Fort Boyard UK

***Fort Boyard UK*** is the English version based on the French game show created by Jacques Antoine that was first broadcast on 7 July 1990 (originally as *Les Clés de Fort Boyard*, however shortened to *Fort Boyard* from the second series in 1991). It first aired on 16th October 1998, and ended on 24th December 2001. It was presented by Melinda Messenger and Leslie Grantham as Boyard, and Geoffrey Bayldon as The Professor. There is also a series in 2003 that is basically trying to act the same as the French version. It aired on Challenge, and is presented by Jodie Penfold and Christopher Ellison as Boyard and Tom Baker as Captain Baker.

Set and filmed on the real fortress of the same name in France, the programme appears similar to *The Crystal Maze* (which was created as an alternative format by Jacques for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, after *Fort Boyard* itself was unavailable to film in because of its then ongoing refurbishment during 1989). In both programmes the contestants have to complete challenges to win prize money. However, while *The Crystal Maze* varies the type of games quite considerably, *Fort Boyard* tends to focus mainly on physical and endurance challenges.

## Creation

Channel 5 later bought the rights to *Fort Boyard* and made their own British version, using the now refurbished set, which aired from 16 October 1998 to 29 December 2001 for four series. It was produced by Paul Kirrage and executive produced by Richard Holloway, later known for producing *The X Factor* and other high-profile shows on UK television, for Grundy Productions (later Thames Television in 2001). It was briefly revived by Challenge in 2003 for one series, with a ten-part documentary, *Fort Boyard: Takes On The World*, broadcast in October 2004. *Fort Boyard* later returned to UK television in January 2012 under a new format aired on children's channel CITV, *Fort Boyard: Ultimate Challenge*. This version ended in December 2014 after five series, the first two of which were co-produced with Disney XD in the United States.

## UK cast

In the UK, two sets of presenters have been used for *Fort Boyard*. The first set appeared during the first four series of the show, which were broadcast by Channel 5, with the second appearing in the 2003 Challenge-aired series. The leading presenters of *Fort Boyard* on Channel 5 and Challenge were *Melinda Messenger* (series 1–4) and *Jodie Penfold* (2003). Their roles were to give advice and support for the teams, commentate for the viewers, and match wits with Boyard, the "Master of the Fort".

The other characters in *Fort Boyard* are:

* **Boyard** (played by Leslie Grantham in series 1–4, Christopher Ellison in 2003) is the "**Master of the Fort**", who sets the challenges that the team must complete to win. In the UK versions of the show, he is portrayed as a selfish, commanding, and malevolent character who takes great pleasure in ensuring that fear and failure plague the contestants. Leslie portrayed these traits slightly more strongly, with Christopher sometimes showing sympathy, or even being generous to the contestants.
* **The Professor** (Geoffrey Bayldon, series 1–4) is an eccentric scientist who has become mad over the years as a result of being kept prisoner by *Boyard* in the 'Watch Tower'. His task is to ask the contestants riddles, which, if answered correctly, will give the team a key or clue word. If they don't answer it correctly, he would throw the key into the sea. Along with *Captain Baker*, he also talks to the contestants briefly before asking the riddles and to the viewers.
* **Captain Baker** (Tom Baker, 2003), the replacement for *The Professor*, is an insane sea captain held captive by *Boyard*.

There is also the resident *Fort Boyard* cast, who first appeared in the French version, and were subsequently featured in most of the other international formats, including the original UK versions, however these were all excluded for *Fort Boyard: Ultimate Challenge*:

* **Jacques** (1998–) and **Jules** (1998–2001) (André Bouchet and Alain Prévost respectively) are two dwarves who lead the team through the Fort to the next challenge. **Denis** (Anthony Laborde) later in the show replaces Jules, who retired in 2001.
* *Jacques (Passe-Partout)* is also responsible for locking the contestants in the cells of the Fort if they fail to get out within the time limit; whilst *Jules (Passe-Temps)*, in later series, *Deni (Passe-Muraille)* takes contestants to the *Watch Tower*. In duel versions, Deni plays the same role of Jacques. This is because two teams are playing at the same time.
* **Monique** (1999–2003) (Monique Angeon) turns a statue shaped as a tiger's head to release the gold or close the gate in the 'Treasure Room'. She also tames the tigers.
* In Series 1, the unnamed **Tiger Master** (Thierry Le Portier) performs this role. He was only present for 1 series.
* **La Boule** (Yves Marchesseau) sounds the gong to indicate the start and end of time and locks the contestants in cages when they fail to get out of challenge rooms in time. La Boule died of oesophageal cancer and diabetes in September 2014 at the age of 62.

## Celebrity Specials

On 26 December 1999, a celebrity edition of *Fort Boyard* was broadcast, featuring Frank Bruno, Sam Kane, Glenda McKay, Gabby Yorath, and Sharron Davies as contestants. As a one-off, the show's length was extended to 80 minutes so that the team had to get five keys (instead of four) and the code word in fifty-five minutes. The team won £7,910 for their nominated charity.

Series 3 aired two celebrity editions of *Fort Boyard* following the success of the 1999 special; broadcast on 5 January and 25 August 2001, The first featured Anna Walker, Victor Ubogu, Annalise Braakensiek, Tim Vincent and Troy Titus-Adams. Anna Walker captained the team and they won £7,190 for charity. The second edition featured Rhodri Williams, Lisa Rogers, "Handy" Andy Kane, Tricia Penrose and Phil Gayle as the contestants. Rhodri was the team captain and the team won £14,350 for charity.

Another celebrity edition aired at the end of series four (episode 14) in 2001 featuring Sally Gray, Scott Wright, Nell McAndrew, Keith Duffy and Tris Payne. Sally Gray was the team captain and the team won £10,130 for charity. On Episode 4 of Series 4, on 13 October 2001, was a special featuring contestants from series 1 of *The Mole*.

Celebrity editions were also broadcast during the 2003 series by Challenge. It featured Doug Williams, Katarina Waters, also known as Nikita, Paul Burchill, James Tighe, and Sweet Saraya, all of whom were wrestling stars from British promotion FWA. Doug Williams captained the team. Other celebrities appearing in series 5 included Tim Vine and Craig Phillips, *Big Brother* winner. The team won £1,860 for charity, which was topped up by a further £5,000 because Tim Vine accepted a challenge to tell 10 jokes in one minute.

## How It Works

5 contestants enter the Fort with the intention of winning the gold. To do this, the contestants have to successfully complete a series of challenges set by Boyard himself.

The first thing done in the game is the sounding of the Fort's gong by 'La Boule'. Once the gong sounds the game time begins ticking down. In the UK version the game lasted for 40 minutes, but in the Series 2 celebrity special, it lasted for 55 minutes.

The show's original format is outlined in the following sections, starting with 'Phase One'.

### Phase One

The first set of challenges the contestants have to complete is to win a certain number of keys (in series 1–4 of the UK version four keys were needed, whereas five were need in 2003). These keys, once won, are used to open the gate to the Treasure Room, a central room in the Fort where the gold is held.

The challenges that are set to win the keys are located in small cells around the Fort, with small water-timers (a Clepsydre) outside to give the contestant a time limit (around 2-2:30 minutes, depending on the game) to complete it; in the UK version, Boyard would start the timer upon saying to a contestant that "their time starts now", whereas in 2003, Boyard would start it after telling Jacques to open the door of a challenge room. If a contestant fails to leave the challenge room before the time runs out, he or she is locked in and then shortly after taken away to a cage by La Boule meaning they are not allowed to continue with the rest of the key games and must stay there until the end of *Phase One*. In the UK's 4th series, La Boule would give the contestant a large bunch of rusty keys. One of these keys would unlock the cage allowing the contestant to re-join the team.

During this phase of the game, one contestant goes up to the Watch Tower to win an additional key for the team by answering riddles set by The Professor in the Watch Tower. In Series 1, the contestant(s) went up to the watch tower twice.

Once the contestants reach the end of Phase One, usually towards the end of their game time, there is a trip to the Treasure Room with all of the keys that they have won so far. If they have enough to unlock the Treasure Room Door then the keys are entered and the gate is unlocked. However, it does not open until later in the show.

If they are short of keys to open the gate then team members are 'sacrificed' for keys, one team member for each key short. The 'sacrificed' contestants are then placed in an underground cell and locked in. These team members remain for the rest of the game, and are therefore unable to contribute any more for the team. Although this never happened, hypothetically at least in 2003 in the UK, if no keys were won in Phase One, it would have been impossible for the team to continue the game since in 2003 in the UK five keys were needed to open the treasure room door, and since there are only 5 contestants, and no one is allowed to swim for the Captain's keys, every contestant would have to make a sacrifice for all five keys leaving no contestants spare to get clue words to workout the code word and release the gold.

If the team has more keys than necessary to unlock the gate then any extra keys gained can be swapped for free clue words to assist the team in the next phase of the game.

### Phase One Challenges

Here is a selection of some of these challenges:

### Phase Two

Once again in this part of the game the contestants have to complete a series of challenges, but instead of playing for keys they are playing for clue words. In addition, these games are more physically and mentally challenging to the contestants than those played in Phase One. Before these challenges, one contestant goes to the Watch Tower to try to win a clue word. Phase Two is around 10–20 minutes long in the UK version, this depends on how long the team take to win the required number of keys needed to open the Treasure Room gate.

The objective in this phase is to try to figure out the password, which, if answered correctly, will release the gold. To do this, they must try to win clue words to help them in working out the password.

These clue words can be placed either before or after the password to make a common phrase. For example: if the clues words were *hall* and *line* then the password would be **dance**, as in **dance** *hall* and *line* **dance**.

To make it even more difficult to get the clue word, a time limit (3 minutes usually; occasionally between 2:00–3:30 minutes) is placed on each game. The clue words are usually written on pieces of paper and kept in canisters filled with gunpowder, and if the contestant fails to reach the canister in the allotted time the clue word explodes and the contestant loses the challenge. Unlike the First Phase, players are not locked in a cage if they fail to win the clue word.

### Phase Two Challenges

Here is a selection of some of these challenges:

## Series

To date, there have been 4 series, and one spin-off.

## Trivia

* The 2003 series was created for Challenge TV, and contains more elements from the French version, using the same music in the Challenges and the Ordeals and the Treasure Room, and requiring 5 keys instead of 4.