Start the fans please!
One Sunday every summer (during my childhood) the local Working Mens Club arranged its annual trip to Blackpool. The whole idea of getting up at the crack of dawn and eating a shitload of crisps and sweets on route would probably send many protective parents into a fit these days but at the time it was just the norm. This was also in a time before Blackpool became infested with stag and hen do's and shitty pubs (Actually they may have been infested with pubs but I was too young to notice or care back then.)

One of my favourite parts about visiting Blackpool was that I lived in hope of getting a chance to visit the Sandcastle, a gaudy coloured indoor swimming pool and activity centre on the sea front (Even Blackpool council realised that noone would want to go near the sea to swim). The reason for this is that one of the other available forms of entertaiment in this building was a replica of the Crystal Maze. I had no idea what happened in the Crystal Maze attraction itself (other than it was based on the Crystal maze) so I had visions of me attemptting to get a crystal in the Aztec zone as Richard O Brien pissed around with his mouth organ outside.

Sometime in the early 90's my luck was in (The date escapes me at the moment but I believe it may have been 1991). We arrived in Blackpool and it was absolutley pissing it down, my parents were feeling rather generous and offered to take us to the Sandcastle for either a swim or a chance to go on the crystal maze attraction. Great! I had the chance to go into the maze itself I thought, only for me to walk up to the eyesore of a building to see an advertisement out front for.....Coronation Street. The place had changed its attraction from the Crystal Maze to a replica of Coro-fucking-nation Street. I was pissed off, whoever thought that walking down a fake street most members of the public see on TV every week is a hell of a lot more interesting than trying to pick up golden papers in a giant wind tunnel needs a good slap.

So......Blackpool from 1991 (ish) onwards, major fucking disappointment
(mon bison powered by magnets, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 12:15, 8 replies)

Blackpool is crap
And for that reason, don't go to Niagara Falls either.

The Crystal Maze however, was an excellent programme. Watching it on UKTV-Whateverthefuckitis now, it's a bit dated (especially the big hair!) but still enjoyable.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 12:28, closed)

Is this true
Did the bloke who took over from O Brien get the sack for having sex with a contestant in one of the zones in the Crystal Maze?
(mon bison powered by magnets, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 12:59, closed)

^
I hope so
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 13:08, closed)

^^ I don't think so
He presided over the final two series I believe from '94-'95. This was around the time I discovered weed and beer so I could be mistaken.
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 13:13, closed)

@HLT
Do you hope he was really shagging a contestant, or that he got the sack for it?

Ed Tudor-Pole, I believe.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 13:23, closed)

Richard O'Brien..
Has the biggest hair of them all...

Might not be on his head though..
(AndyC4m Eject Eject [><], Mon 30 Jun 2008, 14:10, closed)

There was...
...(and may still be) a Crystal Maze centre in Maidenhead, Berkshire. We went there with school and it was a MAJOR disappointment!!! Absolute Carp!!!

Ed chewed a what???
(Dairy Air, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 14:16, closed)

but....but.....i LOVE blackpool!
it's so cheesy, what with its dated illuminations, not-very-fun-fair, trams and many, many arcades. i love arcades, 2p machines, tinkly music and flashy lights!
i'm very easily pleased.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 16:28, closed)