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Review: The Stage and Television Today, 28 December 1972
Thursday, 28 December 1972 06:00 pmThis review of the episode, "The Challenge", is so disparaging that the creators of this archive were rather reluctant to include it at all, but for completeness' sake, here it is.
Quite why someone with so little interest in Arthurian legend was chosen to review the series is a mystery, as is his reason for viewing the third episode in the series, without having seen its predecessors.
Unfortunately, this lack of background knowledge, along with the loss of sound for the first part of the broadcast, appears to have rendered this very visual episode incomprehensible for a reviewer who specialised in writing for radio. Judging by his inaccurate description of the action, he only bothered watching part two, and that, with one eye closed.
A response from HTV's Press Officer can be found here.
Arthur of the Britons
HTV, December 20
By Michael Kittermaster
I confess to a mental blockage about King Arthur and his entourage, whether as history or legend – the result no doubt of too much indoctrination, too early, and sitting too many examination papers on the Morte D’Arthur and The Idylls of the King. I am not therefore the person best qualified to write about this subject, particularly as I have not been following the fortunes of this HTV series. But I have read Jack Lindsay’s portrait, based on historical sources, in which he presents Arthur as the brilliant general, reared in the Roman tradition, a man with a genius for strategy and tactics who developed an intelligence system which enabled him to break down the Saxon communications with efficient and well-armed shock troops.
Yet although I remain unpersuaded that Arthur was anything more than a marauding tribal chief on horseback, I am ready to be convinced otherwise and I was interested to hear that Lord Harlech, in launching this series, said that the intention was to recreate the historical Arthur, that several respected and respectable authors had been selected for the job and that no expense was to be spared on the production or in finding authentic locations. Indeed, the sum of half a million pounds was mentioned, though this was to be recovered, at least in part, from export sales to the States.
With such a build-up one might surmise that the series was intended to be something more than just another adventure series for kids. Maybe I’ve missed out on something significant in previous episodes but if this one was in any way representative then Lord Harlech has led me up a Welsh path. It consisted of two young men first throwing javelins at a tree, then at each other on foot and then doing the same thing on horseback. Having exhausted all possible permutations with javelins they spent the next ten minutes going through a similar routine with swords, then with hatchets and finally engaging in a hand to hand fight. And that was it. It was not clear who they were or what they were fighting about or who were the three observers, though one of them was presumably Arthur. Maybe one has to get properly into the series to be enlightened on these points and, if so, I apologise.
The only remarkable aspect of this production, for those interested in such things, lies in the credits published in the TV Times which lists five actors, a script writer, a Director, Producer and Executive Producer. Not, you will observe, who arranged the fight! Since the production must have been entirely the work of this gentleman he can feel justifiably aggrieved at not receiving a mention. Or did he not wish to be associated with it?
The announcer apologised for loss of sound for the first five minutes but she need not have bothered as, incidental music apart, it was virtually a silent movie and I doubt if there were more than half a dozen lines of dialogue. As a tailpiece she added: “I hope you’ll agree that in spite of the loss of sound that exciting fight made up for everything.” Sorry, luv, not for me it didn’t.
Quite why someone with so little interest in Arthurian legend was chosen to review the series is a mystery, as is his reason for viewing the third episode in the series, without having seen its predecessors.
Unfortunately, this lack of background knowledge, along with the loss of sound for the first part of the broadcast, appears to have rendered this very visual episode incomprehensible for a reviewer who specialised in writing for radio. Judging by his inaccurate description of the action, he only bothered watching part two, and that, with one eye closed.
A response from HTV's Press Officer can be found here.
Arthur of the Britons
HTV, December 20
By Michael Kittermaster
I confess to a mental blockage about King Arthur and his entourage, whether as history or legend – the result no doubt of too much indoctrination, too early, and sitting too many examination papers on the Morte D’Arthur and The Idylls of the King. I am not therefore the person best qualified to write about this subject, particularly as I have not been following the fortunes of this HTV series. But I have read Jack Lindsay’s portrait, based on historical sources, in which he presents Arthur as the brilliant general, reared in the Roman tradition, a man with a genius for strategy and tactics who developed an intelligence system which enabled him to break down the Saxon communications with efficient and well-armed shock troops.
Yet although I remain unpersuaded that Arthur was anything more than a marauding tribal chief on horseback, I am ready to be convinced otherwise and I was interested to hear that Lord Harlech, in launching this series, said that the intention was to recreate the historical Arthur, that several respected and respectable authors had been selected for the job and that no expense was to be spared on the production or in finding authentic locations. Indeed, the sum of half a million pounds was mentioned, though this was to be recovered, at least in part, from export sales to the States.
With such a build-up one might surmise that the series was intended to be something more than just another adventure series for kids. Maybe I’ve missed out on something significant in previous episodes but if this one was in any way representative then Lord Harlech has led me up a Welsh path. It consisted of two young men first throwing javelins at a tree, then at each other on foot and then doing the same thing on horseback. Having exhausted all possible permutations with javelins they spent the next ten minutes going through a similar routine with swords, then with hatchets and finally engaging in a hand to hand fight. And that was it. It was not clear who they were or what they were fighting about or who were the three observers, though one of them was presumably Arthur. Maybe one has to get properly into the series to be enlightened on these points and, if so, I apologise.
The only remarkable aspect of this production, for those interested in such things, lies in the credits published in the TV Times which lists five actors, a script writer, a Director, Producer and Executive Producer. Not, you will observe, who arranged the fight! Since the production must have been entirely the work of this gentleman he can feel justifiably aggrieved at not receiving a mention. Or did he not wish to be associated with it?
The announcer apologised for loss of sound for the first five minutes but she need not have bothered as, incidental music apart, it was virtually a silent movie and I doubt if there were more than half a dozen lines of dialogue. As a tailpiece she added: “I hope you’ll agree that in spite of the loss of sound that exciting fight made up for everything.” Sorry, luv, not for me it didn’t.