He has a clipboard so instead of doing that soft presenter chat you get, he treats it like it’s a job interview when they’re going through the zones, but he’s clearly on their side.”ĭon’t expect to see Ayoade in a leggings and a leopard print coat, either, there’s a whole new look for him. Our Richard doesn’t want to play a character, he’s just an exaggerated version of himself, slightly offish and officious. “Richard O’Brien brought his own jacket when he did the original series and he wasn’t playing a character, he was being himself but a kind of exaggerated form of himself. “It’s still very much him,” Neale continues. How does he compare to his predecessors? “When you see Richard’s take on it, it’s the same sort of knowing, acerbic thing you had from Richard O’Brien but with a slightly different way of coming at it,” says Neale. He also uses it to accentuate movement, holding it up really high when he’s running from zone to zone,” hence the frequent breakages.Īctor, director and presenter Ayoade is following in the stead of Richard O’Brien, Ed Tudor Pole and Stephen Merchant as the Maze Master. “The hand-stick is so that they never touch him, he uses it to shake their hands and do high fives. “A bit like Richard O’Brien, you can tell he’s warm and cares about the contestants but at the same time portrays this sort of distanced character,” explains executive producer Neale Simpson. Ayoade’s hand-stick is part of his slightly stand-offish Maze Master persona, we’re told. Seeing as it’s made of plaster and protrudes from a long wooden stick, that’s no cause for medical concern, but it has meant the props department have had to make around thirty replacements. Filming the new series of The Crystal Maze, presenter Richard Ayoade keeps breaking his hand.

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