Now, as you've probably gathered, I'm a huge fan of Fort Boyard. I've been watching it for donkey's years (providing that all donkeys were born in 1994) and I've seen some great episodes from earlier than that. This, however, didn't prepare me much from the culture shock that is watching the original programme for the first time. In 1990, a show called 'La Cles de Fort Boyard', The Keys of Fort Boyard, hit the French screens. A year earlier, Channel Four were interested in the show but the Fort wasn't ready for the pilot show so instead Jacques Antoine, Jean-Paul Mittrecy and Pierre Launay helped to create The Crystal Maze. After one year, La Cles de Fort Boyard changed, first and foremost by just calling it Fort Boyard (which rolls nicely off the tounge) and by slightly changing the format. When the show first started, many countries were interested and were based along the same lines and at the end of the review I'll include a couple of words about the German version. Watching the really early ones, from my point of view, was a pleasure but despite being the same, one of the versions is better then the other and (spoiler alert!) it might not be the one that you think...
The French show first then. The show opens with theme tune (a nice bass version of it, but generally the same as we have nowadays apart from a tingly bit which they kept until '92. You'll have more of an understanding if you ever get to see it) but rather than interesting shots of the things in the fort, a lot of the opening sequence is gven to Sophie Davant (for it is she!) talking to the players in the boat and waving to Pere Fouras from the boat. I think there is a voiceover for certain bits of it (but on my tape there is a Polish voiceover on top of this - these episodes were shown in Poland with a Polish voiceover). When they get to the fort, they are introduced to Patrice. Yes, the same Patrice Laffont who does the show now (nine series so far) except he's wearing a blue tracksuit and pink flowery shirt, quite camp in fact and when I first saw this I laughed. He also seems less Master of the Fort and more of a Cosmic Tourguide. Presnters wear headsets and Patrice has got a proper handheld microphone. The team have sixty minutes to collect as many keys as they can (a countdown clock next to an egg timer appears in the bottom of the screen in relevant between game moments) and before a player goes up to Pere Fouras' tower for a riddle, they have to pick one of two cards, one yellow and one blue. Each contestant will during the show pick one of these cards but I've yet to work out their significance other than the fact that it might have something to do with who does the bungee jump at the end of the show.
Then the games begin. For about 55 of that 60 minutes, keys are won in one of two ways:
1- By playing a game inside a cell. Each cell has a clepsidre (a water timer - clepsidre just makes me sound more intelligent :) ) and the player has until the timer has run out to have got the key and ran out of the room. The tasks inside are either doing a task to earn the key or just fnding the key which is somewhere in the room. Worryingly, a lot of the games were of the second variety, in one cell were a load of balls hanging from a tall wooden tree thing and the key was hidden in one of them. Tasks were either of a physical, skill or mental variety such as the key maze (a bigger sort of thing was used as of 1996 when La Sauvageonne handcuffed players to the heating pipe room - this is a similar thing except the key is attached), the swing (where in the room is a wooden chandelier with a key on a hook on it and a swing. The player must swing as high as possible so they can turn the chandelier round to see the key then higher to actually grab it) or physical (such as the pulling the rope with cannonballs attached). If the player is still in the room when the time runs out the door is bolted and the player is a prisoner.
2- Earning Keys from Pere Fouras. Much like now except there was a riddle every couple of games and the riddle specialist would stay up in the tower until the end of the show. If they got the riddle right, they would chuck the key into the courtyard where Sophie and player would be waiting, they would then run back to the team waiting for them. IF the riddle was answered wrongly however, Pere Fouras would chuck the key out of the window into the half submerged net. Except that in the episodes I have, he completely fails to get it in the (considerably large) net so players spend more time swimming for it.
When there about five minutes left, it's time to prepare for the treasure room. Prisoners are released at the cost of a key each (and I believe they are forced to buy them out) and they lift the giant plug leading to the Flooded Rooms underneath the Fort. They must make their way to the Treasure Room (which is along from the place where they read the clue in the sand and where the Oubliette is now) where they just sit... and wait. When the original hour has ran out, the gong goes again, the tigers are put away and the Water Dungeon's doors open. The players now have 2:30 to carry as much golden Boyards as possible. In the room are 18 boxes and for every key that the players have they can open one box. Each key will only open a certain box and they may NOT go back and forth from the treasure room, at it's exit is a turntable ante-chamber which will only turn when the door has closed - with or without contestants inside. Yes, even in 1990 the gate to the Treasure closed slowly (although it was quite quick here!) when time was almost up, anybody caught out had to come back through the water dungeon (and wasn't eaten by the tigers, disappointingly). This is all done to some superb background music (which you can hear bits of nowadays when the team are running round the fort). The ante-chamber is turned and the players are allowed to deposit their gold in the magic weigher. Then somebody goes and does a bungee jump where, if they can grab the Golden Key an extra FFr 35,000 was added to the prizemoney. Hurrah!
But what is it actually like to watch? Well, truth be told, I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. This might have been because of the Polish voiceover, but I thought it dragged a bit. The key games lack a certain je ne sais quois that they have nowadays the whole thing seems a bit shallow. This is however coming from a person who's been watching the proper show for years and so it's obvious that they studied the first series hard and improved on it somewhat. However, that's not to say that it isn't enjoyable, it is, but it's just not as satisfying as it is nowadays. The fact that it feels more like a television studio than a real fort seems to put me off a bit as well but the ideas behind the show are sound.
VERDICT: 6.5/10 - If this show was an animal, it would be a catapiller. Odd to begin with but turns into a lovely butterfly once it's gone through it's cocoon phase. Sorry.
The German show however is almost exactly the same yet I enjoy it so much more. It has an inferior theme tune and the show is VERY Sat 1 in style, presentation whatever. The show is hosted by Reiner Schone (as evil Master of the Fort), Rita Werner helps the team and Pere Fouras is similar to the French one only with more futuristic looking clothes. The show in fact manages to combine archaic eccentricity with the future very well.
Presentation wise it is very different. For one thing, there is an in-game clock for each game (a la Crystal Maze) and no clock for running round the fort, the total game time is apperently decide by an egg-timer, although bad editing shows that this isn't really the case. The characters are the same except nastier with Passe-Partout and Passe-Temps kitted out in black and with face paint (and known as Andre and Alain - their real names, fact fans) and the whole thing seems more of an adventure and is generally more satisfying to watch. It's also shorter as well.
Nice touches include the beginning when Herr von Boyard explains that the team need eighteen keys to open the Treasure Room door when in fact there is no way that is going to happen so they have to go in through the water dungeon at the end, the fact that he's with the contestants continually, introducing each game with a stiry about his Grandfather and locks players in himself and the in-game music because like the British version each game has a tune to go with it. Nice.
VERDICT: 7.5/10
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