Arthur of the Britons

This photo is courtesy of camera operator, Roger Pearce, who says:

The colour shot is of the sequence in “The Challenge” when Arthur and Kai duel and go down a river bank: me, leaning on the dolly seat as the camera is pulled back up the bank for another take.

This photo is courtesy of camera operator, Roger Pearce, who says:

This shows another scrap, with me hand-holding the camera over Ollie’s shoulder.



This fight between Arthur and Kai was caused by Eithna, the "Daughter of the King."

"Arthur is Dead" – at least, the main part of it – was the first episode to be filmed, in late June and early July 1972. However, the horse-racing scenes at the beginning and end of the episode were clearly filmed in autumn, judging by the colour of the leaves on the trees.

The version of Arthur’s village seen in this episode had recently been built at Woodchester National Park, near Stroud, in Gloucestershire.

According to Sophie Neville, whose family owned some of the other filming locations, the ‘swamp’ where the Saxons were drowned was at the family farm in the village of Compton Dando.

Cerdig’s camp is thought to have been in the Mendips.

Of the filming, Director, Peter Sasdy says:

I was engaged to direct the opening episode of the series, with the understanding that, waiting for me there, was Arthur’s ‘village set’ already built. However, on arriving in Bristol and being taken to see this village set, all I’ve seen in the middle of the forest were a great number of trees with big chalk marks and numbers on them. "That’s where the village WILL BE BUILT!" I was informed. Not a good start...

After some panic, and bringing in outside crews – as always in the film industry, under pressure, working day and night for 7 days a week – more or less everything was ready to start the production on schedule.

I know I had very little time during pre-production, but I was happy with the casting of the main characters, and with the costumes ...

The Neville family, Martin and Daphne, and their children, Perry, Tamzin and Sophie, were involved with a number of episodes of Arthur of the Britons.” Martin recalled that “Arthur of the Britons” was HTV's big production for 1972. Daphne, who worked as a newsreader and television presenter for HTV, had heard that the company was auditioning children for parts in the series, so her daughters auditioned.

Tamzin was cast as Elka in “The Gift of Life” and Sophie appeared as another Saxon child. Perry was given a small speaking role as one of the Wood People’s children in “The Wood People”, and Sophie also appeared as a Woodchild.

Arthur is Dead

Their involvement began much earlier, because the field in the village of Frampton Mansell, where the drowning of the Saxons in "Arthur is Dead" was filmed, was owned by Daphne and Martin Neville.

This tent - a unit base for the production - was erected in the field, “with a full English breakfast being served by location caterers from the back of a two-tone bus.”



When the Nevilles' field, naturally marshy, was chosen as a location, they had to dam two streams that flowed down from the woods to make it much wetter. The local road engineer Percy Baxter brought in diggers to make the holes for the Saxons to drown in; it took three days for the field to get sufficiently waterlogged for filming.

Here are Tamzin and Perry, and their sheepdog, with Percy Baxter, and some of the crew.



When the field was deemed wet enough, filming could commence. Sophie recalls, “While the lane below the wood that ran along the sides of our valley was closed to traffic, HTV ran cables and moved in with their lights, camera equipment and props amounting to bundles of swords, spears, shields and other weaponry.”

Here you can see the Gulliver’s Prop lorry as well as costume and make-up artists with their kit-bags attending to the actors and extras, including Roger Harding (left).



Sophie says “there would have been have been a large 2K light on this tripod. Here, the crew is setting up to record the battle between the Celts and Cerdig’s Saxons in the woods.”



Here we see Rupert Davies as Cerdig, waiting for the call to “Action!”



Sophie remembers that when Arthur pretended to retreat, leading his men downhill to lure the Saxon hordes to follow him, they found the hill very steep, and some of the actors “ended up tumbling down the bank.”



She says, “As the scene was difficult to replicate it was shot with two cameras, seen here set on wooden tripods. The result was exciting.”





Here is how the scene looked in colour.



And this is how the field, now set aside for conservation, appeared in 2014:





The Gift of Life

Tamzin Neville was 8 years old when she appeared in “The Gift of Life.” According to Sophie Neville, Oliver Tobias later introduced Tamzin as his co-star.

Sophie remembers going to watch the first scene, in which Arthur's village has been set ablaze by Saxon raiders, beng filmed. Here, Oliver Tobias as Arthur and Michael Gothard as Kai can just been seen standing outside the doors of the hall, as smoke billows around them.



Here we see Michael Gothard, Sean Fleming and Tamzin Neville, with Woodchester mansion in the background. Daphne recalls that Michael Gothard was very good with the children. Sophie agrees: “I am not sure whether Michael Gothard had worked with children before but he seemed able to cope.”



Sophie and Perry Neville watch Tamzin having her dirty face seen to by a make-up artist. Sophie says she was "fascinated in her costume, including her shoes which were made of hessian sacking."



Sophie remembers, “No one had asked Tamzin if she could ride. It was a good thing she was used to large horses and had a naughty pony of her own. They set off at speed and her hessian dress was not exactly ideal riding wear. Sean Fleming was excellent as her brother, and managed to cling on behind the saddle as they charged across the hills, which can’t have been easy.” Here, Tamzin keeps hold of "Kerig, the hideous doll whose head kept falling off"!



It's quite striking how close the cameras had to be, and how many people were standing right near – it must have been very difficult making sure the camera only saw what was supposed to be in the shot.



Sophie explains, "Nowadays, we have feeds from the camera to monitors, but up until the 1990s, a substantial number of people would need to watch from behind the camera making it quite difficult for actors to concentrate."



The hours can be very long and it can be chilly. There is often a lot of waiting around. Here, Michael Gothard takes advantage of such a break in proceedings, holding a mirror while his make-up is refreshed.



Sean Fleming as Krist and Tamzin Neville as Elka.



Here we see Daphne Neville, who played a Saxon woman extra, and acted as on-set chaperone, with Tamzin as Elka, Geoffrey Adams as Hald, and Sean Fleming as Krist.



This scene from "The Gift of Life" features Perry, Sophie, and Daphne Neville (far right).

Sophie recalls, "I appeared as the Saxon girl with blonde curly hair seen working in the fields with Heather Wright when the children returned to the Saxon village. While Heather was in lime green, I wore a gold-ish coloured top and plum skirt with no shoes. Appearing in “Arthur of the Britons” wasn’t very comfortable: we had to run barefoot across a field of thistles! You can see me hobbling across the end of the field. My other sister, Perry, was barefoot too. My mother, as a Saxon woman virtually carried her into the village after Tamzin and Sean."



Other recollections

"There were a number of weapons on set that intrigued us as children. We all wanted to learn how to use them. Oliver Tobias began to teach us sword fighting, however there was an accident on set which put a stop to this. One of the actors was having his boots sorted out by a wardrobe assistant when he casually swung his axe. Although it was just a blunt prop, with no edge to the blade, it went into her head, resulting in a four inch gash across her scalp. He was devastated. It was a complete accident. The wardrobe assistant recovered but it was a sobering incident and great care was taken when handling the props afterwards, even though they seemed blunt and harmless."



Informal photo of Sean Fleming, Tamzin and Sophie Neville, Jenny Fleming, Kerig the doll and Daphne Neville.



Thanks to Sophie Neville, Daphne Neville and Martin Neville.

Further details and photos from the filming of "The Gift of Life" can be found on Sophie's blog, here.

This fascinating glimpse into the early planning stages of "Arthur of the Britons" was kindly supplied by Paul Lewis, who preserved the article.

HTV to spend £1/2 m on King Arthur series

HTV West is to spend more than £500,000 one a new adventure series, a 24-part saga devoted to the exploits of King Arthur.

The story of the West Country’s own legendary hero will be filmed on the locations actually associated with Arthur, among them Cadbury Camp, the reputed site of Camelot, and holy Glastonbury.

Filming will begin in June.

“This is a very exciting project by any standards and reflects our confidence in the production team, led by Patrick Dromgoole, we have created at Bristol,” said managing director Tony Gorard last week.

The series will be done by the same team who produced the 13-part series, Pretenders, and the play Thick as Thieves, which was the winner of the Royal Television Society’s “Pye Oscar” as the best regional production of the year.

HTV has found an American distributor, Heritage Enterprises, for the new series. Mr Arthur Steloff, of Heritage, said, “There is enormous interest in a programme based on King Arthur and I am confident we can achieve world-wide sales.”

Lord Harlech, Chairman of HTV said, “The series will be as historically authentic as we can make it. Arthur was a young and powerful fighter who fought savagely and successfully to defend the remnants of Roman Britain against the invading Saxons.”

“We are tearing up the cosy Victorian water-colour picture of Arthur and showing instead the hard tough cavalry leader he must really have been,” he added.

The series will show how Arthur moulded the splintered British tribes into the force that repelled barbarian invaders bent on conquest, and moulded still more – the shape of a kingdom to come.

The role of Arthur will be played by Oliver Tobias, star of the London production of Hair. Michael Gothard, well-known for his appearance in The Last Valley and in Ken Russell’s The Devils plays Kai, a loyal follower of the King.

Jack Watson who starred in Pretenders is cast as Ludd The Silver Handed, a powerful Celtic warrior who rides as Arthur’s right hand. Merlin will be played by Maurice Evans.

Peter Miller is the producer and his team includes Roy Baird, the executive producer for Women In Love, Henry VIII and If.

Writers engaged include Terence Feely, Robert Banks Stewart, Jack Seddon, David Purcell, Stuart Douglas and Bob Baker and Dave Martin the Bristol playwrights responsible for both Pretender and Thick As Thieves.


It is interesting that at this stage, they were still referring to Arthur as "King Arthur", though he is never referred to as such in the series. Also interesting is the fact that nowhere is it stated that the series is for children, though in the UK, it was shown late afternoon, when children would be watching after school.

Early plans to film at sites connected with the little we know, or think we know, of the historical Arthur - including Cadbury Camp and Glastonbury - must have been abandoned at an early stage.

Also abandoned was Merlin, whom the article says was to be played by Maurice Evans - Dr Zaius in "Planet of the Apes"(1968). As Patrick Dromgoole has said: "It was difficult to stick to a realistic theme of an available gang of pro-British professional soldiers available where needed, without losing the mystical aspects of Merlin."

£500,000 was a great deal of money to spend on such a series at the time, so it isn't surprising that selling it to foreign networks was a high priority. This plan came to fruition, with "Arthur of the Britons" being shown, in various forms, sometimes under a different name, and either dubbed or subtitled, in France ("Arthur, Roi des Celtes"), Germany ("Konig Arthur"), Spain ("Arturo de Bretaña"), many Eastern European countries, Australia, the USA ("King Arthur") and South America ("El Rey de los Guerreros").