Recollections from Colin Holloway and other crew members

These photos appear to have been taken in July 1972, while filming was still taking place at Woodchester - probably around the time of the filming of "The Challenge" and "Enemies and Lovers". They were taken by one of the trainee make-up assistants - name as yet unknown.



Director, Sid Hayers, with Oliver Tobias (Arthur), and Michael Gothard (Kai).





Sid Hayers, at swordpoint, with Oliver Tobias (Arthur), Michael Gothard (Kai) and Fight Arranger, Peter Brayham (left).

Oliver Tobias says: That was the very likeable and easygoing Sidney Hayers! He directed 11 episodes of "Arthur of the Britons." Michael and I thought he was great. He had a very good sense of humour.

The posting of these photos on an HTV Facebook page resulted in the following exchanges between former “Arthur of the Britons” crew members:

Boom operator, Alan Jones: Peter Brayham had arrived from a shoot called “Man in a Suitcase”.

Electrician, Colin Holloway: I recognised his extra strong glasses anywhere.

Alan Jones: Within days, he was hit in the crotch by a spear being thrown towards the camera, and was ambulanced off the set.¹

Cinematographer, Peter Thornton: The spear was thrown by one of the extras, a neighbour of ours at the time, Ken Holmes, who represented England in the Commonwealth Games.² He competed in the javelin! … Peter Brayham instructed a group of extras to throw their spears and aim at him, thinking that they would not get anywhere near him. He was obviously unaware that amongst them was a trained javelin thrower who was extremely accurate in his aim.

Runner, Nick Bigsby: The man on the left of the picture is Peter Brayham who was the stunt coordinator and I was the runner on the series which gave me a fantastic grounding in TV production. [to Colin Holloway] I was the runner on Arthur and remember you on that blue wagon with the brute on top! I went on to Thames where I had a great 20 years vision mixing and then directing before going freelance.

Colin Holloway: … this bridge was washed away one weekend of high waters and storm winds. ³ Rebuilt again by George and Gordon, who were the main (great!) construction crew. I worked on most of the episodes as an electrician. Great memories of a very hard working crew. I also remember Alan Burnham, Tom etc.

Colin Holloway also supplied these memories:

Arthur was the first big film I worked on with HTV as a young spark. I had commercial shoots already under my belt in my previous job with The West of England Film Studios in Bristol shooting colour 35mm film. So I was already prepared for a full on drama series.

Our crew was Des Coles, Keith Webber, Dave Bailey, Roger Maclean, and myself: operating the Brutes and other lighting. A Brute is a very large light unit, on a big heavy tripod, that takes two men just to lift up the stand and then mount the lamp (as big as a dustbin) on the top. It is then operated by one spark perched on top of a tall pair of steps. These days the use of a cherry picker is required for safety. The mobile generator is parked some distance away, due to noise problems, but then we have to run big heavy cables to the lamps. This is a continuous labour of love. Everything has to be de-rigged and put away each night - and start all over again the next day!

On Camera team: Director of Photography, Graham Edgar. Camera operator, Roger Pearce, Peter Thornton and possibly young Howard, and Ray. And plenty of others to make up the complete crew, including the sound department.

There is always something to do. We start on location at 07:00 and wrap at 19:00, 5 days a week, and may include extra overtime to clear up. Then there is your travel time from base to base.

Food is supplied via a professional location caterers [George Cook] which is very good overall, with the highlight being the fresh sandwiches and cakes just before we all go home for the day, exhausted, with only a few hours before our early morning alarm call - and off we go!

This extended routine is tiring but there is great camaraderie, and with so many different jobs all working with one aim. There is barely any time for evening pub time. If the location was too far away we were transported by a unit bus or minivans. Not very often were we allowed an overnight stay. That was saved for the actors and bosses.

I did work on every episode, as some days crossed over with other episodes; so to catch up, a second unit was used to fill in the gaps, both Woodchester and Woollard, and anywhere else in between.

While we were filming there was nearly always horses on set - which brought its own problems! If an actor or extra was too close, we called out, “Tails up!” This kept the costumes as clean as possible - and our boots - but we still had to clean the cables that by now were 6 inches below the surface, awaiting the de-rig.

The constant fighting scenes had to be well managed and special FX guys and armourer were kept busy. The village had constant fires for cooking and other fire sources for keeping warm etc. Sometimes a whole village would be attacked and get sacked during village rivalry. All SFX. Even smoke machines were in constant use, and oil torches placed around the sets during night shoots - well, after dark anyway. Other FX might be traps and pits dug into the ground. The FX boys did all sorts of stunts.

The fights were sometimes involving a couple of dozen “extras” as they were called in those days. Now they are “supporting actors.” I know it’s hard, but - come lunchtime - they were kept back to let the crew get in first. Always a push and shove period!

As I said, there was great friendship between the departments - and sometimes a practical joke was played!
Following their lunch, the make-up ladies would retire to their car for a little refreshment and a snooze.

On one occasion, in high summer - and it was hot - the scene was set. The girls were in their car, sending up Zzzzzzz …

A couple of sparks procured a large heavy black drape, sneaked up to the car, and ever so gently slid the drape over the car, efficiently blacking out the daylight.

Zzzzz.

Then an almighty scream punctuated the scene! The girls panicked, not knowing the time of day as they woke up from slumber, and more screams followed - but soon abated.

I’m not sure if ever they forgave them, but they carried on their lives. And no one was injured or hurt - maybe their pride!

I am a very long-standing friend of both Daphne [Neville] and Roger Pearce; we go way back to the early mid-sixties. And I have gaffered for Sean [Dromgoole] on a little drama on the Dartmoor hills, so I know him, and his father, Patrick Dromgoole, who produced this series. I thoroughly loved working on these productions and those that followed, ie. “Search and Rescue”, “Darkness and Danger”, then following on to “Robin of Sherwood” etc.

I started a film lighting hire company, with a proper sound stage with full lighting grid and camera cranes, dollies, etc and it was used for drama and commercials. It came to an abrupt end when Covid came along and reared its ugly head. We had to shut, but we still continued lighting and grips crews freelance technicians. I am now retired.

~~

¹ Oliver Tobias does not remember this, but says “Peter Brayham … fell off his horse a few times!”

² Ken Holmes competed in the javelin at the 1970 Commonwealth Games – he actually represented Wales, and came 7th, with a throw of 68.62 metres.

³ This was not actually the bridge he was referring to – this was the landing stage at Woodchester. However, the very similar-looking bridge at Woollard was washed away by torrential rains, a week before the end of the series.

Inside the episode: The Challenge

Plot

The episode starts with a fight in the woods, between two cousins, Garet and Gawain, who are continuing a long-standing feud between their fathers, over an inheritance.

When Arthur interrupts them, Garet admits, “It all starts from nothing.” He and Gawain don’t really hate each other – they just get carried away.

But Garet and Gawain are the leaders of their villages, and Arthur had charged them with keeping the Saxons to the North at bay - not fighting each other. Mightily displeased, Arthur banishes them both to Gaul. Each cousin offers to go there alone, to stop the fighting, then they squabble again, over who should have the right to make this sacrifice! Finally they work together, taking Arthur, Kai and Llud by surprise, pushing them off their horses, and escaping.

When Arthur and Kai give chase, Kai suggests a bet: Arthur’s dagger against Kai’s new spear, that Kai is the first to catch one of the brothers.

Arthur ambushes and catches Garet with minimal effort, while Kai rides after Gawain, and takes him prisoner. Both miscreants react with good-natured acceptance, and – this time – their hands are tied, to stop them getting away again.

Now Kai wants to know who won the bet. Suspecting that the answer will cause trouble, Llud is reluctant to tell him, but Kai won’t let it rest, and Llud has to admit that Arthur won by a narrow margin.

Kai resents giving up his new spear, but resents Arthur even more for refusing to accept it. Kai launches it over their heads; Arthur observes that he must be tired, then throws his own spear, which lands a little further away.

They ignore Llud's efforts to get them moving on, and challenge each other for both distance and accuracy, in spear throwing. Their exchanges become more barbed, and the contest, more hazardous.

Amused at first, Garet and Gawain give each other increasingly puzzled looks, perhaps wondering why they are the ones tied up. Llud is also worried, but Arthur laughs off his concerns – “It’s just a game, Llud” – while Kai continues to rise to Arthur’s baiting.

Arthur and Kai then test out each other’s shield arms, then joust, then belabour each other with their spears. Arthur knocks Kai’s spear from his hand; Kai draws his axe. Arthur throws away his spear and draws his sword. They fight again, until they break each other’s shields. Then they simply ride at each other, their weapons crashing together.

Arthur cuts Kai’s stirrup, unhorsing him. Arthur dismounts, and they continue fighting, sword against axe. Kai disarms Arthur. Arthur runs to get one of Garet and Gawain’s confiscated weapons – a short sword – and Kai throws his axe away and asks for the other, to make the contest more even.

Both wounded, they fight on until both are disarmed. Then they throttle each other, and – locked together – roll down a bank into a stream, and struggle in the mud and water.

As Llud and the two cousins look on in dismay, Arthur picks up Kai’s axe, and brings the blade down into the mud, where Kai’s head lay a split second before. Kai gets to his feet, pulls a knife from his belt, and stares at Arthur.

The sight of Kai’s axe embedded in the mud finally brings Arthur to his senses, and they both stand down, then help each other climb up the bank.

Llud unties Garet and Gawain. Their banishment is rescinded.


Timeline

In “The Gift of Life”, both Krist’s enquiry about a wound on Kai’s neck, given to him by Arthur, and the reference by Ulrich’s minstrel to Arthur and Kai’s great fights, suggest that the events in “The Challenge” were supposed to have occurred before those in “The Gift of Life.”

So despite being aired after “The Gift of Life” in the UK, “The Challenge” seems to have been intended to be shown first. It appears before “The Gift of Life” in the “Arthur of the Britons” annual-format book by Terence Feely, in a German book loosely based on the series, “Konig Arthur”, and on the German DVD set.

But an injury suffered by Oliver Tobias while filming “The Challenge” caused a delay in completing the episode. An article in the Bristol Evening Post published 13 July refers to this incident as having occurred the night before, which indicates that "The Challenge" was being filmed during the week beginning 11 July.

As cameraman Roger Pearce acknowledges, they changed the schedule so as to keep filming, so most of both "Enemies and Lovers" and "The Gift of Life" - neither of which made too many demands on Oliver Tobias - were filmed before the completion of "The Challenge", to allow Oliver time to recover.

There is a telling note at the bottom of call sheet no. 25 showing that "pick ups" - shots filmed after the bulk of an episode has been completed - from both "Enemies and Lovers" and "The Challenge" were to be filmed on Saturday 29 July. From this, we can safely conclude that those episodes were filmed prior to "The Gift of Life."

The keeper of this archive speculates that the "pick-ups" scheduled for 29 July might have been shots of Arthur and Kai riding along a track near the banks of the River Chew; similar shots were used in both "The Challenge" and "Enemies and Lovers."

Suggested shooting order so far

Arthur is Dead
Daughter of the King
The Challenge


Broadcast problems

On 11 January 1973, a letter from R.J. Simmons, Press Officer for HTV West, was published in The Stage.

Simmons was responding to a complaint that episode 3 of “Arthur of the Britons”, "The Challenge", broadcast on 20 December 1972, was difficult to understand. Simmons explained that this was because a Post Office fault caused the loss of sound during the first 8 minutes, resulting in the loss of much vital dialogue. According to the letter, several companies showed that episode again later.


Locations

Cameraman Roger Pearce confirmed that the scenes where the protagonists ride through the bracken were filmed in the Mendips. The rest of the episode was filmed in Compton Dando, at this location.


Inside information

Oliver Tobias is justifiably proud of having done all but one of his own stunts for the series, and sports a “Worldwide British Equity Registered Stuntman” sticker on the windscreen of his Ducati.

While filming stunts for “The Challenge”, he suffered a serious injury. At a meeting with fans in 2010, he said: “Christ I’m lucky to be here – I nearly died during filming.”

For the sequence where Arthur had to use his shield to parry spears, they had a champion javelin thrower from Bristol University standing beside the camera, hurling them at him. Camera 2nd assistant Peter Thornton remembers: "The spear was thrown by one of the extras, a neighbour of ours at the time, Ken Holmes, who represented England in the Commonwealth Games. He competed in the javelin!"

Oliver thought he was young and athletic enough to jump out of the way in time, but on one occasion, he didn’t make it: a spear glanced off the inside of his shield instead of the outside, and hit him on the back of the head.

“When it hit me, it was like a ship running aground.”

He remembers Michael holding his head in his lap while they were waiting for the ambulance, and waking up in Bristol Infirmary, thinking he’d died and gone to heaven, and that the very pretty nurse bending over him with a gold cross dangling from her neck was an angel. He remembers being out of action for a fortnight with concussion.

“You feel terrible and can’t focus on anything.”

Producer, Patrick Dromgoole was very worried about the injury to his star:

“Oliver's spear injury terrified the life out of us, and might have been quite serious although he tended to play it down and got out of hospital and back to work as fast as he possibly could.”

Cameraman Roger Pearce was rather more sanguine:

“I have a vague memory of Ollie being injured. I think it was late afternoon and the result of a spear being thrown; it would not have been metal but a solid rubber tipped one. But with the weight of the wooden shaft behind it, it could still wound. I seem to remember Ollie was taken off by ambulance to be checked over and there may have been a few stitches to boot! Was filming halted? No, just rearrange the call sheet and press on!”

When filming the fight in the stream, Roger recalls that they rolled down the bank a couple of times to practice, but they couldn’t get their costumes wet, or it would have been all over.

Oliver remembered that they were extremely cold by the time they finished filming the fight. In the scene following the fight, where they ride off on their separate ways, Arthur is wearing different breeches. Oliver said this was because ‘we washed our clothes, and I refused to get on a horse with a wet gusset!’


Cast notes

Both Ken Hutchison (Gawain) and Nicky Henson have long careers in TV and film.


Re-working the legend

In Arthurian legend, Gawain is one of the greatest knights of the Round Table. His brothers, Gareth and Mordred, are also knights. When Lancelot accidentally kills Gareth, the recriminations and political machinations that follow precipitate the break-up of Arthur’s Round Table, and Arthur’s death in battle with Mordred.

In “The Challenge”, Garet and Gawain’s dispute precipitates the struggle between Arthur and Kai, which prompts Gawain’s fearful speculation, “It’s to the death …” to which Llud responds, “If what you say is true, then it’s more than the death of one man. It’ll destroy the other. It will destroy this land”: echoes of “The King and the Land are one.”


Family ties

This episode introduces a recurring theme of familial rivalry, in the persons of cousins, Garet and Gawain, whose quarrel goes back generations.

The relationship between Arthur, Kai and Llud has still not been explained, but we hear Llud say: “I trained you both for battle”, letting us know that Llud’s mentoring role in their lives is long-standing. Then, as their contest intensifies, Llud says, “had to come – now they must fight it out.”

This tells us that Llud has seen them grow up together, and been aware of the rivalry bubbling under the surface for a long time; that Arthur and Kai have often fought before, probably with varying degrees of seriousness, ranging from play, through practice, to quite serious quarrels.

Arthur, the younger and more slightly built of the two², has probably been on the losing side of fights with Kai for most of his life - and he hasn’t liked it. This explains why Llud thinks it “had to come.”

Their importance to each other is hinted at when Llud answers Gawain’s “It’s to the death …” with “If what you say is true, then it’s more than the death of one man. It’ll destroy the other.”


Dark Age Men

The whole 25 minute episode is a feast of macho posturing. The competition to catch Garet and Gawain starts innocently enough, but Kai is a little too anxious to learn who caught his man first, and gets annoyed when Arthur claims that his victory was because he knew Gareth and Gawain’s minds: tantamount to saying, “It wasn’t fair on you – I used my superior intellect.”

Then when Kai beats Arthur for distance with the spear-throwing contest, Arthur moves the goalposts: “It’s accuracy that counts.”

Having beaten Kai at hitting the target, he then goes out of his way to insult Kai’s defensive capabilities:
Kai: So you have a better shield arm too, have you?
Arthur: I did not say that … To state the obvious is a tedious pastime.

As the contest continues, it is Kai who keeps the coolest head, while Arthur seams desperate to win at all costs; during the jousting, when Kai wounds him, drawing blood, he is clearly furious.

Though Arthur gives up the advantage of his spear, apparently for the sake of fairness, later, when he has cut Kai’s stirrup, pitching him from his horse, he says: “I wouldn’t want you to say that my horse beat you.”

Then Kai, with his axe, sends Arthur’s sword flying off out of reach; at this point, with no weapon in his hand, Arthur should have admitted defeat, and – if he was in his right mind – he would have. But he runs to fetch a short sword. He seems to want to keep fighting until he has beaten Kai in as many ways as he can; until Kai acknowledges him the better warrior.

Now, Kai gives up his axe, in exchange for another short sword, because he can see that there is no point trying to call a halt to the fight; Arthur will not be satisfied until he has won. And it isn’t until Arthur nearly splits Kai’s head open, and Kai gets to his feet and pulls a knife from his belt – which he could have done any time while they were fighting hand-to hand – that Arthur comes to his senses.


The best laid plans …

Not tying Garet and Gawain up right from the start wasn’t one of Arthur’s best moves. As a result, Garet and Gawain’s escape plan, made up on the fly, works like a dream.

The smug look Arthur gives Garet and Gawain at the end almost hints that his fight with Kai was a deliberate attempt to teach the Garet and Gawain a lesson; to show them how they look from the outside. If so, they took the charade much too far!

And the plan to send Garet and Gawain to Gaul … well, that didn’t really work out.


Great moments

Here are just a few of the many in this episode.



The beginning of Arthur and Kai's disagreement.



The little flick Kai gives Arthur’s hand at 10.25 to try to get him to calm down.



Kai, standing at bay (at 16:02) with only an axe, against Arthur’s spear:





The moment Arthur comes to his senses and throws the axe away, and the way they help each other back up the bank afterwards.


Quote/Unquote

Arthur: You’re a broken shield at my back.

Gawain: All those who are close by blood ties have their differences. Only holy men and cowards agree all the time.

Kai: I was pinning frogs’ legs before I could talk.
Arthur: It must have been irksome – not being able to tell anyone about it.

Arthur: I wouldn’t want you to say that my horse beat you.
Kai: Your horse would have a better chance.

Gawain: It’s to the death …
Llud: If what you say is true, then it’s more than the death of one man. It’ll destroy the other. It will destroy this land.


Arthur’s wisdom

In "Arthur is Dead", Arthur himself said: “If I fight now to prove myself, reason will have flown.” Reason certainly embarks on a long migration in this episode! Arthur seems to forget that just because he is the leader, he doesn’t necessarily have to be the strongest or most skillful fighter; as a result, he allows himself to get so caught up in the contest that he almost kills his best friend.


The burden of command

The worry about having to keep his people safe, and sort out these squabbles between his underlings, must put Arthur under a lot of pressure. Llud reminds Arthur and Kai: “This is no feast day. We have work ahead of us” – but perhaps that is part of the problem. And as Arthur puts it: “Young men must have their sport.”


The hot-headed sidekick …

… seems less hot-headed than Arthur, on this occasion.


A wager’s a wager

Wagering is part of normal life for Arthur and Kai – as in their race at the end of “Arthur is Dead”, and their knife-throwing for who fetches supplies, in “Daughter of the King.” But for some reason, the wager over who catches his miscreant first leads to trouble. Arthur must have known that his rejection of Kai's spear would lead to trouble.


'A man on a horse is worth ten on foot'

This week, Arthur is seen doing the same unconventional dismount as Kai did in “Daughter of the King”, swinging his right leg over his horse’s neck, so he doesn’t have to take his eyes off Garet and Gawain.

At a meeting in 2010, Oliver Tobias told of how, in one scene from “The Challenge”, Skyline (the horse that he was riding at the time), who hadn’t been trained to cope with the loud clanking noise made by the two spears dangling from either side of the saddle, was spooked, and bolted. It was running for ages in a blind panic. Oliver tried steering it towards a tree, but that didn’t slow it down, and he was thinking of throwing himself off, but he eventually managed to get it under control again. Throughout most of the rest of the episode, Arthur is seen riding his other white horse, Bernie.

Kai once again rides the dark horse with a wide irregular blaze, "Trooper" - who seems to cope with all kinds of irregular activities during the series. Llud rides his usual chestnut, Curly; Gawain rides the small flaxen chestnut, Blondie, and Garet rides a large dapple grey horse with a pink snip, "Pinkie".

See this post for further details of the horses of "Arthur of the Britons."


'That is bloody dangerous!'

There is a lot of stunt work in this episode, and some of it was evidently quite dangerous, given the aforementioned injury to Oliver Tobias. Everyone except Gawain falls off their horse; Kai falls off twice! The lack of any kind of head protection is, as ever, taken for granted.

To open the episode, Garet and Gawain go at it hammer and tongs, and as for Arthur and Kai: there aren’t many weapons they don’t make use of. They fight with spears, swords, shields, and short swords; Kai fights with his axe for the first time, and Arthur also uses it, nearly splitting Kai’s skull. At the end, Kai pulls a knife to defend himself.

As well as the fights, there is the scene where Kai rides after Gawain, at a gallop, holding his spear over his head with both hands, and launches the spear. This must have required great strength and balance.


Dressed to kill?

Arthur is wearing the same brown tunic with light brown trim that he wore for part of “Daughter of the King”, with a white shirt underneath. Kai wears a suede lace-up shirt. His studded tunic can be seen stowed behind his saddle, but – despite the fact that he spends much of the episode fighting – he doesn’t put it on. Llud wears a suede jerkin, with a white shirt.

'By the Gods!'

There is little reference to religion in this episode, apart from Garet’s opening line, “God! I’ll kill you!”

Arthur’s shield has a cross on it.


Honourable mention

The horses ridden by Arthur and Kai during their battle have to be mentioned here, for bravery and trust in their riders, who were swinging axes and swords around their heads.



Garet and Gawain provide great comic relief.


What’s going on here?

While Arthur berates Garet and Gawain in the woods, we see a reaction shot of Llud which was clearly taken out in the open. The shot was stolen from the scene where Arthur and Kai are about to throw spears at each other.



When Kai first launches his spear, Arthur observes that he must be tired, then throws his own spear. Everyone, including Kai, seems to acknowledge Arthur’s throw as the longest, but if you take into account the positions from which each man threw his spear, Kai’s clearly traveled further than Arthur’s.

The bits of sheepskin binding meant to blunt the points of Arthur and Kai’s spears look entirely ineffective.



Arthur claims to have been taught the short sword by the Romans, and Kai retorts that he’s killed Romans with it. Both these statements appear anachronistic, as the Romans officially left Britain before they were born. It’s possible they are referring to former Romans who had become naturalised, or to Britons like Ambrose, who still emulated the Roman ways.




Music

Paul Lewis revealed that for the scene where Arthur and Kai fight in the stream, one of the editors reversed the tape and played a music cue backwards. “It was a long sequence of sustained string tremolos punctuated by drumbeats, rising in pitch and intensity to a big climax. There was a fight in the mud which got slower and slower until the combatants dropped from exhaustion, so Editor Alex Kirby played the music backwards so that it gradually sagged away to nothing! So resourceful, and the joke is I never noticed! So much grunting, clashing of weapons and muddy splodgy sounds!”

The reversed track seems to be “Battle on Horseback.” In total, the tracks of incidental music used in this episode, were:

Track 12, Duel: Garet and Gawain fight in the woods.
Track 34, Title theme (bridge): riding through the bracken.
Track 14, Chase!: Arthur and Kai chase Gawain and Garet.
Track 26, Evil Stirs: tensions mount between Arthur and Kai.
Track 11, Desolation and Despair: Arthur insults Kai’s defensive abilities.
Track 9, Muttering and Plotting: Arthur and Kai throw spears at each other, and joust.
Track 10, Battle on Horseback/Bitter Victory: they fight on horseback.
Track 12, Duel: they fight on foot, with short swords.
Track 10, Battle on Horseback (reversed): they roll down the bank and fight in the stream.
Track 23, Arrival of Arthur: the two groups go their separate ways.

The whole suite of music, written by Paul Lewis, is available on CD.


Cast

Arthur ……………... Oliver Tobias
Kai .….….….….…... Michael Gothard
Llud ………………... Jack Watson
Garet ………………. Nicky Henson
Gawain ………….… Ken Hutchison

Crew

Executive Producer ... Patrick Dromgoole
Producer …………… Peter Miller
Director ……………. Sidney Hayers
Story ………………. Terence Feely
Associate Producer … John Peverall
Production Manager ... Keith Evans
Action Arranger ……. Peter Brayham
Post-production ……. Barry Peters
Cameraman ………... Tony Impey
Camera Operator …... Roger Pearce
Film Editing ………... David Williams
Sound recordist ……. Bob Stokes
Dubbing Mixer …….. John Cross
Art Direction ….…… Doug James
Assistant Director ….. Simon Hinkley
Production Assistant .. Maggie Hayes
Wardrobe ……..……. Audrey MacLeod
Make-up ….….…….. Christine Penwarden
Incidental music ……. Paul Lewis
Theme music ………. Elmer Bernstein

¹ Ken Holmes competed in the javelin at the 1970 Commonwealth Games – he actually represented Wales, and came 7th, with a throw of 68.62 metres.

² Michael Gothard is older than Oliver Tobias by eight years, and in Arthurian legend, Sir Kay is generally said to be older than Arthur.

News article: unknown publication

This article, courtesy of composer, Paul Lewis, from an unknown publication - probably a paper produced for the Bristol area - describes how Oliver Tobias was injured by a spear while shooting the episode, "The Challenge."

The End Column

Extremely mortifying for King Arthur

It wouldn’t have done for Tennyson. King Arthur would never have been put in such a mortifying position.

But television is a different matter. Which explains why a hero of chivalry had his wounds treated by the National Health Service yesterday.

King Arthur, played by actor Oliver Tobias, was filming a scene for a Harlech TV series at Compton Dando, Somerset.

As he fought a desperate duel with the war lord Kai – played by Michael Gothard – Kai aimed a spear thrust at Arthur’s head. The king parried with his shield, but slipped and the spear cut open the back of his head.

The Master of Camelot was carried in an ambulance from the field of conflict.

“I can’t understand it,” said the crestfallen champion at Bristol Infirmary later. “I must have parried a thousand blows during the filming.”

Producer Peter Miller, said “We take every precaution, but this is supposed to be a fight to the death, and it has to look good. Obviously there is some risk.

We will have to film the last piece again. At the moment we have the wrong man winning.”


There has been some use of artistic license in the article. Arthur should not have been referred to as "King", nor Kai as a "war lord." Also, according to Oliver Tobias, it was not Michael Gothard (playing Kai) who threw the spear which he failed to dodge, but a javelin expert who had been brought in for the shoot.

What is true is that Oliver was hospitalised, and the article plays down the seriousness of the injury he sustained. At a meeting with fans in 2010, Oliver Tobias said of the accident: “When it hit me, it was like a ship running aground.”

Though - according to cameraman Roger Pearce - the spearhead was very hard rubber, and not metal, it was nevertheless very dangerous with the weight of the huge spear behind it, and being hit was no laughing matter. Oliver was knocked unconscious. He needed quite a few stitches, and time away from filming to recover, though he returned to work as soon as he was able to.