Trivia / GamesMaster

• Creator Backlash:
  • The show's creator Jane Hewland later said in a retrospective interview, that she sees Series 3 as a "lost" one, due to admitting to a series of poor decisions and mistakes, including hiring Dexter Fletcher as main presenter.
  • Dominik Diamond confirmed in two interviews with the Under Consoletation Podcast in 2021 that he was not pleased with how Series 4 turned out. This would explain why in Series 5 it revolved MUCH more around him, and this increased further in Series 6 and 7. Granted, Channel 4 begged him to come back after the issues they had described above, but still...
• Executive Meddling:
  • The McDonald's sponsorship that the show had in Series 3 and 4. At the time, it was rumoured (And later confirmed by Dominik in a 2009 interview) that this was the reason for Dominik's departure before Series 3 (Although he did return in Series 4) and would appear to be backed up by one of the first things Dexter Fletcher said being a shot at Dominik.
  • According to former contestant Craig Munro, who competed against his sister Kirsty, the producer made them keep replaying their challenge until Kirsty won. One producer (Johnny Ffinch) backed this up, saying the show makers frequently rejected takes where a boy beat a girl.
  • Dave Perry confirmed in interviews that the Tetsujin's challenge on Virtua Fighter 3 in Episode 13 of Series 6 did not involve 100 players, but actually 50 children from Dominik Diamond's mother's drama school, so the challenge had to be heavily edited to look like the Tetsujin was squashing 100 opponents.
• Fake Brit: Inverted - Dexter Fletcher was best known at the time for playing Spike Thomson in Press Gang, a role which saw him using an American accent. When he began presenting GamesMaster in his genuine Cockney accent, he was accused of putting on the English accent.
• Follow the Leader: After the series became a surprising hit, several imitations popped up that used the same format; all of them were cancelled before GamesMaster, which was lampshaded during the final episode.
• Hostility on the Set: Domink Diamond and Dave Perry clashed both on and off the set during Series 2, 4, 5, and 6.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Never released on DVD, and the show doesn't receive any repeat viewings due to the news segments no longer being relevant. You can, however, find every episode on Youtube if you look hard enough.
• Real-Life Relative: One of the infant contestants who played the PC activity centre Baby-ROM in Episode 1 of Series 5, Callum, is Dominik Diamond's nephew.
• Screwed by the Network: Channel 4 weren't happy when the show shifted its target demographic from children. As such, Dominik remarked at the end of Series 6 that it was his final series, as Channel 4 gave no indication that the show was returning for a seventh series. It turned out that the show had been renewed & budgeted for 18 episodes, but Channel 4 "forgot" to tell them until it was too late to make the scheduled slots; as a result, the final series was cut down to 10 episodes.
• What Could Have Been: It is rumoured that had Dominik stayed for Series 3, he'd have been found guilty of causing the Series 2 oil rig explosion and been sent to prison (hence the use of Oxford Prison for the first half). With him leaving, the prison gimmick was largely dropped in favour of a boot-camp style games academy. Of course they lost rights to the use of Oxford Prison halfway through and had to use the Clerkenwell House of Detention for the second half (Team Championship), so this gimmick would likely have been dropped anyway.
• Word of God: The background behind the infamous Super Mario 64 challenge involving Dave Perry would be detailed in 2022’s GamesMaster: The Oral History by Dominik Diamond, Kirk Ewing, and series producers Richard Wilcox and Jonny Ffinch. Per Ffinch and Diamond, Perry (the self-proclaimed "best games player in Britain") was worried about a quiz that was set to be filmed harming his credibility and sales of a book he had written if he didn’t get 100% of the questions right, so pressured Ffinch for the answers. Word got back to Diamond, and the decision was made to change all of the questions, which Perry still answered completely correctly due to his knowledge on the subject. Whilst neither Diamond, Ewing or the producers comment on Perry’s claim that the final gaming challenge was originally supposed to be Wipeout 2097, Wilcox claimed that no attempt was made to set-up Perry whilst Diamond would assert that if Perry hadn’t been overly cautious during the challenge then he would have beaten Ewing’s own failed run, and he could have saved face if he hadn’t taken things so seriously - even if he had still made the accusation of being set-up.
• Word of Saint Paul: Dave Perry’s account of the infamous Mario 64 challenge, which he has detailed in various interviews since the incident and in 2022’s GamesMaster: The Oral History. Perry claimed that entire contest was set-up with the intent of having eventual winner Kirk Ewing win after coming from behind and points to Ewing being given questions about Earthworm Jim whilst actively working on the third game in the series^note Diamond instead claims this was because he wanted to mock Ewing if he had got the questions wrong whilst working on the franchise, and the two questions weren’t enough to swing a quiz to support his argument. Perry has always claimed that when the time came for the final gaming challenge, the decision was made to switch from Wipeout 2097 (a game Perry claims to have been particularly skilled at) to Super Mario 64, when neither the game (Or the console in question) had been released in the UK although Ewing was familiar with the game as he had been playing the game as research for his work on Earthworm Jim 3D. After failing the Mario 64 challenge even faster than Ewing, Perry would assert that he had yet to play the game and vowed not to until it was officially released in the UK (though he has since said that he has never played the game, since he has "always hated those cutsey Nintendo games") before proceeding to claim he was set-up & sulk when Diamond questioned him about his defeat, all of which was captured on camera.

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