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Source found and information updated!! \0/ Found it while looking for something completely different but good to know where the heck it came from.

Scans of a promotional booklet for series 2. These come from LJ user theocrox331 who received the booklet as part of a goody bag they won at the "Inside The World Of Merlin" BAFTA event in London which took place November 21st 2009. They share some initial photos of the booklet here and the hi-res scans here (the second link which went to a folder download no longer works but the first which takes you to a gallery still does)

If anyone does want to download the folder all at once, I've uploaded it here

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Update Eoin made to his Merlin photo post, featuring behind the scenes images of the episode Lamia.

Blog post can be viewed in the Wayback Machine here

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Part 2 of the photos Eoin Macken uploaded to his blog post. Part 1 (where you can also view the text of the blog post) is here.

The blog has since been deleted but the entry can still be viewed on the Wayback Machine here

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Part 1 of a big photo post Eoin Macken made to his blog. I've included a screenshot of the entry as well. He says it's just from series 3 but in part 2 you'll see that there's also a few from series 4 and at least one from series 5. But I also appreciate that it was just meant to be a quick blog post. I've had to split this in two parts as you can post up to 30 pictures per post on Tumblr and there were just over 40 on the blog.

The blog no longer exists but you can view the entry on the Wayback Machine here

Part 2 of the photo post

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[Article] “Head of State”

by May Seah for Channel News Asia, first published 28th February 2009

(the following is a copy/paste taken from LiveJournal user gealach-ros. Unfortunately the original article no longer exists and I am currently unable to find an archive. This interview with Anthony Head was done ahead of Merlin in Singapore.)

[LiveJournal source]

Head of state

By May Seah, TODAY | Posted: 28 February 2009

SINGAPORE: It’s the return of Giles -- but not as a Watcher this time. Everyone’s favourite father figure with a supernatural twist, Anthony Head of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, returns to television with the new series, Merlin. Much like Smallville, Merlin is a prequel to the well-loved Arthurian legends. Way before swords got pulled out of stones, the series imagines the wizard Merlin as a young man just starting to discover his extraordinary talent in the magic arts. Also starring young actors Colin Morgan (Dr Who) as Merlin and Bradley James (Lewis) as Arthur, Merlin is packed with CGI by the same visual effects team behind Gladiator.

It is an update of the story that Head says is powerful and compelling. “A close friend is absolutely incensed we’ve messed with the Arthurian legend. It’s been done and done again, with Sean Connery and Richard Gere in very strange clothes ... But it always falls short. You don’t feel fulfilled because you just know everything that’s going to happen.” This version, however, comes with a magical ingredient: Uncertainty. “You may know what’s going to happen down the road, but you don’t know how it’s going to get there,” said the married father of two. “Merlin gives it a whole new lease of life.” For his return to television, however, there’ll be no messing about with the powers of darkness. In Merlin, he plays the reigning King Uther (pronounced “oo-ther”), father of Arthur, who hates magic and seeks to ban its use in the kingdom of Camelot -- which, of course, is bad news for young Merlin. “Hopefully I’m not too similar to Uther. He’s not a very good father. He’s very authoritarian,” Head told Today breezily over the phone from London. “It’s amazing how many people who watch the show say, ‘You’re so mean.’ But he’s a well-rounded character. Everything he does is for the good of the kingdom as he knows how.” Evidently, playing Uther is a whole different ballgame from playing Giles to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy Summers. Perhaps, this reporter suggested, as a head of state, Uther is closer to his role as the prime minister in Little Britain. “He’s probably not a bad prime minister, but in terms of trying to deal with the advances of Sebastian, he’s slightly bemused,” the 55-year-old actor said, laughing, of his Little Britain character. Sebastian, played by the cult comedy series’ David Walliams, is the aide in love with the prime minister. “That’s what was interesting about that show: He had no stream of consciousness. He never remembered the last advances. It was an odd thing to play initially, but I fell into it.” To research his role in Merlin, Head watched old Arthurian movies, “including the classic Excalibur with John Boreman, which is very true to Le Morte d’Arthur”, the 15th-century book upon which most Arthurian legend is based. He watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, too, of course. “I have been trying to get them to let us ride without horses!”

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Blog post from Eoin Macken where he announces plans to hold a convention for Merlin fans with the aim of raising money and support for the film 'Cold' which he was making with Tom Hopper. The film later released in 2016 under the name 'Leopard'

The blog has since been deleted but you can view this entry by scolling down a little here

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Merlin behind the scenes photos posted by Dolbadarn Film Horses (who supplied a lot of the horses used on the show) featuring Diablo, a Welsh Cob stallion, in honour of his birthday. You can see in some photos that at one stage Diablo lost his eyes and became blind, but was still able to take part.

[Source: x x]

Diablo is still very much a part of the team and even has his own little video (no Merlin in this one, I just think it's really nice)

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Merlin Cast Ice Bucket Challenge Master Post

I appreciate probably nobody has thought of these in over a decade, but while I'm trying to get things archived I came across them and started pulling them together. For now I shall link to the original uploads, though I have taken copies.

NOTE: Currently missing Adetomiwa Edun, Alexander Vlahos and Georgia King (now Georgia Tennant). Their original videos appear to have been removed since and I cannot find any reuploads. If anybody has them and would like to veer me their way I would be most grateful.

Bradley James

Katie McGrath

Anthony Head

Tom Hopper

Eoin Macken

Emilia Fox

Joe Dempsie

Warwick Davis

Laura Hopper (Tom appears)

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Scans of the series 1 Merlin soundtrack case, first released 4th November 2008. Unfortunately my scanner isn't the best quality but the lighting in my place means it's also hard to take photos without you being able to see my reflection in the darker colours/sheen of whatever they have coating this case. But I thought it would be nice to have them up here anyway. I'll hopefully do series 2-4 soon.

I have also ripped the CD and have it available for download [[HERE]] The scans are also included but you can just delete those if you don't want them.

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Scans of a promotional booklet for series 2. These come from LJ user theocrox331 who received the booklet as part of a goody bag they won at the "Inside The World Of Merlin" BAFTA event in London which took place November 21st 2009. They share some initial photos of the booklet here and the hi-res scans here (the second link which went to a folder download no longer works but the first which takes you to a gallery still does)

If anyone does want to download the folder all at once, I've uploaded it here

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[Article] "Merlin’s Colin Morgan – The Year of The Thoughtful, Intelligent Geek"

by Alison Jane Reid for The Ethical Hedonist, first published 9th March 2012

[Wayback Machine link]

Merlin’s Colin Morgan – The Year of The Thoughtful, Intelligent Geek

by Alison Jane Reid on March 9, 2012

Forget vampires! – 2012 is the year of the thoughtful, intelligent geek. And the crown princeling amongst wizardly, out of this world, thespian geeks, has to be Colin Morgan, the coruscating young actor from Armagh, Northern Ireland, best known for his starring role in Merlin. For it is Morgan who has read his Mallory and Tennyson, and reinvented Merlin for a 21st Century audience not as a knarled, white-haired prophet of ancient myths and legend, but rather as charming, gauche, accident prone underdog who must wait until the time is right to reveal his magical powers.

Up close and personal, Colin comes across as thoughtful, intelligent and engaging.  Firstly, I hope I am not going to disappoint his legion of fans when I tell you that the actor who plays the gauche young wizard doesn’t look very like the dark-eyed alter ego he has so imaginatively constructed in the BBC’s hit series Merlin.

Firstly, Colin is really tall. Then comes the pleasant discovery that he is in fact far better looking than Merlin! Somehow, he just looks more chaotically boyish and masculine; like a young Gregory Peck in the film How the West Was Won. He is wearing a casual, blue and white check shirt, which just reinforces this idea, and hints at his love of being outside in nature, admiring sloths and bears. He would make a terrific cowboy. Then there are the eyes, which are very blue, lively, intelligent and inquisitive – but the hair is a revelation! Forget the glassy, smooth mop of the young wizard – Colin’s hair is thick, curly and plain unruly. In fact, he looks like he has just got out of bed! Which he probably has, as he has been up for hours, graciously conducting interviews on Skype for the world’s press, and answering such riveting questions as ‘what is his favourite pizza topping’, and ‘how would he like to spend a first date’.

Morgan is an appealing mix of raw, natural talent, and a rare maturity and thoughtfulness, perhaps fuelled by the self-knowledge that he is only too aware of the extraordinary journey it has taken him to arrive here at all.

“When I first started playing Merlin, I relied on instinct and my own experiences,” he says. “ I thought about what it must be like not to be able to show who you are and what your greatest gift is in a world that persecutes magic. I guess you can relate that to a lot of things. For me it’s about wanting to be an actor, growing up in Northern Ireland; and not being able to express that desire, because the opportunities just aren’t there.”

Colin was born in Armagh in 1986. His father is a painter decorator, and his mother works as a secretary; so far, so normal.  Then he calmly proceeds to describe the not uncommon scenario of being woken up in the middle of the night, and having to evacuate the family home immediately, because there was pipe bomb in the house next door. The next day he would go into school with a note for his teacher to explain why he hadn’t done his homework.  This he says was just an everyday taste of a childhood growing up in the long shadow of deep, ingrained hatred and sectarian violence.  The social consequences of Northern Ireland’s problems have been well documented. Big business stayed away, and unemployment was high for generations. But for Colin the consequences ran deeper, and were far more personal. Colin wanted to explore his love of drama, but there were virtually no opportunities for a young person to nurture, let alone study acting in the Province at this time.

Fortunately, Morgan is not the type of character to admit defeat easily.  “I found a way to get involved in drama in any way I could. I joined the local amateur dramatic society, and I still have such fond memories of those times. I was five years old when I first appeared in the chorus in a production of Cinderella, and then Peter Pan. People often ask me what inspired me to become an actor, and the truth is I can’t answer that. For me, it was always more like a natural instinct. Every part, every performance I have ever taken has just been about feeding that desire to act.”

The crisis came when he reached sixteen and didn’t want stop. “The next stage was choose subjects to study at technical college. I had a fall back position, which was to study English, photography and law. But I would have hated being a lawyer! There was no question; I wanted do drama. But in Northern Ireland, there are very few colleges that offer drama as a subject, and my local tech didn’t offer a course. The closest place was Belfast, which was an hour and twenty minutes away.  No one could understand why I was prepared to travel back and forth on the bus every day for two years when my local college was five minutes away; but that is what I did.”

There was another reason why this was a dangerous proposition. Morgan is Catholic, and the college he wanted to attend was in a troubled, predominantly protestant area of East Belfast. In the summer before he enrolled at the college, masked paramilitaries stormed the building, looking for Catholic students by asking them to pronounce the letter H. (the reason for this being that Catholics and Protestants generally pronounce the letter differently). The students were told that any Catholics would be shot.

In the end no one was hurt, and Colin plays down this episode, and says that he didn’t experience any trouble when he was at the college, as the terrible violence which had blighted Northern Ireland for generations, was finally coming to an end with The Good Friday Agreement which came into force in 1999 and kick-started the peace process.

Three years later he graduated from The Belfast Institute of Further Education and won a coveted place at The Royal Scottish Conservatoire in Glasgow. Within a year of graduating in 2007, he was talent spotted for the lead role in Merlin.

What I remember most about my encounter with Colin Morgan is how articulate and thoughtful he is. Does his star burn brighter because it has been fashioned out of adversity?  Absolutely. All I do know is that he is smart enough to know that hard work and sheer determination has catapulted him into a position of extraordinary privilege and opportunity. And if he continues to shine, all the glittering prizes. So far he’s made some very interesting choices outside Merlin, and he has deftly avoided being typecast. He won good notices for Esteban in Pedro Almodovar’s All About My Mother and took on the very challenging role of the troubled teenager in D.B.C. Pierre’s wicked black comedy in Vernon God Little at the Young Vic.

So what else can I tell you about Colin? Well girls, he can cook!  Colin has a problem with lactose, so he sticks to a vegetarian diet, and says that the only way to make food taste really good, when there are so many things you can’t eat is to cook at home.

“I enjoy cooking. I think if you are vegetarian, and you can’t have dairy in your diet, like me; you have to be able to cook! You have to learn, big time! And now I am based in London, which I love, I am looking forward to exploring some local farmers markets. I’m very interested in where food comes from. I think supporting farmers, and buying real, good food from farmers markets is really important. I think a lot of the health problems people face now are as a result of what they are eating. And I don’t just mean junk food. I’m talking about eating food where you don’t know where it has come from. I am careful about what I eat, and I also like really good food.”

Colin’s other great passion is the natural world. Unlike most actors who are rather inward looking, Colin comes across as an individual who is hungry for experiences and knowledge of the world beyond his own horizons. He has been catching up with Frozen Planet on DVD, as he was away filming, when it was first shown, and he describes it as   ‘stunning to watch’, and cites David Attenborough as ‘a hero of mine’.

“ It presents the facts and covers everything, without prejudice,” he suggests.  ”I think it is very important to conserve and protect the natural world.  I’ve just come back from Costa Rica and they are really big on eco tourism. They have lots of reserves, and they are really in to protecting wildlife. I visited a reserve called Cabo Blanco. You walk into the reserve and there are capucine monkeys swinging from the trees and sloths. I am big into nature, and seeing animals in their natural habitats; I love it.”

Given his passion and affinity with nature, I can’t help thinking he would make an extraordinary Heathcliff; and perhaps he really should play a trendy vampire, with those saturnine good looks. “Grrr, I would love to play a vampire,” he says playfully showing a great sense of fun.

So what else moves Colin? Well, being a bit of a new age man, (Merlin would approve) he’s into yoga, and declares – “Yoga is phenomenal! It’s brilliant. I like the breathing, and the focus that it brings. But I can be quite energetic if I am doing a play. You will often find me running along the corridors, to let off steam, and being quite bouncy before going on stage.”

He also tells me that he and Bradley James, his co-star in Merlin loved working with Miranda Raison, the former Spooks star, who recently played the heroine Isolde, who meets a very bloody end in Series Four. Betraying that naughty, boyish side again, he says, “We were teasing her about her Lara Croft curves, ha, ha. Miranda is great. She’s a good sport, and has a wicked sense of humour.”

What comes across quickly, is that Morgan is having a ball too.  There is no doubt that he is one of the most exciting talents to emerge from Ireland since a young Richard Harris also made his name in much lauded version of Camelot, alongside a rather luminous, feisty Vanessa Redgrave. His face lights up as he delights in telling me about the award-winning film he recently made with Irish director Darragh Byrne. In Parked he plays Cathal, a dope-smoking twenty one-year-old who magically transforms the life of a lonely man with nowhere to live but his car.   “I really identified with the character. I liked the script, I liked working with Darragh, and I loved everything about the story – it couldn’t been more different from Merlin – it’s good not to be typecast – I’ve been very lucky.”

There is no doubt that we are going to continue to fall in love with this vibrant actor too as he lights up the screen and stage and enthralls us with his god-given talent for rapturous, spellbinding storytelling.

I for one can’t wait for the next magical instalment.

Series 4 of Merlin is out now on DVD.  Merlin will return for a 5th Series later this year.

Alison Jane Reid – Copyright February 2012

Download PDF of this Colin Morgan Interview for The Lady Magazine Published March 2012

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[Article] "Medieval times" (interview with BBC Merlin costume designer, Charlotte Morris)

by Katherine Flemming for TV.Guide.ca, first published 17th July 2009. The website doesn't seem to exist any more but a copy of this article can be viewed on the Wayback Machine here

Medieval times

By Katherine Flemming

2009-07-17

Merlin costume designer Charlotte Morris has what she calls a “gem job”—designing every piece of clothing on the King Arthur-inspired show. From where she sources vintage fabric to what piece takes the longest to make, Morris gives us a backstage pass to her incredibly plum gig. She spoke with us on the phone from London, as the show was shooting its second season in France, Wales and England.

HOW SHE GOT THERE “It never occurred to me that I could do a career out of costumes,” says Morris, who studied art and art history in university. After moving to London, she scored a covetable job at Angels, a costume store that provided dressings for large stage productions, learning “how to tell stories about the characters through costumes.” While there, she networked with other costume designers and stumbled upon the script for Merlin, which instantly “struck a chord.”

CONCEPT “From a costume point of view, [the show is] brilliant,” says Morris. Because Merlin amalgamates elements of period dramas and fantasy, Morris is responsible for essentially “creating a whole world.”

The job description stresses that the clothing should be accessible to younger viewers, so Morris mixes in what she calls “a little cocktail”— period structures with modern and fashionable touches. Because the show features a talking dragon, she can stretch her artistic licence. “In a way, the world is sort of our oyster.”

THE BALANCE Morris mainly sticks to period silhouettes, but to ensure the show is relatable to a younger audience, the nature of the story was stretched slightly. “We said we would go up to the 1500s, but I’ve kept the silhouettes quite simple for the men.” For example, there are plenty of duster coats, but not necessarily all-in-one tunics for all the men, with the exception of Gaius (Richard Wilson). “He’s older, as a character, and it feels really correct for him.”

BEST DRESSED While Morris couldn’t pin down her favourite character to dress, she noted that the costumes for Morgana (Katie McGrath) are fun because of her beautiful gowns, often made of luxe fabrics like silk-satins and chiffons. But beauty aside, there’s a deeper meaning to the way Morris works. By adding heavier bits of jewelry, Morris reflects the character’s transition from good to evil.

While Morgana eventually winds up evil, “at the beginning, she’s not evil — she’s softer, a bit more innocent, and a bit more naïve,” says Morris. To subtly demonstrate this, Morris adds small touches here and there, things that “tell the story about who she is. She might have a snake belt or something — tiny little things.”

SHOPPING While plenty of the jewelry and extra pieces come from Morris’ private stash, she’s forced to pound the pavement when she sources fabric for the elaborate gowns, which are all constructed from scratch. Her top spot? London’s famous Portobello Market, where she visits specific dealers for things like vintage beading and fabrics, like the 1930s silver fabric and vintage Egyptian shawl number she recently whipped up for Morgana.

But there’s more to the shopping than finding pretty colours. “Because of the nature of the lighting — some which is candlelight — I tried to choose fabrics and textures that work well, respond to light and work well on camera.”

UNDERNEATH IT ALL While the girls don’t wear waist-cinching corsets, they do wear specific underpinnings because “the foundation garments are quite crucial to how the dresses look. A lot are bias-cut, which fall accordingly and are much more fluid.”

BREAKING THE BANK Because Merlin’s a TV show, Morris “likes to put the money where you can see it”— around the characters’ faces, including good quality jewelry, since a large portion of shooting is focused on close-up shots. However, since certain pieces — like the armour for male characters — can cost a pretty penny, she says, “I try and be quite clever with my budget and recycle and reuse things.”

FOOTWEAR? Ever wonder what the actors wear under the cumbersome costumes and heavy gowns? “Katie often wears UGG boots and trainers when we aren’t shooting the shoes,” says Morris, adding that aligning eye-lines, height and times require some adjusting. “Richard feels comfortable in trainers, so we’ve made a pair of shoes that cover up the cushions of his trainers, so when you look at them, they look like period shoes, but actually he’s got the cushioning of his own trainers underneath.

”PLANNING Seven weeks prior to shooting, Morris collects “anything that’s inspiring” — from old paintings to fashion shoots, fabric swatches and beading — and creates a mood board: “Sometimes, you’ll have some vintage beading that you can build a whole dress around.” From there, she consults with producers, directors and actors to build up a wardrobe. For example, the red that makes several cameos throughout the show is a “Camelot red,” so Morris works closely with the art department to share artwork and ideas, zooming into details like the Camelot dragon and the characters’ crests.

Merlin airs Sundays, 8 p.m. ET, on CTV/NBC.

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[Article] "King of the castle"

by Michelle Griffin for The Sydney Morning Herald website on 21st May 2011 at 3:00 am. The majority of the article covers travel to Pierrefonds while the filming wasn't about, but there is a decent mention of the show so I've decided to pop it in the vault. It's also worth noting that due to this article now being over a decade old, the pricing listed at the end is out of date (at time of posting this, the Chateau de Pierrefonds website lists entry now at €9 rather than €7 and a concessions price doesn't appear to exist any more).

[Original source] (paywalled)

King of the castle

5–7 minutes

The towers of Chateau de Pierrefonds.Credit: AFP

Michelle Griffin joins a legion of Camelot fans beneath the fairytale towers of Chateau de Pierrefonds.

Many castles lay claim to being the original Camelot. The latest home of King Arthur's magical kingdom lies about 90 minutes north-east of Paris, in a glorious stone folly called Chateau de Pierrefonds.

For three months of the year, this imposing grey-stone pile is the location of the BBC series Merlin, which revamps the Arthurian legends as an awkward friendship between arrogant Prince Arthur and his teenage manservant, Merlin, who must keep his magical talents a secret. If, like the program, this castle is not exactly faithful to its mediaeval origins, it hardly matters to the fans who watch the camera crews re-enact battles, jousts and feasts for the fourth series.

They're not filming when my family and I decide to make a pilgrimage to the site of one of our favourite shows. But even without the catering vans blocking the archways and production teams roping off the staterooms, this mad 19th-century vision of the ideal mediaeval castle turns out to be a terrific day trip from the French capital.

"It truly is like the seventh or eighth character on the cast list," actor Anthony Head, who plays cruel King Uther, told website Monsters and Critics. "The stones still look new even though it's a few hundred years old ... It's not like a castle that's got bits missing and chunks taken out of it."

Looming above a tiny village in the Oise district, this restored mediaeval stronghold was one of France's favourite romantic ruins long before Napoleon III started rebuilding it in 1857. Cardinal Richelieu ordered its demolition in 1617, after the nobles within backed the wrong duke.

It's the remaining 14th-century twin towers that take our breath away as we walk up the steep hill to the entrance - especially "Charlemagne's tower", a round donjon with a peaked roof that local wisdom says is the inspiration for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

There has been a castle on this site since the 12th century. It's a strategic location, because invading armies have always marched down the Oise Valley. Julius Caesar fought the Gauls in this region. Joan of Arc fought the English in the surrounding forests and prayed unsuccessfully for victory in the church at nearby Compiegne. On the outskirts of Compiegne, a memorial stands on the abandoned rail line where the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. In 1940, Hitler made the French sign on his terms in the same rail carriage, which was then destroyed in Berlin.

Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, the architect appointed by Napoleon III in 1857 to restore Pierrefonds, did far more than rebuild the ruined towers and the outer walls. Like the cathedral of Notre Dame, this castle was re-created as a 19th-century dream of the Middle Ages - a riot of gargoyles and arches and long, airy galleries with camera-ready sight lines. Steel girders prop soaring roofs, and walls are painted in intertwined stencils. Viollet-le-Duc died before the job was done and the money ran out when Napoleon III was deposed in 1870 but Pierrefonds still feels ready for its next royal.

A few huts - remnants of Merlin's lower village locations - line the walkway to the moat. The jousts are filmed on a green sward overlooking the valley. Through the enormous arched gateway, with its satisfyingly fierce portcullis, we discover a central courtyard that reminds us not only of the TV series but every Arthurian book illustration. A wide, sun-bleached staircase is fronted by a bronze knight and guarded by snarling griffins. Downspouts have been carved into lizards. A long walkway is decorated with earnest stone knights and demented gargoyles - screaming monkeys, vomiting dragons and a loony five-breasted monster, its jaw unhinged to poke out its curling tongue. This is where Uther and Arthur walk and talk about how best to repel the series' latest invasions. The draughty stateroom on the first floor of the main building hosts art exhibitions but is also the TV location for countless courtly confrontations before the throne.

Climbing the stairs to half-decorated chambers and echoing arched corridors is tremendous fun for anyone who ever read childhood novels about being transported back in time - it speaks as much of Rapunzel or Narnia as Camelot. Every time we lean out a window, flocks of pigeons take off in loops above the castle roofs. Our one regret is that we cannot climb to the very top and peer out between the Lego blocks of the battlements.

FAST FACTS

Getting there

Emirates has a fare to Paris for about $2070 low-season return from Melbourne and Sydney, including tax. You fly to Dubai (14hr), then Paris (7hr 30min).

To get to Chateau de Pierrefonds from Paris by car take the A1 motorway, or go by train to Compiegne, followed by a 20-minute, €20 ($26.60) taxi ride to Pierrefonds; voyages-sncf.com. A bus runs to Pierrefonds from Compiegne twice a day; oise-mobilite.fr.

Visiting there

Chateau de Pierrefonds is open daily from 9.30am to 6pm until September 4 and from 10am-1pm and 2-5.30pm Tuesday to Sunday from September 5 to April 30. Entry is €7, concession €4.50, under 18 free; pierrefonds.monuments-nationaux.fr/en.

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[Article] "'Merlin': Q&A with Nathaniel Parker"

by Morgan Jeffery for Digital Spy, first published 2nd June 2011

[Original source]

'Merlin': Q&A with Nathaniel Parker

We chat to new Merlin cast member Nathaniel Parker about the upcoming fourth series.

According to Merlin star Colin Morgan, we can expect the fourth series of the magical drama to air this autumn on BBC One, and there's a few new faces popping up this time round! Back in March, Digital Spy exclusively revealed that Nathaniel Parker will star in the new run as Agravaine, the uncle of Arthur (Bradley James). We recently caught up with the actor while he was promoting his new ITV1 drama Injustice and took the opportunity to ask him about his Merlin role!

You've got Merlin coming up - tell us about your character. "I think mythologically-wise he is Arthur's nephew. It doesn't work with me being Bradley [James]' nephew, so I'm now his uncle. You know what happened at the end of the last series? Morgana, Morgause, a big battle - obviously Camelot won. So we tidy up that and I become a presence at court. Quite a dark and brooding presence."

I like Katie's evil smiles. Do you get to do an evil smile every now and then? "I do! I wouldn't call myself evil - in fact, we're not allowed to use the word evil - but I would call myself misunderstood. Only by Arthur. Actually, after 20 minutes you know exactly that [my character is] a baddie, but you're not allowed to say it too much, and obviously Arthur doesn't know. It's only Merlin and Gaius who really suspect, and really only Gaius at the beginning as well. That's great fun. Working with Richard [Wilson] is a treat, and Colin [Morgan]. Well, all of them, obviously. But Colin's a sweetheart."

Do you enjoy playing a villain? "Love it, love it. I said when I started, 'Should I be Alan Rickman?' And they went, 'Ooh, nothing as big and broad as that'. Little did they know my baroque history of my baddie-playing! I do, I love it. It's good fun. I like playing good guys too. I like playing the bad guys to make them good."

Will you be in every episode? "Yes, I believe so. I'll be there for the series, maybe more. I don't know if they're making another series - every year they say they might, they might not."

This series has been extended from the original ten episodes, hasn't it? "13 episodes [now]! It's quite a long time."

But people love it. "Quite rightly. I know a lot of people who love their Saturday evenings with that."

What's your character's relationship like with Arthur? "He's avuncular. He tries to give him the best advice he possibly can. The truth is, he would run Camelot in a very different way if he had a chance. It's not that he dislikes Camelot, he'd just run it in a very different way. It's sort of the old guard - Arthur's so much the new guard - the old guard coming in. With some strength, I think. I think he's definitely a force to be reckoned with."

Did you enjoy filming at the castle in France? "It's an amazing place. Great fun. Cantering up those cobbled steps into the gates, good fun. I love it. I love all that dressing up and playing around. We do quite a lot in Cardiff in a warehouse there and then in the Forest of Dean. It's a laugh, actually. It's quite extraordinary. I wish it was real! Somehow Merlin sometimes makes things look like a set - it's not! Actually we almost always use real things for exteriors."

Were you a fan of the show before? "Yeah, I was. I watched all three series. My daughters love it, so I watched it with them."

How did they react when they heard you'd be in the show? "So thrilled. When I got it I was absolutely over the moon because I knew they'd be able to watch it and they'd love it. This [Injustice] is harder for them to watch - I've got a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old so I'm not sure I'd recommend the 12-year-old to see this. Or the 14-year-old! But that, yeah, love it."

You've been in Stardust and Narnia - is the fantasy genre something you're interested in? "Yes. Clive Barker was an old chum, who wrote Books of Blood and the Hellraiser movies and things like that. He was a colleague of my brother's - they worked together on fringe theatre for a while. I did used to like fantasy. It's not something I've grown out of - I enjoy it still. I'm not a fan of any one particular genre, but I think getting people out of their shells and doing something magic is always a top thing to do."

The fourth series of Merlin is currently filming in the UK and France. Nathaniel can next be seen in Injustice, starting this Monday at 9pm on ITV1.

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Old webpage from the Clearwell Caves site which includes BBC Merlin scenes from series 2 and 3 when listing examples of the caves being used for filming. As far as I can find, Merlin is no longer included on the website. The archived version of this can be viewed here

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Advertising image from scificollector featuring wave 1 of the action figures, wallet, backpack and that rather infamous poster.

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Two screenshots of what I can currently find as the only proof that there had been plans to make a Camelot castle playset, quite possibly to go along with the action figures. The first is a news update from GetRetro, who were the suppliers of the action figures. This page can currently be viewed on the WayBack machine here

The second is a report from LiveJournal user gealach_ros and can be viewed here. Because the report comes from "a friend of a friend" it's impossible to verify, however gealach_ros was known as a very reliable source of information back in the fandom days on LiveJournal (as someone who was there, I can confirm this), so on this occasion I'm happy to post it.

Unfortunately I am currently unable to find any images of the GetRetro stall at the London Toy Fair 2010. It's an industry/press only event, otherwise I'm sure some fans might have gone and taken pics. It's a shame that no images of the prototype castle toy seems to exist but I find it interesting to think about with these two small pieces of information.