BuzzFeed News met the team who want to turn the classic game show into a live event – and spoke to Richard O’Brien about its enduring popularity.
Matthew Tucker / BuzzFeed
"WILL YOU START THE FANS, PLEASE?!"
I'm in an office in East London, trying to interview the team who are planning to bring back The Crystal Maze, but all I can hear – and all I'm caring about right now – is Richard O'Brien constantly shouting lines from the classic '90s show at the top of his voice upstairs.
"TO THE CRYSTALLLLLLLL DOMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
If you don't remember The Crystal Maze – and here's a handy primer – it is, of course, the big-budget Channel 4 adventure game show in which contestants had to undertake challenges in four different zones to collect crystals. Those crystals earned them time in a dome where they would try to retrieve gold slips of paper.
Despite ending in 1995, the show has not been lost to memory thanks to repeats on Challenge TV, and endless videos uploaded to YouTube. And then, on Tuesday, a Twitter account appeared called @CrystalMazeHQ, promising that a real-life Crystal Maze was going to be constructed somewhere in London, and asking people to "register interest" on its website.
Well, good news: It wasn't a spoof. It wasn't an exaggeration. There are actual plans to launch a Crystal Maze in London, if the money can be found. And it has Richard O'Brien's blessing – hence why he's shouting at the top of his voice upstairs.
A company called Little Lion Productions, founded by Tom Lionetti-Maguire, wants to build a replica version of the show's famous set. "We have a space lined up in Kings Cross, which is perfect," says Dean Rodgers, the executive producer, who has been involved in similar projects like Time Run London, an "escape-the-room adventure".
From left to right: Richard O'Brien, Tom Lionetti-Maguire, Dean Rodgers, and Ben Hodges.
Matthew Tucker / BuzzFeed
When BuzzFeed News visits, O'Brien is recording a video that will be shown to all participants when they arrive at the site, as well as a promotional video that will be shown on the Indiegogo website to convince members to support the project via crowdfunding. During our initial conversation, we have to whisper, so that our voices aren't heard in the background.
The plan is to build all four zones featured in the first series (so this excludes the Ocean zone, which came later and would be near-impossible to build at this scale anyway), and the dome. Contestants will arrive with as a team and will see an introductory video presented by O'Brien in the Medieval zone. Then an actor will meet you and accompany you as you undertake challenges from the traditional four categories from the TV show: skill, physical, mental, or mystery.
