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This quiz was cunningly devised by Lynn Davy, who unfortunately could not attend the event.

SECTION 1: MEASURES AND VALUES

1.1: How old a trail can Llud follow?

A: 3 days
B: 3 weeks
C: 3 months
D: 3 years

1.2: By how much did Arthur beat Kai in their challenge to see who would catch Garet or Gawain first?

A: By the time it takes Mark of Cornwall to kick three backsides
B: By the time it takes one wave to roll onto the beach
C: By the time it takes two waves to roll onto the beach
D: By the length of a new spear

1.3: How many swordsmen is Llud worth, according to Arthur?

A: At least 20
B: At least 50
C: A silver hand’s worth
D: An entire legion

1.4: What breed of cattle did Rowena purchase for her six measures of silver?

A: Highlands
B: Beefalo
C: Longhorns
D: Shorthorns

1.5: In how many episodes does the actor who is best known for playing Darth Vader appear?

A: 1
B: 2
C: 3
D: 4

BONUS POINT 1: What is the actor’s name?

SECTION 2: FOOD AND DRINK

2.1: What does Kai say is the food of life to the Celts?

A: Deer
B: Wild boar
C: Chickens
D: Nuts and berries

2.2: What did Rolf the Preacher give Llud to drink at dinner?

A: Bishop’s Finger
B: Adder’s Tongue
C: Snakebite
D: Adder’s Sting

2.3: What was the price the Greek trader asked Yorath for a barrel of wine?

A: 5 Jute women
B: 5 Saxon women
C: 6 Saxon women
D: 5 Saxon sheep

2.4: What is Arthur eating while he talks to Eithna, saying ‘it won’t be wasted’?

A: Chicken
B: Wild boar
C: Grapes
D: Fish

2.5: What goes into the Wood People’s sleeping powder?

A: Herbs, moss and fungus
B: Herbs, moss and cowdung
C: Spores, moulds and fungus
D: Herbs, wood ash and berries

BONUS POINT 2 if you get the film reference in one of the above answers

SECTION 3: MARK OF CORNWALL

3.1: In how many episodes does Mark of Cornwall appear?

A: 5
B: 6
C: 7
D: 8

3.2: What was the real treasure that Arthur and Mark were rowing up the river to recover?

A: Monastery silver
B: Llud and Kai
C: Roman coins
D: Hildred and Goda

3.3: What does Mark of Cornwall do to his warriors when they stare at him for ‘turning the other cheek’ and letting a Saxon escape?

A: Kicks them up the backside
B: Gets them in a wrestler’s arm-lock
C: Throws them in the river
D: Turns the other cheek

3.4: Which of Mark’s various ‘best battle leaders’ did Roland the Saxon kill?

A: Agdor
B: Pethik
C: Agricola
D: Herrick

3.5: Which of these is NOT a sport at Arthur’s Games?

A: Putting a piglet in a bucket
B: Singing
C: Hauling sleds full of rocks
D: Wrestling

BONUS POINT 3: Which of the above does Llud think Mark of Cornwall must win?

SECTION 4: BECAUSE YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH LLUD

4.1: How did Kai end up being raised by Llud?

A: Kai is Llud’s stepson from his first marriage
B: Llud took pity on Kai after his parents were killed
C: Llud found Kai as a baby wrapped in sheepskin
D: Llud captured Kai in a raid on a Saxon village

4.2: What did Arthur tell Llud was an old Caesar’s trick?

A: To divide and conquer
B: To come, see and conquer
C: To set a barbarian to catch barbarians
D: To wear his toga in the traditional manner

4.3: What was Llud’s wife’s name?

A: Lludmilla
B: Nobody knows, and Llud’s not telling
C: Llud never married
D: Guinevere

4.4: According to Arthur, what does it mean when Llud’s nose twitches?

A: There’s a change in the wind
B: There’s roast boar for dinner again
C: Someone’s about to get thrown in the river
D: There’s trouble ahead

4.5: Why couldn’t Llud write a letter to Arthur?

A: His hand was numb because it was so badly burned
B: His silver hand can’t hold a quill
C: He never learned to write at all
D: There was no ink in Gavron’s camp

BONUS POINT 4: Which of Llud’s hands is the silver one?

SECTION 5: PEOPLE AND PLACES

5.1: What is the name of the girl from Rome?

A: Ambrosia
B: Benedetta
C: Benedicta
D: Balotelli

5.2: Who told Arthur ‘Between you and I, there will be another time’?

A: Rowena
B: Eithna
C: Karn
D: Mark of Cornwall

5.3: Where is The Battle That Decides?

A: Ilchester
B: Merlin’s Grove
C: Morgan’s Meadow
D: Modred’s Field

5.4: In which episode do actors Michael Gambon (Dumbledore in the later Harry Potter films) and Sally James (presenter on the popular 70s kids’ show ‘Tiswas’) both appear?

A: The Prize
B: The Prisoner
C: The Duel
D: Go Warily

5.5: Who ‘got what she deserved’?

A: Goda
B: Yoda
C: Eithna
D: Hildred

BONUS POINT 5: In whose village did Kai find her again?

SECTION 6: SCARY STUFF

6.1: What is the name of the masked giant warrior in Llud’s recurring nightmare?

A: Ajax
B: Gavron
C: Brock
D: Brosk

6.2: How does Cerdig make sure Arthur’s gift of a shield is safe?

A: He wraps it in sheepskins
B: He makes the messenger who delivers it lick it for poison
C: He makes Hengist wash it in the river
D: He checks for the Briton Standard Kite Mark on the handle

6.3 Who frightens Rolf the Penitent?

A: Spiders
B: Himself
C: Mark of Cornwall
D: Llud

6.4: When someone appears on screen with wild dark frizzy hair, a loincloth and a lot of tattoos, he is:

A: A Scot
B: A Saxon
C: A Pict
D: Rolf the Penitent after a wild night out

6.5: What is the only thing that Bavick understands, according to Kai?

A: This
B: Welsh
C: Pictish
D: Diplomacy

BONUS POINT 6: What is Bavick’s daughter wearing when Kai captures her?

SECTION 7: TRICKS AND TRAPS

7.1: Who ended up hanging in his own cage?

A: Morcant
B: Mordant
C: Mordred
D: Mordor

7.2: How did the trader persuade Esla to marry him?

A: Gave her lots of trinkets
B: Promised to give her lots of turnips
C: Promised to take her with him on his voyage
D: Promised to settle down and grow wine

7.3: How did Arthur escape from Hoxel’s Saxon warriors?

A: He hid up a tree until it got dark
B: He disguised himself with a bad blond wig and a sheepskin cloak
C: He hid underwater and breathed through a hollow reed
D: He put on a helmet that looked like a shark’s fin

7.4: What trick did Arthur do that caused Corin to recognize him as the killer of his father?

A: He pulled his sword out of a stone
B: He split an apple with a new-forged blade
C: He picked his nose with his sword
D: He picked his sword up with his foot

7.5: How did evil twin Gavron capture first Llud and Kai and later Arthur?

A: Pitfall trap
B: Fish trap
C: Boar trap
D: Man trap

BONUS POINT 7: Which Dr Who star played both Gavron and his twin brother Brandreth?

SECTION 8: FAUNA AND FLORA

8.1: Arthur and Kai were ambushed and lost all their shopping. How did Arthur work out that it was Hecla who stole it?

A: He checked the CCTV on the market palisade
B: He followed the trail of a mountain butterfly
C: He followed the trail of hoofprints
D: He recognized a pair of caged songbirds

8.2: Who had a cure for the animal sickness?

A: Brother Herriot
B: Bishop Felix
C: Brother Cadfael
D: Brother Amlodd

8.3: Which inhabitants of Arthur’s camp are invisible (albeit sometimes audible)?

A: Chickens
B: Cats
C: Dogs
D: Children

8.4: What did Kai say that the Saxons who got through Yorath’s defences were doing?

A: Frightening the daisies
B: Worrying the sheep
C: Scaring the birds
D: Terrifying the buttercups

8.5: Who were Cedric and Theodore?

A: Snails
B: Horses
C: Ants
D: Monks

BONUS POINT 8: What happened to Cedric?

Answers can be found here.

In the evening, I went down to the Waterwheel Suite and re-arranged the room, with a table at the front, on which I put the gifts which I had bought for Oliver on behalf of the group. There was also a folder of messages I had printed out, from people who could not attend.

People began to drift in at about 7 pm., so I put “Arthur is Dead” on the TV. Oliver arrived and sat watching with us.

During the scene where the Saxons were bogged down in a marsh and hit with multiple volleys of spears, Oliver looked quite affected; he observed that it was brutal – a massacre. I think as fans, we have watched the scene so many times that we tend to find it rather comical, but Oliver was absolutely right! Most of the Saxons were mercilessly slaughtered; only three men, including Cerdig, got away.

I asked how they got the spear to stick out of the extra’s back. Oliver said they wore a body rig to hold it in place.

In the final scene, where Arthur pretends to have been knocked off his horse in order to regain the lead from Kai, I asked whether he was really hanging off the side of the horse in that shot, and he confirmed that he was.

After the episode, I thanked Oliver for spending so much time with us. I then read out Paul Lewis’ letter to Oliver, and gave him a print out of this, and all the other messages he’d been sent. There were quite a few pages, so he put it aside to read later.

I then gave him the gifts from us all. He opened the sweater, and seemed pleased with it.

Gift presentation (1).jpg

He put it on immediately, and pronounced it the correct size.

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He then noticed the “Arthur of the Britons” wrapping paper. This is the design.

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Finally he opened the “Arthur of the Britons” mug, which he liked.

Gift presentation (2).jpg

Then we sat together and watched “The Challenge.” Oliver once again acknowledged that it was the place we had visited today – as though he hadn’t quite believed it, until now!

I pointed out that Arthur’s spear went no further than Kai’s, but Oliver said it was the story-telling that was important. Oliver pointed out that when Arthur un-horses Kai, a trick stirrup is used.

When Kai was mounted with his axe and Arthur said “Just a game, Llud” and Kai’s axe made the “whump, whump” sounds as he swung it round, Oliver made an incredulous sound.

Watching The Challenge (4).jpg

Riding at each other full-tilt was really dangerous. The horses were very co-operative. Most people don’t appreciate their importance. The shields were made to break. The close-up fight scenes on horseback were all filmed with the actors actually in the saddle.

When Kai disarms Arthur, I think Oliver said “It’s over”, but they carried on with short swords. In the short sword fight, Oliver said they tried to keep the knife movements in a square, like the Romans did. Romans weren’t great with a sword, because they often fought behind a big shield. The stunt co-ordinator, Peter Brayham, was basically a sword-fighting coach. They practised a lot, and got really good.

Towards the end of the fight, when they roll down the bank into the water, Oliver said, “It’s a horror show.” “It’s all in the eyes” he said; “all in the eyes.” I pointed out that Kai had a knife the whole time, when they were fighting in the mud. Oliver said that Arthur did too! At the end, when Arthur threw aside the axe, he said, “This is really good … it’s real.”

Watching The Challenge (1).jpg

It was Oliver who aimed the axe at Kai’s head as he lay in the mud, and they had practised the move. Oliver said it was good to have gone back to the place where he’d been injured.

I asked the meaning of Arthur’s little smile at the end. He said it showed his realisation of how foolish it was to have fought like that.

I put it to him that this fight might be the result of many years in which Kai, being the older, had often beat him over the years growing up. Oliver agreed it was possible.

After this, I dished out more cake (!) leaving about a third to be cut up and taken away. I asked what people wanted to do next – another episode was the answer. Oliver picked “The Marriage Feast.”

Oliver laughed at Brian Blessed. He pointed out Gila von Weitershausen’s large eyes, and spoke of her traumatic start in life. He’d got to know her better while filming an episode of a German drama series called “Unter weissen Segeln”, “Abschiedsvorstellung”, in 2004. The series was filmed on a tall sailing ship.

He said she was a lovely person, and he felt a real chemistry with her, which showed in Arthur’s relationship with Rowena. When she was a baby, her father was killed, and her mother had to flee from the Russians, with Rowena under her arm.

I asked about Georg Marischka, who played Yorath; Oliver said he was “a lovely man”, and that he “did a really good job”, especially as English was not his first language. The beard was not real.

After this, we decided that, as Oliver had really answered most of our questions already, rather than a formal Q & A, we would have the quiz. Everyone got into teams of two or three. I think there were 5 teams.

I read out Lynn’s excellent multi-choice questions – liberally sprinkled with jokes, which everyone appreciated. Everyone had brought a prize for someone else, so everyone got something!

All that was left was to thank Oliver and Jelly again, and give Oliver a few parting gifts, including a portrait I had drawn of him as Arthur, and a copy of “Konig Arthur” - a fanciful German novelisation of the stories in the show, which included location photos.

Then everyone headed off to the bar, some of us taking big slabs of cake with us!

One further anecdote I remember from the evening - Oliver told us how Roger Moore invented the Magnum. Roger asked an ice-cream manufacturer for a choc ice on a stick, and the company produced one, and wanted to call it a Walther PPK, after the gun used by James Bond, but the manufacturer of the weapon wouldn’t let them use the name, so they called it a Magnum instead!

At the Compton Inn, we found cameraman Roger Pearce waiting for us. He and Oliver stood reminiscing for a while.

Compton (2).jpg

Jelly took some video. Roger mentioned that Jack Watson was the son of Vaudeville comedian, “Nosmo King”, and described how the comedian got his stage name.

Oliver remembered that Jack was in the army, and was a hard man.

Transcribed:

OT: I’ve just remembered that he [Jack Watson] didn’t get on very well with riding, so he had to put a cushion down the back of his trousers. He always said, ‘Go slow! Go slow!’ and we always shot him pulling up or riding off, and nothing in the middle – he preferred not to gallop off or canter off.

RP: I remember we had a director called Peter Sasdy, and the stuntman was Peter something.

OT: Brayham.

RP: With big pebble glass glasses [Peter Brayham], and we were doing a stunt where these guys were jumping out of a tree onto you guys … I think – and he kept building up and building up these boxes and boxes, and then he [Peter Sasdy] said, ‘Peter, can I have a word with you?’ He [Peter Brayham] said, ‘Yes, what?’ He said, ‘Are they jumping down, or stepping down?’ It made us laugh.”

Then we all found tables for lunch – mostly outside, as the weather was still fine.

Compton Inn 2022 F (4).jpg

Roger and Oliver sat together chatting, and Roger put Oliver back in touch with Maria Bisset (née Ford) who managed the horses and carriages back in the day, and who provided Oliver some accommodation following his injury and recovery.

Compton (3).jpg

I was told later, that some of the other customers who saw us wearing "Arthur of the Britons" 50th anniversary tee-shirts had thought we were commemorating a friend of ours who had died, named "Arthur"!

We checked maps, and then Tim took Mark on the back of his bike, to go to the village site. We followed on in cars. Oliver’s was in the lead this time, and I was a bit uncertain how far it was. We passed two houses, and I thought we’d gone too far, and had to stop to check with people in cars behind. Still, we got there in the end – it was further than I remembered – and parked on the side of the road.

When we got out, we found Mark there (Tim had left), and Oliver immediately recognised the area where his, Michael Gothard’s and Jack Watson’s caravans (actual caravans, not trailers!) had been, near the field entrance.

The Village site (3).jpg

Looking out over the valley:
OT: All that background, and you don’t see any houses …

The Village site (2).jpg

We walked down the hill to the field where the village had been situated, and I pointed out the ditch which had run through the village – which Oliver remembered.

The Village site (1).jpg

Jelly took videos. Oliver spoke about the extras:

OT: … and they’d go berserk. One or two had to be - “Stop! Stop!” - but they’d carry on as if they’d lost their mind. It’s true. It’s pretty spectacular. One of them went completely berserk. Three people had to jump on him, hold him down. He lost it! He got, you know, the red mist yeah, one of the extras. With a spear. He wouldn’t stop! He wanted to murder it you know … ‘cause they were amateurs, they weren’t actors. But they all looked the part, they looked … and it’s good money, seven pounds fifty in those days, you know? That was good money. I think, when I was a drama student, I was given ten pounds a week to live on. And, er … people who were on grants were on … yeah, seven pounds fifty people … my drama school, yes, lived on seven pounds fifty a week, back in ’65 you could live on that. But then, you can get a beer and meat and two veg. in a pub for about half a crown. You’re all too young to remember that!

We had a look over the river, at the place where Oliver would have met with Cerdig.

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Below: Oliver and Wendy. They had met once before, when she had visited her adopted brother, Michael Gothard, on location in 1972.

Woollard (1).jpg

We walked further along the river bank, and through a private garden to reach the bridge.

Woollard (7).jpg

Once on the other side, we went through a stable yard, and past a feisty-looking but very small pony, who stood watching us; Oliver observed that she was pregnant.

Then we got to the weir (for an old brass mill) which was known in the series as “The Giant’s Dam.” It featured in "In Common Cause."

Giant's Dam (1).jpg

Since our last visit, a platform had been erected in the middle of the dam, so we were able get different views of the area.

Giant's Dam (4).jpg

Roger Pearce remembered that to the left of the weir is a culvert, which features in the scene "The Pupil", in which Arthur kills Corin's father, Mordor, while Corin watches.

Giant's Dam (7).jpg

There was a big empty picture frame hanging in front of the platform, which had clearly been put there for wedding photos.

Everyone in the frame at The Giant's Dam (1).jpg

Everyone in the frame at The Giant's Dam (1).jpg

We spent quite a while sitting around here, and taking photos.

Oliver, Jelly, Rita, the Giant's Dam.jpg

Below: Oliver and Jelly.

Oliver, Jelly, The Giant's Dam (3).jpg

I commented that the weir looked quite small, compared to how it looked in the series. Oliver said that the dam would have been made to look much bigger by the use of low camera angles. He confirmed that it was a stuntman who jumped into the water during “In Common Cause”, because Michael didn’t like heights.

I told him about how Michael had been made to stand on the edge of a tall building with no safety equipment, by director Don Levy, when he starred in “Herostratus.” Oliver said “maybe they tricked it” (meaning, maybe he wasn’t really on the edge), but I said no, and that Don Levy was a bastard, but that it was due to this production that Michael had met Wendy’s dad.

We re-traced our steps, and as we went back past the pony, the owner of the farm, Melissa Warren, came to greet us. She reminded Oliver that in the episode of “Robin of Sherwood” in which he appeared, he leapt on the back of a horse ridden by a stunt double for Maid Marian – and she had been that stunt double!

OT and Melissa 1.jpg

Oliver’s character’s intent had been to make off with her. She said she was 18, and she had been terrified! She hadn’t been a proper stunt rider!

OT and Melissa 2.jpg

We took her photo, and thanked her for letting us see the weir. She said it had been used for her daughter’s wedding, and the photographer had suggested they might hire out the venue, but she’d decided it should just stay a private family place, where the kids and grand-kids could play.

Oliver, Melissa (7).jpg

Then we all returned to Wookey Hole Hotel, though a convoy was no longer needed.

In the car, Oliver said that the location scouts had done a really good job, finding this area, which had so much potential. I suggested that they found one – the area where “The Challenge” was filmed - and then discovered the others as a result.

Oliver mentioned that he’d met the actor Ken Hutchison who played Gawain later on in his career, and Ken had been depressed because he said “no one wants to hire me.” Oliver couldn’t understand it, as he considered Ken a fine actor.

He mentioned at some point, [1981/1982] that he’d been considered for/considering taking over the role of James Bond from Roger Moore. He said the Broccolis were really nice – he liked them – but he decided he didn’t want everything that went along with the role – the fact that he’d be associated with Bond forever, as happened to Connery and Moore, and has since happened to Daniel Craig – and with the whole circus that goes along with the franchise.

He has realised that acting can be soul-destroying, because you often spend days, weeks, months, living in hotels, and just waiting to deliver a few lines, while your life is passing you by. He has an agent who keeps trying to get him work, but he keeps rejecting it!

Giant's Dam (12).jpg

When we arrived back, we broke for a rest.

Sunday 16 October (I)

Went down at 9-ish, got a tea, and went and sat with Oliver. He spoke about his experiences at East 15 Acting School. He said that he met lots of different kinds of people – including a good-looking young man who was a “collector” for the Krays. The Krays paid his drama school fees, as a gift.

He also spoke about a role he had [in ITV series, "The Knock"] as a gay heroin addict who had killed his boyfriend, and had to dump the body out of a boat, into a lake. He said it was hard to dump a body from a boat without falling in yourself, and also noted what an odd profession acting was. “What did you do today?” “I dumped my boyfriend’s body in a lake.”

The weather today was glorious! The group had all assembled by around 10 am., so we set off in convoy, with Steve’s car leading, and Oliver’s Chevrolet second, so that the others could all see which way the head of the column was going. Oliver pointed out views of Glastonbury Tor as we went past.

Chatted in the car about other conventions. Oliver said he’d made thousands at Autographica – you just sit at a table signing and at the end, take away a whole lot of money, but it “made me feel slightly grubby.” He was sitting near a whole group of Bond girls. Minor stars of big films can make a basic living, of around £12,000, from doing a few per year. I told him that I heard that James Marsters, who played Spike in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, once signed so many autographs that his hand bled. Oliver said, “More fool, him!”

He also mentioned Joan Collins again, and how unpleasant she was to other women. He said she was completely different to her sister Jackie, who is lovely. He’d worked with her to help promote her books.

We arrived at the Compton Inn at around 11:30, and met up with Michael Gothard’s adopted sister, Wendy, who was waiting for us, with her border terrier, George. Everyone was fascinated to meet her. She said she couldn’t believe that Michael would have been 83 this year.

Wendy showed people an example of her school homework. She’d been asked to write about a member of her family, and had written about Michael.

Write About A Member of My Family.

My brother is called Michael. We adapted him, but he has kept his surname which is "Gothard.”
He does lovely things with me.
We go to the library, then he buys me a cake and he has coffee.
He takes me to the British Museum and the one in Priry Park.
We go swimming and to our beach hut. He doesn't like water-skiing, but we go horse riding.
I ride "Mystery", Michael rides "Cadenza.”
Sometimes he comes with me to get the milk.
We read together a lot. I like it when my brother reads to me. He is reading "Of Mice and Men.” I like "Lennie.”
My brother is older than me, so he is my big brother.
I love his bedroom, there are lovely things in it and sometimes I am allowed to take his coffee to him in the morning.
He makes me do my prep.
He has to go away to work and I am sad when he is not at home.
I am lucky to have my brother and I love him very much.

She said she wanted everyone to know what a wonderful man he was.

We all walked the short distance to the bridge over the River Chew, and went through a gate onto the long grassy track along which Oliver and Michael had often galloped.

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He clearly recognised it, and soon got his bearings.

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We arrived at the muddy bank, and the slope behind it which was used so often, and most notably in “The Challenge.”

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Beside the Chew at this point was the long sloping hillside on which a lot of the action in "The Challenge" took place.

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There follows a series of transcripts of videos taken by Jelly, while at this location:

OT: It opens up a bit more at the top … I was just wondering where that … my horse had bolted. It must have been from there … [points] I remember I had the spears on the side, there was a conversation, and I cantered off, and then the horse got spooked by … 'cause I had to use my second horse, who got spooked by the shield that was on its side and the spears, so every time it [galloping noise and motion] this thing went, “Boom! Boom!” on the back and the horse went on and on, and I just remember racing down this valley, and then there was a telegraph pole, and I thought, ‘alright, well, I’ll just steer it towards the telegraph, he’ll see that and stop.

Well, it didn’t, and by this time, you know, pshew … the tears were coming out of the sides, pshew [mimes tears streaming along the side of his face] it gets fast, you know? And the horse is going rew, rew, rew [mimes] down this valley, then I saw the ditch - was more open – and ‘I’ll just steer it towards the ditch, it’s not gonna go in there’ and it went straight in, and then I pulled it right ’cause somebody said “just stick your left foot forward and lock the rein in the left” [mimes the action] and pull with the right, pull its neck around” and I was going round and round and round in circles like that until I finally managed to stop … I was like that [mimes exhaustion] I was … it was sheer terror.

Challenge (11).jpg

I tell you, those things are very powerful things, horses, when they lose the plot – it just lost the plot – and I thought I – but this, my point of the story is this. This is where I should have been warned. We were into this violent film where we took it … [mimes fierce fighting] there. Then here, just on that slope over there – we had the spear scene, and, um … it wasn’t Michael, Michael was opposite me, throwing the spear, and this is where … I want to tell you that story, Wendy [Michael’s adopted sister approaches] … He … this went on, it was fine, you know it was completely insane because you don’t do that so the camera would be say, where James is there, and I would be standing … this was over … we can go there [walks away] that slope … [inaudible] … must have been that we filmed that beginning somewhere on a bank here and … because this was the run down here, with this horse, ‘cause it went quite a long way, it was long enough, you know, to really get a [inaudible] on, which … we filmed that dialogue just up here, and then …

JG: I think it might have been up there [points]

OT: It might well have been there, in that clearing there.

Wendy: I’m guessing Arthur and Kai, they had a big falling out.

OT: No, no it started as a game … [inaudible] …It may have been … conversation … and it may have been … this might have been more open when I steered the horse towards that bank there, and then I went on down the valley, and I think just beyond there, there’s the telegraph pole which I steered it towards … Is this where the bank goes down?

JG: Yes.

OT: So this is where we filmed the … I’m sure this is where we filmed, here.

JG: you definitely came lolloping down, like, laughing and making jokes at each other, but very –

OT: I probably would have gone that way, and if it wouldn’t … decided not to stop, pulled it that way, and on down, ‘cause I remember seeing the village on the right when I started to pull it round, but this is … um … I share this with you, well, this is very traumatic for me; I was here, somewhere and erm … the camera was over there, and then they started, this er, champion started throwing a spear at me, and I’d ward it off – “Voom, Voom” [mimes] like this, you know, it’d come over the top, and 6 feet long with a plastic tip and it was towards … yeah … then I got tired, and it went “Dong!” and it went into the back of my head, and I … it … oh, I felt like a ship that had … it went right down my spine, and I sat down here, and, er … looked around and I thought I was … I was going, and the last thing I remember was Michael holding my head like that [mimes], me looking up at him saying, “Olly! You alright?” you know? And then I woke up at Bristol Infirmary after a coma … It was quite serious, because I was very badly injured, and I had … er … you know, concussion.

JG: There must have been a lot a lot of blood as well; it must have been very alarming for everyone.

OT: Would have been horrible.

Wendy: Any form of “Health and Safety” didn’t really exist …

OT: But they don’t … you don’t … there’s no pain … but I felt like … “I’m dead” … I kind of remember that sort of … I took one last look around that … sort of … I had a … death experience here – that’s the truth, and er … that’s the truth, and er …. That’s why I tell you how gentle a man Michael was.

Wendy: He was lovely … he was. Unless you didn’t do your homework!

OT: So that was … that’s here. And also, the … those Roman swords were here yeah, and that horse went down because there’s the telegraph pole, now I remember, so that’s the sort of experience we had.

JG: Llud was telling you off up there somewhere.

OT: Might well have been the start of the trouble, was this … [points] Did you see that? This is definitely where that took place. And the spears took place up there, banging around with the spears …. But you can see the terrain is not flat and worked out. It’s … um… if you are, you know, if you start racing down there with a horse, the terrain is, you know, undulous; there’s pot-holes, there’s … it undulates, it’s not … we were … might have been foolish, but we were very brave, Michael and me.

Wendy: Absolutely. I mean, if you’re cantering or galloping down a hill, that … particularly if the horse decides to have away with you.

OT: And it’s all, yeah, downhill’s always the thing, and you don’t test that before … often we would do test runs with the horses; always teach a horse the track – the way you’re gonna go, we always did that, because we became very good horsemen, and Michael became a good horseman during –

Wendy: He was very good, yeah he was.

OT: And then, er, yeah … but mistakes happen. So I had this warning when that thing went off there …

JG: So that was the same day …

OT: And I … just didn’t see it. I didn’t see the danger, I was stupid, and then that was definitely a warning from God, and then of course it went on, and then I ended up in … severely concussed, and basically, I’ve never been the same!

…

OT: … gold … gold cross swinging over my head, and like that, and I’m looking up at this beautiful blonde angel … looking up quite close, and it’s this Irish nurse saying, “Oliver, Oliver, are you alright?” I thought I was in heaven … [laughter] Yes, so … and then it was very nasty. I don’t know if any of you have ever had, or treated, bad concussion, but that is …

JD: Yeah, it can last a while, as well.

OT: You can’t … finish a thought; you can’t sleep; you’re always in between the sleep … trying to go to sleep … you wake up … you can’t finish … a thought. It’s real horror time, it went on for … quite a while, and then, er … yeah, three weeks that took, I was back on a horse!

JG: Did that make it hard to learn your lines?

OT: Not really. Once it all clicks slowly back into place, it’s alright, um … but it was horrendous, it’s the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. I mean, you break bones, and things like that, I’ve had all that, but that’s … that’s … no, no, I don’t recommend it. [inaudible] It went through three layers of my skull, I was lucky it didn’t go and touch the … well, whatever is inside there, and er … they stitched it up.
When I had short back and sides, ‘cause I’ve … my son’s made me join this er … World War II re-enactment regiment, so I became an American major in World War II, and they took me to the barbers to make me get a short back and sides, and this huge scar appeared on the back of my head, he said, “Man! Daddy, that’s cool!"

[Laughter]

…

Oliver whistles like the Buzzard which flies overhead; the buzzard replies!

OT: Nice spot, isn’t it?

JG: I guess there’s more areas you might have been up there …

OT: I’ll probably have a good think about it, and then when we watch it …

OT: Now looking at it, it’s not a bad place to die in …

JG: Well, don’t go doing that today because we’ve still got a long way to go, yet!

CV: Did they call your parents?

OT: Probably not.

JG: I don’t suppose you had information about your next-of-kin on you …?

OT: No … I had a girlfriend … that was about it. My parents, you know … my mother was working somewhere …

…

JG: So you’d shot all the fighting –

OT: Yeah … I think so … yeah …

JG: - before the spears.

OT: It was towards the end of the day … you know, and you get tired.

JG: Yeah.

OT …and er, yeah, and then they shot … I think they changed things, and they shot Michael’s episode, you know, with the … yeah, they –

JG: … shot a couple of episodes with you … too much –

OT: … and, er … top-and-tailed with me.

JG: Then you rode away that way, and Garet and Gawain rode away that way.

OT: Yeah, pretty much … Ah! The scene with the … them …

JG: Yeah.

OT: I’ll show you where that was … now you remind me.

JG: I really like those guys, ‘cause of the way they –

OT: Wonderful actors.

JG: The way they were –

OT: What was his name?

JG: I can’t remember their actual names … just the way they were looking at each other, as if, “we thought we were crazy” sort of thing.

OT: Yes … yes …

JG: When you came up that bank –

OT: Ken … Ken …

JG: - with Kai.

OT: Yes.

JG: Were you thinking to try and fool Garet and Gawain that you’d intended it all as a lesson to them?

OT: Well … I mean … I … it isn’t what I feel, it’s how it was.

…

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We walked up the slope nearly to the top.

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While we were near one of the clumps of bushes, Oliver pointed out the tree into which they had thrown spears during the early stage of the conflict.

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Fans had wondered for a long time about whether this tree was at a different location, but no! There it was!

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I scrambled down to it to check it out, up close!

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Someone (Steve!) may have asked whether anyone had a spear …

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We looked at the terrain, which Oliver said would have been much more open 50 years ago – with fewer trees along the edge of the river. Also, a large house nearby had been built since filming.

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We went back down to the muddy bank:

OT: Hey, this might have been … fifty years, it’s probably … washed out even more.

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I looked for the split tree root which was in the original episode, and had still been visible last time we’d been there. I thought maybe it had grass growing on it, so I scrambled down the bank to have a look, but when I got close, the mud became very slippery, and I slid down and down, almost into the water! So I gingerly came back up.

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…

[My phone alarm went off]

OT: Joya …

JG: I’ve gotta take my pill.

OT: Yeah, you’d better now take a pill to calm yourself down! This is all too much! Are you taking some ancient Druidic mushrooms?

JG: Yes, that’s exactly what it is! With herbs and moss!

OT: ‘erbs.

JG: Moss and fungus.

OT: Mushrooms!

…

Too soon, we had to trundle back to the Compton Inn, for our 12:15 lunch booking.

On the walk back, Martin asked Oliver whether they had to deliver the lines exactly as they were written on “Arthur of the Britons.” He replied that it wasn't always required on a lot of things he'd done, including “Arthur of the Britons”, where you could vary the lines slightly as long as they delivered the same message. A notable exception was “Luke's Kingdom”, where someone - he said the writer, but Martin also thinks he said 'Peter' someone (Peter Weir was the Director) - was heavily involved in other aspects of the project, and you couldn't get away with telling him that the script could be varied.

Saturday 15 October (II)

After a break, we went to the hotel’s Waterwheel Suite, where we watched “People of the Plough” and “The Gift of Life” while waiting for Oliver to arrive, and I drew lots for the order in which people could get their autographs, chats, and photos with Oliver.

At around 4 pm, the celebratory cake was delivered by "Tile Cakery." It had photos from "Arthur of the Britons" on the outside, framed like slides.

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Soon after, Oliver and Jelly arrived. After unwrapping the cake, and photographing it, we prevailed upon Oliver to cut it for us.

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He did a great job, serving everyone, and it was delicious! Very moist and rich, lemon-flavour, with buttercream and lemon curd inside.

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So while we ate, and chatted, I called people up to have their individual talks with Oliver, and get their autographs. While Oliver was doing this, Jelly was in the bar, doing tarot readings.

María José told Oliver she has three degrees, one of them in history, in which AotB originally sparked her interest.

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One person brought a publicity photo for “The Stud”, of Oliver, with his arms around Joan Collins, to be signed. Oliver said his expression showed what he was feeling – that he wished he was somewhere else! He felt that Joan Collins was the kind of woman who would ignore or dismiss any other woman in the room. At a later date, when he introduced his wife, Arabella, Joan was dismissive of her, and from then on, Oliver took a dislike to her.

Annette spoke of her job helping children who were in trouble of some kind – she said she always talks to the parents; she and Oliver agreed, “It’s never the child’s fault.”

Christine asked about the “Bravo” award Oliver won from the eponymous German teen magazine. I hadn't asked him about them before, because he’d once said that he didn’t have any mementos from the time.

He said he didn’t know how, but he still had not one, but two Bravo awards, on display under his TV: one for "Arthur of the Britons", and another for "Luke's Kingdom."

Carole got Oliver to sign the early publicity photo which appeared in "Bravo", of him posing as Arthur. He said the sword wasn’t the one that was used in the series, and he also had a beard in the photo.

Below, Janet and Oliver have a good chat.

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Martin was there for 20 minutes, though he started by saying that Oliver had already answered all his questions! They spent some time talking about bikes, as he’d brought Oliver the gift of a vintage biker magazine.

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Phil had brought in a small strip of 16 mm film from the “Arthur of the Britons” credit sequence, to show Oliver. Oliver explained that due to the 16 mm film only having a single set of sprockets, you can sometimes see a slight drift, especially during the credits. This looks like a “shimmer”, which modern directors sometimes try to emulate.

One behalf of a fan who couldn’t attend, I asked what was Oliver’s favourite series to work on after AotB; his reply was “Luke's Kingdom”, because it was so real, and well-researched.

We were just getting ready to move out when Phil showed up with a replica of Arthur’s sword, which he had made himself, in the 1980s. He swore that he’d asked the hotel - despite their ban on weapons on the premises – and they let him bring it in, on the grounds that it was blunt! So of course, we had to have a go at posing with it – Martin and I, anyway.

Martin with Sword.jpg

Later, we all sat in the bar, and chatted. Topics included politics (again), and horses – Oliver says people don’t appreciate them. At some point during the weekend, we spoke about how the scene in “The Challenge” was filmed, where they were laying into each other on horseback, and we were seeing the action from below. He said there was a bench or something between them for the cameraman, who would be turning this way and that, and the horses and riders would be either side. The horses would have to be very co-operative.

We spoke of how horses in Westerns were very badly treated – Linda mentioned trip-wires being used. At some point, Oliver spoke of how someone he knew had been in India, in the army, and when he left, his commanding officer made him shoot his three horses. “Can you imagine having to do that?” Oliver said, with horror in his voice. I said I would prefer not to! He told us that man had PTSD because of it.

He also spoke about Yul Brynner. I put it to Oliver that Brynner was rarely seen in “Romance of a Horsethief”, and that Oliver should have been the star, as he did most of the work! He pointed out that Yul Brynner’s name brought in the money to make the film!

Yul Brynner is a very small but powerful man. And he had an extensive set of conditions, or “rider” on his contract, including a particular breakfast, involving eggs which he insisted should be brown, and cooked in a particular way, with some special kind of meat.

One morning, Oliver was having breakfast with him, outside Brynner’s trailer, when the film’s composer Mort Shuman drove past, throwing up lots of dust which ruined Brynner’s breakfast. Brynner refused to do any work until Shuman had been thrown off the set!

Perhaps Brynner had realised that the soundtrack was far from being the film's best feature ...

Saturday 15 October (I)

I went down at 9:30 to see whether everyone was ready. They weren’t, but some were on the way. Linda pointed out that people getting themselves here on time was their responsibility, not mine ... Some of us managed to get together for a group photo!

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When Sean Dromgoole (who played “Krist” in the episode “The Gift of Life”, and was credited as "Sean Fleming") arrived, he chatted to Oliver for a while. They hadn’t met up for many years. We then sorted ourselves out into the smallest number of cars we could manage, and left in a convoy of about 5 vehicles.

I was invited to ride shotgun in Oliver’s huge left-hand drive Chevrolet. In the back were Jelly, Mark and Akvile. Linda led the convoy over Priddy, where we had lovely views, while Steve took his car and passengers and went his own way, and arrived first!

I had been a bit worried about the weather, but the drizzle cleared off in time for our walk, and only resumed when we were getting back in the cars, so we were very lucky.

As we walked up the track to Black Rock Quarry, Oliver said he hadn’t been here since filming the episode, “The Slaves.”

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I asked about the actor/stuntman Jackie Cooper, who had to fall from the top of the quarry.

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Oliver said that cardboard boxes would be piled up, to about a third of the height of the drop, and covered with a big canvas sheet. It would cover a large area, but still look very small from the top! The stuntmen are a tight knit group and all look out for each other, and make sure the site is inspected.

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Oliver and Sean reminisced about the student extras, who had to wait around for long periods, and often got stoned. When they finally got the call to action, they really went for it in any fights they had to enact – some went a bit berserk!

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Oliver, Sean and I discussed how long it took to film. Oliver thought it must have been a year, but I told him that filming began in June or July, and went on till December. Sean agreed that it was standard to take a fortnight to film an hour’s worth of TV, so a week per 25 minute episode made sense.

Oliver was surprised it was only 6 months – he clearly felt like he was “Arthur” for longer than that. He said that having spent so much time out in the countryside, going back to London was really hard to get used to. He felt out of place, and wondered what he was doing there. He still prefers to have countryside around him – to be able to see the horizon.

Along with Akvile and Mark, I went about halfway up the rocky slope cut into the side of the quarry, on which the slave workers had been shackled.

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Akvile went right to the top – Mark and I weren’t brave enough!

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Meanwhile, Jelly made some videos of Oliver and Sean, and the rest of us.

Oliver couldn’t remember whether people had been filmed up on that ledge, and Linda assured him that they had. Oliver said “Then I must have been up there … I guess …” He then speculated as to whether any horses went up there. Linda said “there would have been a lot less crud on that shelf” back then (loose rocks and plant growth), but Oliver then said, “I don’t think a horse went up on that shelf” and Sean agreed, “I can’t see a horse up there. I don’t think Ben Ford¹ would have allowed that.” Oliver said, “Yeah, lovely guy. Sadly, you know, when they moved on, with Robin of Sherwood, they got rid of Ben, and he couldn’t understand it.”

More transcripts from the videos below:

OT: … lived in Stroud, with the Fords, who had a horse stable and … carriages; horses and a riding school, and they kept about … oh, I dunno, about 18 horses.

JG: Were they the horses you used on the show?

OT: Some driving horses, yeah, they supplied the horses and they had the riding school, weekends. Weekends sometimes I’d take strings of people up riding above Stroud there, and … er … which was great. And then when we moved from that location, which was … the lake where we went last time, Woodchester …. Stroud was close to there, then I moved just the other side of Bristol airport, rented a cottage there, and stayed there pretty much till the end of the programme … till we finished.

SD: Ben Ford did this, um … Olly was very … as I remember it, you found your horse quickly, and you were happy, and it was all good. Michael was slightly slower to find the right horse, and they tried one, it didn’t work, then they tried another one, it didn’t work, so they … Ben Ford went out and bought a new horse to see if it got Michael’s vote, and he called it Merlin. I said, “Why’d you call it Merlin?” He said, “Because if it keeps Michael Gothard happy, it’s gonna be a fucking miracle!”²

…

SD: Ben did a lot of carriage stuff.

OT: And then, when one would be injured or have a bit of a sprain, then I’d use the other one. But you had to train them both to things. I have a story … we go to where “The Challenge” was shot, I can tell you a story there which is pretty hair-raising … I won’t tell it now … give it away, because I can show you exactly what happened.

LW: Did you ride before taking the part?

OT: Yeah. I got … I rode since I was 12, 13, 14 … um … my parents luckily enough sent me to riding school and I never forgot that, and then, um, I rode first in a film …”Romance of a Horse-thief”, and there I worked with a group of Cossacks – they came … Yugoslavia , they had the army, the cavalry, Russian, Polish horse … (inaudible) … with Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach, and we were horse-thieves I think, we had to ride, fantastic horses, Lipizza horses, grey, Lipizzan grey, and then they had this group for a festival, which was filmed within the film, of um … you know, Cossacks, showing off their stuff, and the young character I played jumps on and does his thing and everybody claps, and all that, so I learned a lot from them. I learned, for example, that picking up a handkerchief at a gallop, hanging sideways off the horse, and all that sort of thing …. (inaudible) … that was useful, and then I went to Italy and made a film called … you mentioned it … “’Tis Pity She’s a Whore”, and there I played this character who loses his rag, gallops around this monk, picking up sand and throwing it at him in a fury and all that, and that … [gesturing at SD] … your father saw that film. Who was the American who co-produced …?

SD: Skip Steloff.³

OT: Steloff, and he said, “This is the guy; this is the guy we want! He can ride! He’s nuts, and wild, and we should hire him, so …

JG: What was his name? Skip …

OT: Steloff. That’s the reason why it then came through my agent, can we go and do trails?

…

OT: From beginning to end we were in the field.

Unk: The whole time?

OT: Yes, like we just said, we never had any studio time with “Arthur.” We filmed it in the huts … in the locations … the huts were built … the roofs were okay to take the rain …

SD: Did you watch rushes? Did you use to go back and watch rushes, or not?

OT: Very occasionally, towards the end, yeah.

SD: With “Robin of Sherwood” that was a big scene. Everyone went to the rushes, and there was one director who said “You can’t!” and all the other directors said, “Of course you can!” and literally 30 people would go and watch them.

OT: I think it’s … well, we didn’t.

SD: It made for some grumpy discussions afterwards, when people thought they’d been doing stuff and the director hadn’t picked it up, and so … it was a bit tricky but …

OT: That’s actors for you!

SD: And then of course you were at HTV so there was a bar there.

OT: Yes.

SD: Did you spend any time in the HTV bar?

OT: I did, yes, I did, yeah …

SD: I did as well … Not when I was twelve!⁴

OT: That was great because the crew would hang out there.

SD: People would wind down together, basically, and then get not enough sleep, and then turn up at 7 o’clock the following morning. But it was … it was a very friendly crew.

OT: Talking about riding, it comes to me that Jack Watson had a bad bone, down there [indicates left buttock/hamstring], so when he cantered or galloped it was painful for him, and, um, he’d hang on, so he’s always … [imitates Jack Watson’s rather strained posture in the saddle]

…

LW: Was there any filming on Blackdown?

OT: It’s very likely, yes; the galloping stuff [indicates rolling hills] sort of, open …

Black Rock (6).jpg

The dogs in the photos are Linda's brindle greyhound, Gwen, and white lurcher, Trigger.
…

OT: … collect the money had two or three hangers-on. They started moving into my house, all the liggers and layabouts … In those days, very few people had … money … it was the sixt- early seventies … it was different … and if you had a name, and even five bob in your pocket, you had ten people hanging onto you. It’s like all the rock stars were surrounded by you know, the … see, we called them liggers … hangers-off and … that’s what happened to me, too.

SD: I don’t think that’s changed, actually.

JG: And was that a problem, or … were they a help to you in some way?

OT: Oh, they were your greatest friends.

JG: Okay!

OT: They were all traitors, they’re all … rip … took … oh, who’s paying? You know … “Can I sit here?” “Oh, I’ll have that!”

SD: “Am I paying again? Oh, what a surprise!”

OT: “Who’s paying?” Of course, you end up paying …

JG: That’s not right!

OT: Well, it’s what it was like … I had some friends of course … some …

SD: You used to come back and see us, which was nice – that was good.

OT: Very much so, yeah, yeah .

SD: See, my dad and mum lived about 8 miles that way [indicates direction] towards [inaudible]. Occasionally – and not always predicted – Olly would turn up, and that carried on for years, that was great.

OT: Yeah, yeah …

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…

JG: [pointing at the large rock] I actually climbed on and stripped myself to the waist …

OT: Bloody hell!

SD: I think we’re here on the wrong day!

…

Linda insisted that I get up on The Rock on which Arthur had been tied up and flogged, 50 years before. We all went over, and I got a small boost and managed to grab the top of the rock and hang there.

SD: Is that the whipping position?

LW: This is it.

OT: That’s amazing!

SD: Joya, I feel I know you!

LW: Classic social media … arms spread a bit more! Last time she did it, she took her top off.

JG: I won’t do that today – there are gentlemen present!

OT: Cut her loose!

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Once I got down, Oliver and Sean had their photos taken with The Rock.

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Sean Dromgoole was planning to go and see his dad, Patrick – the Executive Producer of “Arthur of the Britons” - the following day, so he got us all to stand together in front of the The Rock and say, “Thank you, Patrick, for ‘Arthur of the Britons’ while he took a video.

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Then we decided to go to a nearby pub Linda knew for coffee, so we all piled into our cars, and off we went, back up the gorge and up to the pub, The Queen Victoria Inn, at Priddy.

Sean told us about how Dave Prowse (who appeared in two episodes of AotB) wanted his own voice to be used for Darth Vader, as he was the one playing the character. To demonstrate why that wouldn’t be a good idea, the Director delivered some of Darth’s lines in a Cornish accent!

We returned to Wookey Hole, and went over the road to the Wookey Hole Inn for lunch, after which Sean said his goodbyes.

~~

¹ Ben Ford owned the stables which supplied the horses for “Arthur of the Britons.”

² Perhaps it was here that we got the information that Michael was very competitive, and wanted the fastest horse!

³ Skip Steloff was Chairman and Chief Executive of Heritage Entertainment, an independent Los Angeles production company, which co-produced “Arthur of the Britons.”

⁴ Sean was 12 when he appeared in AotB. He later worked behind the camera on other HTV productions.

Friday 14 October

At about 2:30, I went down to the dining area, got a coffee, and sat waiting for other fans to arrive, with my Arthur of the Britons annual and various other related items on display.

It took a while for me to notice that some of the group were there already! Dan, who I’d met once before, with his author wife, Janet, along with Steve, Jonathan, and David, who are mainly Robin of Sherwood fans. Steve, Jonathan, and David had met Oliver Tobias and his daughter Jelly at the most recent RoS convention.

I explained to the RoS fans that I stopped watching “Robin of Sherwood” because I didn’t like the way they water-boarded Guy of Gisborne, and left him there, being continuously ducked, and laughed about it. I said they should have just killed him! Steve made a weighing motion, saying “waterboarding … or killing him” … He had a point! But I just can’t see Arthur doing something like that.

As the afternoon progressed, some others arrived. Carole, Mark - who was at the first of these get-togethers with Oliver – and his girlfriend, Akvile; Linda and Jane, who had also been to a number of AotB events, then Phil and Julie.

Then Oliver Tobias and his daughter, Jelly, arrived, so I went out to meet them. Oliver asked how many people were coming, and whether he had met any of them before, particularly remembering Mark, who was the only chap who had been at the 2010 event. I mentioned Linda and Jane, and Mark and Akvile. I also told Oliver about Wendy – Michael Gothard’s adopted sister – who was coming to join us on Sunday.

Oliver spoke about Michael – saying that he was “very closed off”, and described him as “dangerous”, but “very kind.”¹ He spoke about passing out with his head in Michael’s lap, after being hit by the spear, and waking up with a gold cross swinging above his head and a blond “angel” (an Irish nurse) looking down at him, saying “Oliver, Oliver …” and thinking he was in heaven. “No, you’re in Bristol Royal Infirmary.”

He said that before being hit with the spear, he had felt or heard a roaring sound in his head, which he took to mean that he was pushing too hard, and which he regarded as a warning, and which - since then - he has heeded.

I told him I’d been thrown over a horse’s neck and landed on my back the other way round, wearing a riding hat but no body protector. Oliver pointed out that they never wore riding hats. He said, “You have to fall off” if you are learning to ride a horse!

Despite my request – ratified by Oliver - that no edged weapons be brought into Wookey Hole by the participants, Oliver himself had brought a sword with him!

I left them to settle in, and went back to the restaurant, to find that Christine had arrived from Germany. I was expecting María José, from Spain, but had seen no sign of her. Reception told me that she had got here 2 hours ago. When she came down, she said she had been traveling from her home in Spain for 36 hours; when she got to Wells, her phone died, and she couldn’t find the bus station, so she walked all the way here. They make them tough in Zaragoza!

Tim, an actor friend of Mark’s, arrived on his motorbike. Martin also appeared – he’d asked me to organise the previous meet-up, but had not shown up, himself!

The group discussed Kai’s tunic, which he wore first in "The Last Valley", and then in "Arthur of the Britons"; we were wondering whether the two shows had used the same wardrobe supplier. Mark said that actors would often walk off a set with their costumes, so Michael had probably brought it with him to AotB. I mentioned that the tunic had later shown up in the Tenpole Tudor video for their track, "Wunderbar", and Mark said, “I know Eddie Tenpole!” I still hope to find out what subsequently happened to it. Actually, what I said was, “I would kill for that tunic!”

After the evening meal, Oliver and Jelly came and sat with us, and Oliver and Linda spent some time laying into the Tories - Jacob Rees-Mogg was a particular target - "the type I rebelled against, years ago" Oliver said. He advised us never to trust a politician who constantly does the two-handed gesture (as though playing a concertina) because they are trying to persuade you with lies.

I confirmed with Oliver and everyone else, that the following day, we would meet downstairs at 9:30 to sort out lifts, and then go to Black Rock Quarry.

¹ Per Dan: Oliver said that Michael was a volatile man: dangerous and unpredictable, which made him a blessing as an actor, and was his curse. He said people like Ray Winstone were pretend hard men; Michael was the real deal.

Dear Oliver,

I have the most vivid and fond memories of my work as composer, orchestrator and conductor on Arthur of the Britons. The whole experience was tremendously exciting and fifty years on I still dream from time to time that I'm back in Bristol and a new series is going to be made!

Everything about the process was extraordinary from the first enigmatic phone call from Patrick Dromgoole asking me to be in his office at 10 o'clock the next morning but not saying why, the briefing session with Peter Miller with a list of eventualities to be covered in the music and the final instruction: "Use French horns" - as if I wouldn't!

Then there were the three frantic weeks of composing with either my copyist Arthur Sendall ("Send-all-to-Sendall") driving down from Croydon to my 15th century home in Hastings Old Town to collect the latest batch of scores or my driving up and pushing them through his letterbox at one in the morning having been up working since 6 am, my Russian artist girlfriend who retreated to her mother's while I was buried in the work, only to complain later that I hadn't said I loved her for two weeks - ("I've been rather busy" was my reply.)

Then the trip to Belgium with my musical assistant in my black 1951 Triumph Renown saloon with its chauffeur screen and leather bench seats. We drove round Bruges by lamplight and parked in a large deserted square in Ghent for a few hours' rest, me sleeping on the front seat and Edward in the back, awaking the next morning to find ourselves surrounded by busy market stalls!

And of course the recording sessions with members of the Belgian National Symphony Orchestra in a wonderful studio with a seven-second natural echo in Brussels. We sat the players in concert formation and used a two-directional stereo mic above my head as I conducted and two ambient mics at the back of the hall - no laborious multi-tracking and subsequent mixing - that was it, and that's how I still like to record.

Finally, the big reveal as I played the entire score, including my orchestration of Elmer Bernstein's famous title music, to Patrick, Peter, John Peverall and yourself. The fact that the star of the show was interested enough to sit listening to the whole hour's worth of music was unique in my experience and still is. I was deeply touched by your presence and extremely grateful for your approval Oliver.

Composing the score remains one of the highlights of my forty-seven-year-long TV composing career. Nowadays, since all my regular directors and producers, being on the whole ten to twenty years old than me - (I started composing for TV at twenty) - have long retired and mostly died - I write concert music and seem to be as busy doing this as I was when I worked in TV, which is the reason I can't be with you in person for this wonderful celebration.

But my thoughts will be with you, and I send my greetings and the warmest of wishes to you, Joya and all the wonderful fans of our unforgettable programme.

Paul Lewis, Sussex, 12th October 2022.

In front of the dark cedar, you can see the tree planted by fans in memory of Michael Gothard, in 2011.

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A couple of closer photos for scale.

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This one includes most of the gang: Spacefarer,

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fredbassett, Carole Biggam, and Steve Weekes.

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And here's me -

trepkos.

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The plaque is still being kept clear of vegetation.

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From the field where the village was situated, we walked along a path which went through other locations, including the field where Freya's homestead was sited.

Then we got a look at Woodborough Mill Dam - "The Giant's Dam" of "In Common Cause" - from Cerdig's side.

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We walked through an obliging gentleman's garden, said 'hello!' to his dog Ozzie, whom we met last time we came through in 2014.

We then crossed the River Chew, and found our way through the riding stables owned by Melissa, who also owns the land where the village was built, then got to the Celts' side of dam.

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Melissa's partner, Andy, told us that the dam used to serve a brass mill - something I'd never heard of! But the dam is falling into disrepair, and there seems to be no interest by the relevant authorities, in maintaining it.

While at the Compton Inn, at Compton Dando, I was lucky enough to meet Nigel, a big local chap, with his red or blond hair cut very short.

Nigel lived in Compton Dando during the filming of "Arthur of the Britons." He said that he and some of his classmates were brought to the village location, and dressed in costume for a particular episode, but he wasn't allowed to be in it, because his hair was the wrong colour!

[This episode was probably "The Treaty", which featured a lot of Celt child soldiers]

His teacher was Pat Feather, who previously contacted this archive with some recollections. He didn't know the TV series was available on DVD, so hadn't seen it since it came out.

Nigel also remembered that a girl who lived down the road from him, Karen, was filmed being thrown up in the air by Bernard Bresslaw, the Saxon Leader in "The Wood People." Every time Mr Bresslaw threw her up and caught her, she started crying, so they had to film the take again!

Presumably, they never got a take they could use, because no such clip features in the episode. However, the Wood People's little girl, in the clutches of the Saxon Leader, does look pretty terrified!

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On the 3 August 2019, fans visited Compton Dando, an area where, among other scenes from the series, one of the most iconic episodes of "Arthur of the Britons", "The Challenge", was filmed. From the village pub, the Compton Inn, we took a short walk northwards, crossed a bridge over the River Chew, and turned left onto a grassy track, which looked spine-tingling in its familiarity. Arthur and Kai often galloped along it.

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Then into sight came an oh-so-familiar hillside, where Arthur and Kai battled almost to the death, under the astonished gaze of Llud, Garet and Gawain.

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When fans first visited this location, with Camera Operator, Roger Pearce, we stayed at the bottom of the hill. This time, we did a bit more investigating, and were surprised at the size of the area.

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At the bottom of the hill was the famous muddy bank.

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Then it was back to the Compton Inn for lunch.

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From the Compton Inn, we walked northwards, to the River Chew, crossed the bridge, and turned left onto a grassy track along which Arthur and Kai had often been seen galloping.

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Then into sight came an oh-so-familiar hillside, where Arthur and Kai battled almost to the death, under the astonished gaze of Llud, Garet and Gawain.

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The first time we came here, with Roger Pearce, we stayed at the bottom of the hill. This time, we did a bit more investigating, and I was surprised at the size of the area.

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At the bottom of the hill was the famous muddy bank!

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On the 3 August 2019, fans visited Black Rock Quarry, an open limestone quarry in Cheddar Gorge, where much of "The Slaves" was filmed.

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The quarry is on National Trust land.

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This was our first view of the impressive quarry face. There were fewer trees around when filming took place, as they filmed it from much further away.

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The National Trust sometimes has loose bits of rock assisted in their downward passage, and sometimes the just fall on their own, so the appearance is not exactly as it was in 1972.

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Just to give you an idea of the scale of things; that was quite a fall that actor/stuntman Jack Cooper took!

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View from the cliff face.

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Black Rock returns to normal, as fans depart, and leave the residents in peace!

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I arrived at the building where Sean works for our 3 o’clock meeting, and he came down to meet me. On the way up to his office, he asked why I was so into “Arthur of the Britons”: was it Oliver? I said, no it was Michael. “Even then?” he said. Perhaps he thought a teenager would be more likely to fall for Oliver, though he did think that Michael was a very attractive man.

By way of background, Sean said that in the early 1970s, the smaller TV companies like HTV weren’t expected to do drama, especially on this scale, but Sean’s father, Patrick Dromgoole, decided that they should start. They had two crews, which produced a lot of great drama over the next 20 years, including "Children of the Stones" and “Robin of Sherwood.” “Arthur of the Britons” - along with “Pretenders” [a costume drama set in 1685, about two children during a rebellion against King James II] - was the start of this in many ways.

The story of Arthur, and the conflict between the Celts of Wales and Cornwall, and the Saxons in Wessex, was a natural choice for Harlech TV, which was based in the middle of those territories.

As we settled down to watch “The Gift of Life” together, Sean proved himself a man after my own heart by expressing approval for the 4:3 aspect ratio! He also said he loved Elmer Bernstein’s epic theme music.

Every now and then, as we watched the episode, he would press ‘pause’, and tell me something he remembered about what had just transpired.

The first thing he commented on was the horse Michael was riding. He said that either Michael wasn’t a natural rider, or the horses he’d been given weren’t up to the task, because he had been through about 3 horses without finding one that suited him. After some weeks, the horse wrangler, Ben Ford of Stroud, brought in a new bay horse, and named it Merlin because “if this works it will be a miracle.”

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So Merlin was not the horse shown here - which Michael rode for the first few episodes.

As Krist and Elka stick their heads up on the boat, Sean drew his colleague’s attention to his first appearance: “I’m in show business!”

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He then pointed out that much of the conversation between Arthur and Kai about what to do with the Saxon children – nearly a whole minute – was filmed in one take.

Then when Kai is getting ready to leave the village with the children, he drew my attention to a great shot of Michael.

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He said there would have been huge polystyrene reflectors just out of shot, directing bright lights at Michael’s face; he would have been bravely keeping his eyes wide open to avoid squinting.

The riding scenes were filmed near Woodchester. Sean could ride already, as his mother had been very keen that he and his siblings should learn. It was alright for Tamzin riding in front of Michael, but very uncomfortable for him, riding at the back, where there was no saddle. Bumping along when they were cantering was agony!

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The conversation between Krist and Kai about the scar on Kai’s neck would have been filmed by a tracking camera mounted on a vehicle, driven alongside the horse.

I mentioned how tall the bracken was, in the scene where Krist and Elka go missing. Sean said the problem was, trying to make sure the crew didn’t trample it all down!

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When Kai was calling for the children, Sean said, “I did find Michael slightly scary – there was a threat about him. He was tall, distant, and rather magnificent.” He was also “moody” but Sean also recalled that he was “very kind, very patient.” He and Tamzin often screwed up a shot by, for example, looking straight into camera, but Michael understood that they were just learning. “In dealing with me and Tamzin, he was brilliant.”

When Kai teaches the children the secret whistle, Sean admitted that he couldn’t do it; that was the only part of the sound that wasn’t recorded live on location, but looped in a sound studio. The sound recordist, Mike Davey, a close friend of Sean’s, is deaf in one ear!

During the next scene where they were riding, Sean pointed out the vehicle tracks where the horse was trotting. I protested that they were cart tracks, but he said carts didn’t make tracks like that!

Where the children are sleeping, he said he remembered the feel of the sheepskin against his cheek.

I commented on Kai’s furry boot-covers, and Sean revealed that they were a lot of trouble, as they were always coming off.

As they walk into the Saxon village, Sean said that Heather Wright, who played Hildred, was a lovely girl. He commented once again on the wonderful cadence of the theme music.

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He wondered what was the point of “putting fur on a guitar” (the minstrel’s lute).

In the scene where Kai is sitting in the hut, tied up, Sean pointed out that the wattle and daub panels, from which the walls were made, were actually moulded plastic! They had one real panel, and poured plastic onto it, then peeled it off, painted it, and poured some more on. They looked terrible in real life.

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He thought Stephan Chase was a good actor; “You need to know who your villain is.”

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When Kai springs out of the bracken to break the Saxon villager’s neck, Sean said he would have had his face smeared with Vaseline, to make it look as if he were sweating. By the time they filmed these scenes, they were losing the light.

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Sean remembers being fascinated watching Peter Brayham organising the stunts, and by just how simple they were, up close. When Horgren surprises Kai, near his horse, it was Peter who buried the axe in the tree trunk, not Stephan Chase.

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He remembers feeling the sticky “Kensington Gore” (theatrical fake blood) on his face after Kai palms his cheek as he rides away.

During the scene where Kai is lying on his sickbed, we speculated on where Arthur would have obtained the huge bunch of grapes Kai has in front of him. Sean suspects the cameraman was referencing Carravagio’s “Boy with a Basket of Fruit.”

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The fire would have been made using a gas tube under some stone that had been painted to look like logs.

After the credits had rolled, Sean asked whether I had any other questions. I started by asking how he got the job!

He had acted before, in school plays and the like, but never in front of a camera. As soon as word got out about a new production, people in the business would be looking out for roles for their children. There was an audition: five boys and five girls, and a lot of those auditioning, like the Nevilles, were family friends.

The episode Director, Pat Jackson – a lovely man - must have auditioned them, but as the audition was held in Patrick Dromgoole’s office, Sean, and his younger brother Dominic and sister Jessica, were at something of an advantage. Sean himself was credited as “Sean Fleming” – his mother’s maiden name – because they didn’t want to give away the fact that he was in his dad’s production!

Sean got the part of Krist, partly because he was blond, which made him a better fit as a Saxon boy than his brother, Dominic whose hair was dark. Dominic got the part of Col’s son Frith, in “The Slaves.” He didn’t like the fact that at the end of the episode, he had to be lifted – almost thrown – high in the air by Dave Prowse. Jessica appeared in another episode as an extra.

They took the men

Sean took it very seriously; he remembers rehearsing at the kitchen table with his mother. “I was the little pro – turned up with all my lines learnt!”

Being one of the youngest cast members was, “terrific! Everyone spoiled me.” People fell over themselves to look after them, especially the make-up lady, Christine Penwarden, on whom he had a crush. She used to show them how to make fake scars with Bostick, and shock their families.

When they went for the costume fittings, they were fascinated by the axes with rubber heads, used during the actual fight scenes. Saying, “This is a real one”, Oliver picked up an axe, took a swing at one of the posts in the Saxon village, struck into it, and also hit one of the female crew members - possibly the costume lady, Audrey MacLeod - on the head! She was okay though.

There were very small crews in those days – 30 or so – so everyone was racing about the whole time, but because of people like the cameraman, Bob Edwards and the director, Pat Jackson, the atmosphere was relaxed and very friendly; there seemed to be plenty of time. “It was great fun – a real confidence-booster. They made it so easy.”

Nevertheless, not being a ‘morning person’, Sean was “beguiled” by how early in the morning they started work (dawn). They only shot 3 and a half to four minutes’ worth of film each day, unlike these days, when 8 minutes is the norm. It took about a week to film each episode.

When asked how much direction he was given, Sean said, “Not enough, watching it! I think the idea was to keep us as relaxed as possible – not do take after take, which would have been intimidating for a child.” He thought he could have given a better performance. It was hard to know how much direction any of the adult cast received, because a good director would speak to the actors privately.

He didn’t see the rushes. There would be a lab. report the next morning, and the rushes would be seen the following night. Some directors invited the actors; the more experienced ones didn’t, because they didn’t want them to be distracted by thinking about what they’d done before.

Sean thinks he was paid for the performance, but has no idea what happened to the money; it didn’t end up in his pocket! He was present for the filming of some other episodes but didn’t appear as an extra, which was boring: not like being the centre of attention!

It rained, half the time, and the cast and crew would either stand under tarpaulins, film indoors, or just got on with it, pretending it wasn’t there.

Tony Shaffer – the writer of “Sleuth” - suggested that John Hurt should play Arthur; the series would have been “different”. But Patrick cast Oliver Tobias, who they already knew really well. Oliver used to bring his Haflinger 4 x 4 to their parents’ place, and drive them up an almost vertical hillside, making them all scream!

Oliver was hugely popular, “an utter delight.” He maintained friendships with all levels of the crew, to the extent that, years later, when he played the villain, Bertrand de Nivelle, in the “Robin of Sherwood” episode, “Lord of the Trees”, and had to fight Michael Praed, who played Robin, the crew were all cheering for Oliver: “Come on – give him what for!”

When the episode was broadcast, on 13 December 1972, Sean’s whole cub scout troop – all in their uniforms – came to their house in Somerset to watch it. “I was a fucking star!”

Though he hasn’t been back to the locations where they filmed, Sean sometimes feels drawn to visit them. His involvement with “Arthur of the Britons” was a very intense experience, and his attachment to it is deep set. He asked me what I thought of the series when I saw it again on DVD after nearly 40 years; I said it was better than I remembered, and he agreed. The series has stood up well.

He wanted to take up acting as a career, until his first professional auditions, which were so ugly and intimidating, he wondered why anyone would ever put themselves through the process. He probably should have gone to drama school, but his parents didn’t believe in it. He flirted with the idea of becoming and engineer, but decided it would be too dull, so he studied Philosophy at University, where he also did 22 plays, and had his own punk band, The Ripchords.

[The Ripchords' sole release was an eponymous EP with four tracks, “Ringing in the Streets”, “Music is...”, “Peace artist”, and “Television television”, was championed by John Peel, and quickly sold out. "Punk 77" described their music as “Tuneful punk with sepulchral vocals and deep growling bass”, and "My Life's a Jigsaw" as “Great garage/DIY punk.” Sean Dromgoole was the vocalist.]

When Sean finished his studies, he spent a number of years behind the camera, working for his father as an Assistant Director.

In his excellent book, “Swashbucklers”, James Chapman devotes a section of Chapter 3, “Revisionist revivals”, to Arthur of the Britons. Placing the series in its context with regard to broadcasting history, he describes HTV’s Arthur of the Britons and Southern Television’s The Black Arrow as “the first new British costume adventure series since Sir Francis Drake in 1961” and claims that “a generation on from the first costume adventure cycle of the 1950s, the genre was ripe for reinterpretation.”

Costume drama is considerably more appealing when seen in colour, so the time was right: “the switch to colour broadcasting, and technological developments that facilitated a greater amount of location shooting …” in particular “a new type of 16-millimetre Eastman film stock which offered sharper colour resolution and reduced grain” led to “a significant change in the visual style of the swashbuckler.”

This coincided with “the restructuring of the ITV network following the allocation of new franchises in the late 1960s [which] brought new contractors into play”. In addition, “changes in broadcasting policy in relation to the levy paid by ITV contractors on their advertising revenues” meant that in 1971-72 “the ITV companies had to pay less to the Treasury than they had expected: instead the funds were to be invested in production.”

Chapman sees HTV’s budget of £500,000 for Arthur of the Britons - considered a huge investment at the time – as “part of a strategy to establish itself alongside bigger rivals such as ATV and the new London Weekend Television consortium.” He observes that “Arthur of the Britons was HTV's first drama series to be shown across the whole ITV network. HTV made a strategic decision to focus on children's drama by producing content suitable for weekdays between the end of school hours and the early evening news.”

The result was what Chapman describes as a “golden age”, and a “lineage of bold and progressive children’s drama”, with Arthur of the Britons leading the charge.

He explains the involvement of co-production partners, Heritage Enterprises of New York and Taurus Films of Munich: “HTV was too small an outfit to mount such an ambitious undertaking itself.” He describes Heritage Enterprises as “a distributor of dubbed European genre product” who were responsible for the release of King Arthur the Young Warlord, a much abridged feature film of series in the USA in 1975. The involvement of Taurus Films, a West German producer “explains the casting of German actress Gila von Weitershausen as Jutish princess Rowena.”

Chapman quotes HTV’s Programme Controller Patrick Dromgoole: ‘The large number of countries represented [at a 1973 television sales fair] is evidence of the increasing interest among buyers overseas in the programmes being created, and is evidence also of our own developing interest in the overseas market.’

Indeed, Arthur of the Britons was not just shown in West Germany and the USA, but Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, various South American countries, and Australia. This success of HTV’s landmark series “opened the company’s eyes to the possibilities of the international market.”

Chapman believes that the commissioning of the theme tune from Elmer Bernstein was “an indication of the series’ ambition”, and that “Arthur of the Britons can be seen as part of a revival of the Arthurian legend inspired by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's musical Camelot”…

He sees the casting of Oliver Tobias – fresh from his role in “'tribal love-rock' musical Hair,” as part of the “counter-cultural associations that characterised the Arthurian revival.” He says, “Tobias and his co-star Michael Gothard wear their hair like 1970s pop stars.” In fact, Tobias had, in 1964, toured with his own rock band, and Gothard was frequently likened to Mick Jagger.

Chapman points out that “Arthur of the Britons was “the first adventure series with a genuinely youthful protagonist rather than a mature thirty- or even forty-something leading man”, as well as the first “to present its hero explicitly as an object of male beauty.”

He believes that Arthur of the Britons’ popularity “was probably due as much to Tobias as to its realistic violence. Here was a hero who appealed equally to males and females: boys would enjoy the robust action sequences - Tobias and Gothard perform many of their own stunts, and are both highly proficient in sword-fighting and horsemanship - while for adolescent girls Tobias became a romantic pin-up to rank alongside such seventies icons as David Cassidy and David Essex.”

It should be pointed out that fans were probably about evenly split with regard to their preference for either Tobias’ Arthur or Gothard’s Kai!

Arthur of the Britons is described as “a largely satisfying revisionist interpretation of the Arthurian legend” set in the early fifth century, after the Romans had left the Celts to their own devices, and “shorn of all the myth and chivalric trappings acquired over the centuries.”

In looking at Arthur's connection to the Romans, Chapman refers to “The Challenge”, in which Arthur reminds Kai that he “owes his fighting prowess to Roman training” - “You forget – the Romans taught me the short sword” and Kai responds, “I’ve killed Romans with it.” However, Chapman incorrectly attributes the quotation in “The Girl from Rome” – “I fear we have no chariots. The Romans used them all, running from our spears” to Arthur; it was Kai that said this to Benedicta.

But Arthur’s main concern, as Chapman points out, is not any past dealings with the Romans, but his efforts to “forge a ‘Celtic alliance’ as a bulwark against the Saxons.”

Chapman goes on to discuss the “recurring themes which sit somewhat uneasily alongside one another” in Arthur of the Britons:
“Throughout the series there is a tension between the desire for peace and the need for robust self-defence. Arthur is cast in the role of peace-maker: he alone has the vision to unite the rival factions among the Celts and to promote their peaceful co-existence with the Saxons.

The narrative of conflict resolution is a standard device of juvenile fiction of course … but in Arthur of the Britons it is undercut by an unusual insistence on fighting prowess and military skill … In the absence of any central authority it is necessary to be able to fight to protect one's land and family.

Arthur of the Britons, then, presents a world-view in which violence may be legitimate and necessary. It is not preferred for resolving disputes, but may be justified in self-defence.”

Chapman also refers to the tone of the series:

“Arthur of the Britons may have been positioned as children's entertainment … but some of its content is remarkably adult in tone. The brutality of the Dark Ages is much in evidence … There are passing references to the rape of female prisoners that seem somewhat inappropriate for a children's drama series. There are also references to sexual experience that would never have been allowed in a series like The Adventures of Sir Lancelot …”

He continues:

“There is even an implicit suggestion of homo-eroticism in 'The Slaves' wherein Arthur, trying to rescue prisoners from a Saxon slave labour camp, is captured, stripped and flogged. The fact that he is flogged by his adopted brother and best friend Kai - who, as a Saxon himself, is able to impersonate one of the guards - layers a more complex dimension onto the act. Kai … seems to enjoy it: ‘How do you flog a man publicly and stay the whip?’”¹

In summing up, Chapman calls Arthur of the Britons “a landmark in the history of the television adventure series. It was the first to be shot entirely on location, and the first to represent the barbarism and brutality of its period in unflinching detail. It marked the emergence of a new style of more realistic and full-blooded swashbucklers that would lead ultimately to Robin of Sherwood”, and “put the British-made costume adventure series back on the map.”

"Swashbucklers - The costume adventure series" by James Chapman was published in 2015 by Manchester University Press. It covers costume drama from the 1950s to 2014.

¹ While some fans have interpreted Arthur’s relationship with Kai as homo-erotic, Chapman’s choice of this scene to demonstrate this is not the best. Far from enjoying having to flog Arthur to sustain their cover story, and keep them both alive, Kai is clearly tormented by the ordeal, and would have felt that way, regardless of any possibly romantic or sexual feelings. However, their verbal exchange as Arthur is laid out to be flogged – Kai’s apologetic: “Arthur … it’s the only way I could save you” and Arthur’s understanding: “I know” could leave their relationship open to a homo-erotic interpretation. Some more obvious episodes Chapman could have chosen to demonstrate this potential are “Daughter of the King”, “Enemies and Lovers”, and “The Duel.” But however one chooses to view the relationship, it seems likely that the intention of the creators was more along the lines of a “bromance” than a ground-breaking gay love story on 1970s tea-time TV.

The Giant's Dam appears in the episode "In Common Cause", as the location where Arthur and Cerdig meet to negotiate.

The location where these scenes were filmed was Woodborough Mill Dam, at Woodborough Mill Farm in the village of Woollard. On the map below, the dam is marked "Weir."

This is how the dam looks in 2014.

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Extra, Barbara Hatherall and cameraman, Roger Pearce remembered filming at Woodborough Mill Farm near the village of Woollard. This was where Ulrich's village in "The Gift of Life", Rolf's village in "The Penitent Invader", Cerdig's village in "In Common Cause", Yorath's village in "Rowena", Col's village in "The Slaves", and Arthur's village in the later episodes, were set.

In "The Gift of Life", this is the wood from which Kai and the children emerge, and into which Kai flees from his Saxon pursuers.

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