When we were little, Drew and I were big fans of the Crystal Maze, and thought it was much easier than it looked obviously. Dad loved to watch it with us and used to take us to an actual version of the Crystal Maze in Maidenhead. We thought it was the best thing, we had to run between worlds, take on tasks and work together to win crystals = time in the crystal dome. The dome at the end was just a giant box with buttons all round and we had to press as many lighted buttons as we could within the time we’d earned along the way. Not quite as exciting as a dome filled with gold and silver papers flying around but still.

When the Crystal Maze opened in London I couldn’t wait to go with Drew and Dad. Sarah, David and Wendy were less keen so we left them at home and joined a larger group with some really nice people. Drew smashed his rooms. I only remember one, which was to deconstruct and reconstruct a giant cube with tetris pieces. Of course he solved it with time to spare and actually got to hold a real crystal - such a coveted item from our youth.

There was one room in particular that sticks with me, one of our team mates was trying to work out a giant crossword and Drew kept yelling that one of the words was definitely right, let’s say it was picnic (Drew would remember the word of course), but horizontally it made no sense. I kept saying that it wasn’t right but he just got louder yelling picnic was right - we laughed all the way round about how convinced he was and literally had no idea what I was saying - I blame the Whitlow competitiveness. I think we came second or third as a team on the day, but just remember having the most fun.

A trip to the pub after for lunch and a debrief of course, gave Royce and Drew an opportunity to discover Siren beer. I remember Drew confided in us over that lunch about a few things, and it struck me how special it was that he felt he could talk to his sister and his dad about that kind of stuff.