News article: Western Daily Press, 1 December 1972
Friday, 1 December 1972 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arthur_of_the_britonsThis article by Jean Blackmore appeared on page 6 of the Western Daily Press.
Don’t look now, but that guerilla leader is King Arthur
AS A YOUNG and lively television company, HTV has revealed an enthusiasm for re-interpreting the colourful history of the region it serves.
HTV West’s starkly unromantic version of the legend of King Arthur due to burst upon the small screen next week as Arthur of the Britons, may make sentimentalists thankful that its territory does not include Sherwood Forest.
Otherwise, Robin Hood and his merry men might be transformed into a gang of medieval muggers. [HTV was responsible for a series, “Robin of Sherwood” in 1984 – 6.]
It is perhaps inevitable that every age re-creates popular myths and legends in its own image.
FREEDOM
That is why Sir Thomas Malory surrounded Arthur with his courtly knights and their deeds of chivalry.
That is why Alfred Lord Tennyson made them all glow with Victorian virtue
That is why Patrick Dromgoole, HTV West’s programme controller, who masterminded this ambitious new series, has transformed Arthur into a typical guerilla leader, clearly identifiable with 20th century freedom fighters.
This was done deliberately in the interests of historical accuracy – that is, in deference to contemporary expert opinion of what is historical accuracy where Arthur is concerned.
It would be a calumny to suggest that HTV must have found it cheaper to dispense with castles and other elaborate trappings of the popular legend, and settle for hutted encampments with Arthur and his tough followers living rough.
In fact, HTV has spent more than £500,000 on the production, and has gone to infinite pains on research to ensure that the costumes, weapons, tools, and manners of the actors are an authentic reproduction of what would have been found in Celtic Britain just after the departure of the Romans.
LOCATION
While archaeologists and historians still argue about the exact location of Arthur’s Camelot, HTV West built its own Camelot in a steeply wooded valley near Stroud by courtesy of the Forestry Commission.
The choice of location may puzzle strategists, and contradict ample historical evidence that the Britons of old had the sense to build their stronghold on hilltops.
But HTV West, coming on the scene nearly 1,000 years later, had to dodge pylons and other 20th century intrusions into the authentic Arthurian landscape.
A cast of nearly 2,000 including some of the local inhabitants living in the locations throughout the West Country, which were visited by HTV West’s production unit during its own strenuous six months campaigning, help to man the stockades and accompany Arthur on his far-ranging cavalry forays.
For apparently it is as an outstanding cavalry leader that Arthur won his immortality. He was fighting a rearguard action in defence of the fragmented British kingdoms which were coming under increasing pressure from the invading Saxons – who, of course, won in the end, and became the English.
Stripped of his knights, his magician Merlin and even his queen Guinevere, Arthur emerges as the youthfully athletic Oliver Tobias who is everything a pop-age hero should be. He even played the lead in the London production of Hair.
He has been given two sidekicks, who so far have been unknown to legend.
[This is incorrect; both Llud and Kai were based on legendary characters. Llud is loosely based on Lludd Llaw Eraint, a hero from Welsh mythology, and Kai is modeled on the Sir Kay of Arthurian myth, “King Arthur's foster brother and later seneschal, as well as one of the first Knights of the Round Table.”]
They are a ragged veteran named Llud, played with sombre vigour by Jack Watson, and a younger, fiery warrior named Kai, who is played with plenty of dash and energy by Michael Gothard.
MERITS
To enjoy this series, which will be screened in 12 self-contained episodes, it is essential to forget all about the Arthurian legend and its romantic trimmings, and be prepared to judge HTV West’s latest enterprise on its own merits, as a colourful costume piece which has made its own highspots with the help of a team of leading contemporary scriptwriters.
The series is being screened on the national network and is being distributed in America.
Don’t look now, but that guerilla leader is King Arthur
AS A YOUNG and lively television company, HTV has revealed an enthusiasm for re-interpreting the colourful history of the region it serves.
HTV West’s starkly unromantic version of the legend of King Arthur due to burst upon the small screen next week as Arthur of the Britons, may make sentimentalists thankful that its territory does not include Sherwood Forest.
Otherwise, Robin Hood and his merry men might be transformed into a gang of medieval muggers. [HTV was responsible for a series, “Robin of Sherwood” in 1984 – 6.]
It is perhaps inevitable that every age re-creates popular myths and legends in its own image.
FREEDOM
That is why Sir Thomas Malory surrounded Arthur with his courtly knights and their deeds of chivalry.
That is why Alfred Lord Tennyson made them all glow with Victorian virtue
That is why Patrick Dromgoole, HTV West’s programme controller, who masterminded this ambitious new series, has transformed Arthur into a typical guerilla leader, clearly identifiable with 20th century freedom fighters.
This was done deliberately in the interests of historical accuracy – that is, in deference to contemporary expert opinion of what is historical accuracy where Arthur is concerned.
It would be a calumny to suggest that HTV must have found it cheaper to dispense with castles and other elaborate trappings of the popular legend, and settle for hutted encampments with Arthur and his tough followers living rough.
In fact, HTV has spent more than £500,000 on the production, and has gone to infinite pains on research to ensure that the costumes, weapons, tools, and manners of the actors are an authentic reproduction of what would have been found in Celtic Britain just after the departure of the Romans.
LOCATION
While archaeologists and historians still argue about the exact location of Arthur’s Camelot, HTV West built its own Camelot in a steeply wooded valley near Stroud by courtesy of the Forestry Commission.
The choice of location may puzzle strategists, and contradict ample historical evidence that the Britons of old had the sense to build their stronghold on hilltops.
But HTV West, coming on the scene nearly 1,000 years later, had to dodge pylons and other 20th century intrusions into the authentic Arthurian landscape.
A cast of nearly 2,000 including some of the local inhabitants living in the locations throughout the West Country, which were visited by HTV West’s production unit during its own strenuous six months campaigning, help to man the stockades and accompany Arthur on his far-ranging cavalry forays.
For apparently it is as an outstanding cavalry leader that Arthur won his immortality. He was fighting a rearguard action in defence of the fragmented British kingdoms which were coming under increasing pressure from the invading Saxons – who, of course, won in the end, and became the English.
Stripped of his knights, his magician Merlin and even his queen Guinevere, Arthur emerges as the youthfully athletic Oliver Tobias who is everything a pop-age hero should be. He even played the lead in the London production of Hair.
He has been given two sidekicks, who so far have been unknown to legend.
[This is incorrect; both Llud and Kai were based on legendary characters. Llud is loosely based on Lludd Llaw Eraint, a hero from Welsh mythology, and Kai is modeled on the Sir Kay of Arthurian myth, “King Arthur's foster brother and later seneschal, as well as one of the first Knights of the Round Table.”]
They are a ragged veteran named Llud, played with sombre vigour by Jack Watson, and a younger, fiery warrior named Kai, who is played with plenty of dash and energy by Michael Gothard.
MERITS
To enjoy this series, which will be screened in 12 self-contained episodes, it is essential to forget all about the Arthurian legend and its romantic trimmings, and be prepared to judge HTV West’s latest enterprise on its own merits, as a colourful costume piece which has made its own highspots with the help of a team of leading contemporary scriptwriters.
The series is being screened on the national network and is being distributed in America.