Men took over as host of The Crystal Maze?

Ed Tudor-Pole presented the last two original series, playing up the time-travel story with invented words and tall tales about each zone's history.

Which zone, timed by a pendulum clock, replaced Medieval on The Crystal Maze from 2019?

Eastern drew on the architecture of East Asia, with lanterns, ornate vases and cherry blossom, and teams peeked into its cells by drawing back curtains.

Games in the castle-themed Medieval zone of The Crystal Maze were timed using which devices?

Hourglasses suited the castle, because every zone told the time in a way that matched its era, from an analogue clock in the factory setting to a digital display in the future.

After one series at a film studio, the vast Crystal Maze set was rebuilt inside what kind of building?

An aircraft hangar on an Essex airfield gave the producers room to expand the maze, which stayed there until the original run ended in 1995.

Guinness World Records recognised the original Crystal Maze, built at North Weald, as the largest what?

Game show set was the record category: the maze cost about £250,000 to build and covered an area roughly the size of two football pitches.

Makers of The Crystal Maze likened it to which role-playing game, with the host running the adventure?

Dungeons & Dragons was the model, with the host as Dungeon Master leading a party through themed rooms; years later the first host acted in the game's film adaptation.

What was the relationship between the six teammates on the original Crystal Maze before filming began?

They were strangers, put together by the production team from applicants aged 16 to 40; the 2017 revival switched to groups of friends, relatives or colleagues.

In the original Crystal Maze, what encircled the Crystal Dome until the revival did away with it?

A moat ringed the Dome, and the host worked two switches on a podium to lower its bridge and open the door; the revival dropped it in favour of flashing lights.

On The Crystal Maze, what did the host blow to start the team grabbing tokens in the Crystal Dome?

A whistle went a moment after the tokens took flight; when one revival team reached the Dome with no crystals at all, the host blew two at once and they scored nothing.

Chatsworth, maker of The Crystal Maze, earlier produced which helicopter series featuring Anneka Rice?

Treasure Hunt shared a creator with the maze, Frenchman Jacques Antoine, and its composer Zack Laurence went on to write the maze's theme tune too.

Which devices timed the games in the Aztec zone of The Crystal Maze, set in an ancient village?

Water clocks dripped away the minutes among the carved pillars, and the original series lit the zone for different times of day, with night scenes when it came last.

How did teams starting in the Aztec zone make their entrance in the original Crystal Maze?

By boat along a river was the 1990s route, paddling canoes to the bank; the revival removed the river and had teams shift large boulders from the entrance instead.

What did teams starting in the Futuristic zone of The Crystal Maze have to do to get in?

Answer a question was the rule, set by the zone's computer, whose snide male voice in the early series belonged to the programme's own director.

What prop did the host of the 2017 Crystal Maze revival carry and offer to contestants as a guide?

A wooden hand on a stick, known simply as The Hand, led players to their games, and its design changed depending on whether the team was famous or not.

Which American kids' network aired a ten-episode version of The Crystal Maze for families in 2020?

Nickelodeon filmed its version on the British set with families playing for $25,000, and launched it with a premiere free of commercial breaks.

The 2017 revival of The Crystal Maze was filmed at The Bottle Yard Studios in which English city?

Bristol gave the original designer a warehouse in which to rebuild his maze taller, at studios that had previously been home to Deal or No Deal.

The first host of The Crystal Maze is honoured with a statue in Hamilton, a city in which country?

New Zealand is where he grew up after emigrating at ten, and the Hamilton statue stands on the site of the cinema whose late-night films inspired his famous musical.

Which CITV series, later hosted by Crystal Maze contestant Michael Underwood, named it as an influence?

Jungle Run's makers admitted their format was a clone, and its final presenter had captained a team on the first Christmas special long before he hosted it.

What advantage did the oversized Mega Crystal, added to The Crystal Maze in 2019, give a team?

Double the Dome time of a normal crystal was the reward, but the captain had to name the one game it would ride on before that game was played.

What from the Aztec zone next door kept contaminating the Crystal Dome on the original Crystal Maze?

Sand drifted across from the Aztec floor, so when the maze was rebuilt for the revival the Dome was placed in a separate part of the studio.

Which comedian and podcaster played Jarhead, the riddling head in a glass jar, on The Crystal Maze?

Adam Buxton's floating head, formally the Riddle Master, appeared to brew each crystal by stirring potions with the power of his mind whenever a contestant beat his game.

Which co-creator of the sitcom Spaced guarded the Medieval zone as Knight Marion on The Crystal Maze?

Jessica Hynes clanked about in oversized armour with a large sword, kept inviting the host to events he declined, and vanished when the castle was replaced.

Which actress took over the role of Mumsie for the 2016 celebrity special of The Crystal Maze?

Maureen Lipman stepped in for the one night, and the first host returned too, appearing as the Futuristic zone's computer.

The Crystal Maze Live Experience, opened in London in 2016, was funded through which crowdfunding site?

Indiegogo backers put up the money in 2015 for a walk-through replica of the zones, and the attraction's popularity is what prompted the television comeback.

The second host of The Crystal Maze filmed a scene as shopkeeper Mr Borgin for which film series?

Harry Potter audiences never saw it in cinemas: his turn as Mr Borgin in Chamber of Secrets was cut from the theatrical release and restored in the extended edition.

The set for the first series of The Crystal Maze was built at which British film studios?

Shepperton housed the maze for a single series before the set was rebuilt on a larger scale in Essex, where it stayed for the rest of the original run.

Which host of a truTV series debunking common misconceptions fronted the American Crystal Maze?

Adam Conover played the Maze Master as a timeless, mischievous spirit, mixing real history with invented tales about each zone as families competed for a cash prize.

What is the title of the Zack Laurence theme tune that opened every episode of The Crystal Maze?

Force Field ran just over a minute in full but was trimmed for the titles, and the composer also wrote the remix that played under the games themselves.

Which toy maker released a 1991 Crystal Maze board game that pitted players against each other?

MB Games turned the co-operative show into a contest between rival players, a change that left the board version only loosely tied to what viewers saw on screen.

The Industrial zone of The Crystal Maze, with its barrels and bubbling pool, was designed as what?

A chemical plant in the present day was the idea, and teams followed their player on monitors dotted around the zone rather than peering through cell windows.