arthur_of_the_britons | Entries tagged with michael gothard

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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."

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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.

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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.

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

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

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Below: Oliver and Jelly.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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.

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!

The Journey (8)

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!

The Journey (36)

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.

Welcome (18)

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.

In the hut (9)

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

Celebration (29)

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.

Escaping (53)

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.

Escaping (79)

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.”

Boy_with_a_Basket_of_Fruit-Caravaggio_(1593)

Boy_with_a_Basket_of_Fruit-Caravaggio_(1593)

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.

At the Firefly Café, Jersey, on Sunday 23 October 2011, Brian Blessed spoke about his time on “Arthur of the Britons.”

He said the atmosphere on set was great fun. He mentioned that when someone had done something horrible, like killing someone in a nasty way, Director Sidney Hayers used to say, “Aw, what did you have to go and do that for?”

We talked a bit about “The Prisoner”, in which Brian, as Mark of Cornwall, killed Kai’s friend Roland, played by Michael Gambon. He said that since then, he has joked with Michael Gambon that if he’d known how famous he’d be, he would have run him through for real!

He said that while filming a particular episode, Sid Hayers offered one of the extras fifty quid, to let Brian throw him in the river. Of course, the extra – a student – agreed. Brian threw him in; the extra’s furs and sheepskins instantly became waterlogged, and he sunk like a stone, and had to be rescued!

On seeing some pictures of fans dedicating a tree to the late Michael Gothard, Brian revealed that he didn’t even know he’d died. He became serious, and said that he was sorry, and that Michael was depressed when he knew him.

Meeting with Brian Blessed

These posters were for a spanish version of "Arthur of the Britons", shown in Mexico as "El Rey de los Guerreros."

Arthur Poster merged

Though Michael Gothard's photo appears in the insert below, only Oliver Tobias and Jack Watson are mentioned by name.

Kai poster

The photo inserts were taken from actual footage, but the background picture bears little resemblance to anything the viewers would have seen on the screen.

Text:
El Rey de los Guerreros
Ano 500 D.C las hordas salvajes invaden inglaterra, pero un joven guerrero las ataca ferozmente.

Translation:
The King of the warriors
In the year 500 AD, the wild hordes invade England, but a young warrior attacks them ferociously.

"Look-In" was a children's magazine about ITV's television programmes in the United Kingdom.

Look-in Dec 8 1973

The text - unable to break free of Arthurian terminology - refers to Kai as "Arthur's trusty squire".

Look-in 1

AotB, Bristol Evening Post, 13 Dec 1972.pdf

The first page of this feature in the children's magazine "Look-in" from the week ending 2 December 1972 sets the stage for the re-telling of the Legend of King Arthur in a much more realistic way than it had ever been told before.

The captions are not entirely accurate. Kai is wholly Saxon by birth, but Celtic by upbringing and loyalties. In the scene shown top left, from "The Challenge", Kai is not trying to overthrow Arthur. The two of them have just had a squabble that got out of hand.

The scene shown top right is interesting, in that the photo from "The Gift of Life" is taken from a different angle to the film used in the episode. Also, Arthur appears to be running with the child, whereas in the episode, he picks it up, the film is cut, and we see a rider approach, then it cuts back to Arthur giving the child to its mother as Kai runs past. Any film of Kai dismounting, and them running with the child, was left out of the final edit.

AotB Look in 2 small

The top picture in the article below shows Kai and Llud launching spears at the Saxons in "Arthur is Dead." The picture below is captioned 'Goda, played by Hilary Dwyer' but actually shows Eithna, played by Madeleine Hinde.

Look-in 1972b

Text:

As the story opens, we see the Celtic chiefs struggling, one by one, to move a great boulder. Beneath it lies a sword, and great honour awaits the first man to lift that sword above his head. But all the chiefs fail – and then the young warrior called Arthur steps forward. He shows them how to move the boulder by pushing together – but as the surprised men recover from their effort, they realize that Arthur has snatched up the sword and now holds it aloft.

Arthur has established his right to become war-leader of the Celts. At the same time, he has taught his men two important lessons. First, that unity is strength. And second, that victory goes to the man who thinks and plans rather than to the strongest.

Dream of a united Britain

But although Arthur becomes leader of Celtic resistance to the Saxon invaders of Britain, he needs all his wisdom and bravery to keep his place. His men are only too ready to fight among themselves. And of his two lieutenants, only the veteran warrior Llud is completely reliable. The other, Kai, is part-Saxon, a violent and head-strong young man who sometimes sees Arthur’s careful planning as a sign of weakness. But with these men, Arthur strives to bring about his dream of a united Britain.

“Arthur of the Britons” is based on what historians, rather than imaginative writers, can tell us about Arthur. In fact, we know very little. But what we do know is that a man called Arthur once existed, and that his deeds were so great that he was to be remembered for centuries as a mighty leader. From about A.D. 1200 onward, when the stories of Arthur were first written down, the legends of ‘King Arthur’ took on the more colourful form in which we read them today.

It is these legends, no more true than fairy-tales, that HTV’s “Arthur of the Britons” strips away – to show us the real man who lies behind him.

Arthur
Warlord of the Britons

words by Peter Escourt
pictures by Stuart Sadd

The figure of King Arthur strides across the pages of British history like a giant, but it is the romantic figure of the Age of Chivalry, the figure that has inspired the songs of medieval troubadours and modern poets alike. In HTV’s new 24-part series, Arthur of the Britons, which begins this week, Arthur is brought from the world of legend to the world of reality and pictured, below, as he really was – a desperate sixth-century warlord struggling to hold off the English invaders leading small forays into their territory from a grubby little stronghold that became known, in later times, as the romantic Camelot.

Finding an actual location for Camelot was to the Middle Ages what Unidentified Flying Objects have been to this century. The riddle was romantic and happily unanswerable. Was it Winchester, Caerleon, Carlisle – or where? It was the one thing which, as a modern scholar has remarked, held them spellbound for three centuries.

But, since this summer, there have been no such doubts at HTV in Bristol: Camelot is about six miles from Stroud, Gloucestershire, a half-mile off the main road to Bath. They should know: their set-designers built it there for Arthur of the Britons.

It is small and rather grimy. A collection of small wooden huts, thatched with straw, insulated with mud, straggles along the lake shore. There are a few skins left out to dry, and a skin coracle pulled up out of the water.

Certainly it isn't what scholars of the Middle Ages, or Alfred, Lord Tennyson, or any Hollywood mogul would recognise as Camelot. Ironically, Arthur himself might recognise it.

The series brings to television the most mysterious figure in our history, not as legend or romance would have him, but as he really must have been. It is the first time the historical Arthur has been presented dramatically on film.

It will be a great shock to viewers who see him as a great and cultivated king of the Middle Ages, all-wise and quite legendary. This was the Arthur of romance and legend: a golden figure whose empire of great palaces and towns stretched to Rome and beyond.

But the archaeological research of the 20th century suggests that there must have been someone there, a real man where the legends all begin. Drawing on this, the series seeks to show him as he was: a desperate guerrilla fighter trying to unite the rag-tag armies of Britain in the collapse which followed the Roman evacuation.

Arthur is doing this to fight off the barbarian invasions - which will prove a further shock to national susceptibilities: these barbarians are the English, coming from their ancestral lands in Germany, and the men in the white hats in Britain in the early sixth century were the Welsh. Arthur was a Welshman.

But he was not a king. Modern historical theories portray him as a professional soldier who, by strength of personality, held together a mounted force drawn from the petty kings of Britain. This force managed to inflict a series of defeats on the Saxons, who fought on foot. It eventually broke up when internal discord led to the civil war in which Arthur was killed.

No Guineveres,
Lancelots, Galahads
or Merlins. No
armour, no romance.
Just grime.

The gradual emergence of an historical Arthur, pieced together by scholars from recent excavations, old Welsh poetry, traditions and Dark Age chronicles, is one of the most romantic achievements of recent historical research. But it has meant that Arthur's world has shrunk from a great European stage, with thousands locked in
battle and besieging huge castles, to the forests of Dark Age Britain, where armies of a few hundred waged desperate little battles into which chivalry never came.

The historical Arthur is ideal for a television production. There are no elaborate sets to be built, no army to be hired, no plate armour to be assembled. There is just wood and straw and skins, everything small and grubby - but in the sixth century, anything can happen.

HTV are proud of their historical research. Their first big attempt to struggle out of the anonymity which can afflict regional TV companies was Pretenders, an historical series networked earlier this year. It was an account of the Monmouth rebellion in 1685 and the cameras went where the events actually took place. The Battle of Sedgemoor was filmed on Sedgemoor in Somerset and wandering bands of players got up to their mummeries in old West Country inns. The series was a success, and has been sold abroad.

With Arthur of the Britons the company feels it is on to another winner. The same production team is involved. Networking is guaranteed and an American distributor has been acquired. At HTV they enthusiastically talk about the few names that have come down to us from the murk of the sixth century as though they were in yesterday's newspapers.

The set-designers have been doing their homework. In his office, Douglas James, art director for the series, is surrounded by drawings of log-huts and of the wooden tools that have come down through lrish history and would have been used in Celtic Britain. There are sketches of breast-ploughs, wooden spades, and a ponderous wooden-wheeled cart.

"We knew filming would last six months so we had to build something which would last that time. We had to use the building materials they would have used: larch poles, roofed with turf, thatch and bracken. The building rook 16 men about l0 days. In addition to the small huts, we have a long-hut which is sound-proofed to act as a studio.

"We built it by a lake with a stockade and a jetty, so it is defensible. We had to clear the bracken and the conifers around the lake. Conifers aren't indigenous to Britain, and there would have been none here in Arthur's time. Inside the huts we put things like wooden platters and bronze grease lamps."

The TV Camelot was built in a steeply-wooded valley near Stroud owned by the Forestry Commission, where no pylon or concrete wall can drag the viewer back sharply into the 20th century. For a moment, disregarding the odd glass-fibre boulder and a rival encampment of canteens and car parks 200 yards up the track, this really could be the Dark Ages.

But enough wiring for a pop festival or a small country town trails out of the long-hut. Inside are lights, clapper-boards and cameramen, and the inevitable young man in tight trousers calling like a wild prophet for silence. Beyond all this, stark in lighting that would have terrified the Dark Ages, are skins, straw - and Arthur.

Arthur is played by Oliver Tobias, 24. Suitably rugged and unsmiling, he is about to begin the great task of uniting the kingdoms under one military command. Tobias is a former leading man of Hair.

His Arthur is a complex figure. Between takes he sits on the steps of the long-hut playing with his broad sword.

"Arthur would have had to be rugged. He would have had to be prepared to back up with fact everything he said. It was a small world. If you travelled three miles you were in danger: it would have been like travelling 3,000 miles today," said Tobias.

He points towards the top of the track leading away from the huts. “Look up there. In his day, at any time, a horde might be coming over to rape and kill. I think he would have been a sad man. He would have been slightly higher than everybody else, a thinker, but he would always have been having to reach for his dagger."

Arthur is unmarried in the series. There are no Guineveres, Lancelots or Galahads. Instead, Arthur operates in a kind of Three Musketeers act, with a grizzled veteran called Lud the Silver-Handed, a pagan, and a Saxon foundling called Kai.

Sadly, HTV jettisoned some of their more interesting ideas. At first it was suggested that scenes be filmed in places with traditional links with Arthur, like Cadbury un Devon and Glastonbury, Somerset, where tradition has it he was buried. Peter Miller, the producer, explained: “These places are now just relics. We decided to film Arthur as a young man in his encampment and in woods.”

It was also intended to bring in Merlin as an historical figure, a man who had travelled the known world, had studied medicine under the Arabs, mathematics under the Moors, all of which would have made him a god-like person in Dark Age Britain. But he was thrown out with the rest of the Round Table.

He would have been a hangover from the knights in shining armour and HTV wanted to sever the last link with the legends.

But the earlier episodes do succeed in giving a picture of sixth-century Britain. In one episode all the rag-tag elements of petty royalties assemble. There is Ambrose, still aping Roman ways, dressed in the tatty remnants of Roman armour, Mark of Cornwall, a great bull of a man, played by Brian Blessed, and Hereward, a religious maniac calling for help to his old Celtic gods.

Such eccentric figures might well have emerged from the wilds once the Romans went. Ambrose is a fairly accurate figure: Celtic and barbarian warlords probably did attempt a form of Roman parade dress, as shown by some of the Sutton Hoo archaeological finds.

The form of the series, with self-contained episodes, makes it necessary that something happens every week, and so Arthur quarrels constantly with Kai, or the Saxons, or the odd Celtic king to heighten the drama in individual episodes.

Feminine interest is provided in one episode by giving him a Celtic wild-cat to tame, whom he has captured from her father, a hostile princeling. The girl, played by Madeleine Hinde, has to be persuaded to eat. Wild-eyed and furious, she spits chicken pieces all over Arthur. The shot is done and re-done. A chicken carcass off-stage is carved until it almost disappears. At last the director is satisfied.

"A lot of my friends,” said Oliver Tobias seriously, brushing bits of chicken off his jerkin, “believe that Arthur will come back some day.”

They, and the viewing public, are in for a surprise.

NEXT WEEK: our Star of the Month double-page pull-out portrait is Oliver Tobias as he appears in Arthur of the Britons.

Michael Gothard’s adopted sister, Wendy, visited the set of "Arthur of the Britons" with her father during November 1972. Soon after this first visit, she received a letter from Michael, which included the following:

“I am so pleased you enjoyed your visit to Scruffy Camelot! … I write this at the end of another very long day. I am somewhat saddle sore and bruised, but this is great fun to work on and restores my faith somewhat in this very shallow business I find myself in. I do enjoy working with “The Boys”! It is all very hectic and we are losing track of what we are doing and where we are, what with swapping between episodes.

This week I have been involved in several fights, which of course I won, I have been tied to a tree...and very cold it was too, then we went back and did some knife throwing that if I remember rightly we did right at the beginning ... .which seems a LONG time ago. Oh, I have also thrown a glass of fake wine over Oliver (again) which I enjoyed. We have also done a lot of riding, hence me needing a squashy cushion whenever I sit down. … It will be an early start on Friday morning, and you will get to spend a little time with the horses, as we are scheduled to be involved in plenty of riding during that day.”

The fights he mentions being involved in may have been the ones in the woods at the end of “The Prize”, which was the episode in which he was tied to a tree. They may also have included some of the sparring from “The Pupil”, and the final fight with Corin.

The Prize 65

The knife-throwing and wine-throwing scenes which were re-shot, were from the beginning and end of “Daughter of the King.” However, while the new version of the knife-throwing scene was used, the wine-throwing scene broadcast was clearly the original one, filmed during the same period as the bulk of the episode, as it was filmed in the original longhouse at Woodchester.

Longhouse scene (58)

There were not many whole episodes left to be filmed by this time: “The Girl from Rome”, “The Swordsman”, and “The Treaty.” None of these involved substantial amounts of riding for Kai. However, the racing scenes in “Arthur is Dead”, which were also used in the credits, were definitely filmed in autumn – there are autumnal trees, hips on the bushes, dead thistles, and lots of fallen leaves on the ground – so these are probably the scenes to which he was referring, when he says they are scheduled to be doing a lot of riding when A.S. visits next time.

vlcsnap-2016-08-15-10h30m53s763

It is good to see that Michael found filming “Arthur of the Britons” such a positive experience.

¹ More recollections from Wendy can be found here.

These recollections were offered by Michael Gothard's adopted sister, Wendy.

Michael was very enthusiastic about being cast, and my parents were very proud of him. I didn't see it as a big deal until I visited the set with my father, in 1972, when I was 15. The first time I saw ‘Arthur of the Britons’ was on set; it was a real eye opener. I know it was autumn or winter as I remember being cold!

When we arrived, and met up with Michael, he was in costume, and about to start filming. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, Michael does look really cool.’ I had known him since I was ten, and he was the big brother I'd never had. Up until the set visit, it hadn't dawned on me that Michael was an actor, because I had not seen him in anything before ‘Arthur of the Britons.’

I remember being impressed and star-struck with everything. I clearly remember being stunned at that amazing palisade. It all seemed so REAL, and it was literally dawn to dusk, and just so quick. You would never get actors to work at that pace today! Michael said there were lots of times when they were running out of time, and the director would say: ‘We have to do this in one take, let's get it right!’ and they did!

We saw some fight scenes rehearsed, and I clearly remember they were very well put together. All the actors could ride, and do their own fight scenes, which is why it looked so good. By today's standards, it was virtually live; no stunt doubles, a quick rehearsal then film. Michael’s axe was incredibly heavy. He was extremely fit; they all were.

Health and Safety? Michael has a scene where he is supposed to cauterise a wound, in ‘The Wood People’: real sword in real fire, only substituted at the last minute! Child actors running round close to the fire! I don't remember any rehearsal for that either. I honestly think they read the script, and did it!

The atmosphere did seem friendly and happy: organised chaos. Some bits are hazy, but it's the pace and how hard they worked that I remembered. On our second day, one minute Michael was in jeans and T shirt, the next, in costume and ready to go. I'm sure there was some sort of make up, but I don't recall that.

We saw parts of two episodes being filmed. One was ‘The Wood People’ and the other was ‘The Pupil’, but they were not filming it in proper order. We spent two days there, and they were finishing ‘The Pupil’ with Peter Firth, then leaping on to ‘The Wood People’, then going back to ‘The Pupil.’

I found Oliver Tobias a bit intimidating, but he was really nice and very friendly when I went to meet him. Michael and Oliver did seem very good friends, and I know they socialised while filming ‘Arthur of the Britons.’

Michael got on really well with Jack Watson too. Father and I really liked him, but we only met him that time on the ‘Arthur of the Britons’ set. We had dinner together Michael, my father, Jack Watson and me. I think a fair amount of alcohol was drunk after I went to bed!

~~

Arthur of the Britons does reveal a fair amount of the "real" Michael.

In ‘The Pupil’, that lovely, lovely smile and laugh right at the beginning was typical Michael. You just had to smile with him when he smiled. It lit up a room.

In ‘Daughter of the King’, the bit where he sort of nudges Arthur? That was a typical Michael thing. If he wanted something he would come and sit next to you and give that little nudge. If there was no response, he would give a bigger nudge, and so on and so on, until you caved in!

The slow blink was ALL Michael. He did that a lot if he was emotional.

In ‘The Wood People’, when he slowly turns his head and looks at Arthur when he teases him by the fire about the ‘witches.’ He would do EXACTLY that if I was a bit cheeky or he suspected a crime.

Michael had a way of saying ‘ahh!’ in a certain was if he was exasperated! He did just that towards the end of ‘The Wood People.’ He used that ‘ahh!’ at home quite a bit! He used it when Alfie the miniature dachshund would get on his bed, and growl if anyone tried to get him off. He used it with me on many occasions!

In ‘The Duel’, just after the ant race, they are about to fight, and Michael sort of grins, half sticks his tongue out. That was not acting. If he was messing about, winding Alf up, or making a grab for me, he would have that playful, wicked expression on his face.

There is a bit in ‘Enemies and Lovers’ where Kai runs up to a girl, arms outstretched to hug her. He did that ALL the time: long arms outstretched.

Near the beginning of ‘The Marriage Feast’, Michael is sitting with Jack Watson and teasing Arthur. He says ‘Ooooooo!’ That was Michael too: as characteristic as the ‘ahh!’ He would use ‘Ooooooo’ if he was teasing.

At the end of "Go Warily", when Arthur and Kai are winding Llud up, you see Kai laughing at the trick he has played; that was exactly the way he was if he was laughing so hard he couldn't stop.

The more I see of ‘Arthur of the Britons’, the more I see that there is SO much of Michael in Kai.

I never heard Michael say anything negative about ‘Arthur of the Britons.’ We all got the opinion he really enjoyed making it, and he definitely enjoyed working with Oliver Tobias and Jack Watson. He was very proud of taking us to visit.

~~

Maria and a friend of hers were extras on the series when they were 17 or 18. They long blond hair at the time, and often got work through an extras agency. They got £20 per day, and had early starts – setting out from Bristol at around 6 am – and late finishes. Their costumes were like sacks!

Their favourite actor was Brian Blessed; he was lovely. They sat in his car once, when it was raining. Michael Gothard asked her out, but she had seen him in “The Devils” the week before, so she declined his offer!

Once, some of the cast had their lunch on the set, and left a box of matches on the table – the scene had to be re-shot!

She and her friend were in a scene filmed in Redcliffe Caves in Bristol, which appears in “Six Measures of Silver.” They were warned not to wander off because there were so many tunnels, they might never be found.

The caves – Redcliffe Sand Mines – are artificial sandstone caverns, from which red sandstone was excavated to be converted to sand for the glass and pottery trades.

Gerry Cullen, an American, already working in TV production, who took the opportunity to work as an extra on "Arthur of the Britons", offered these insights to the filming of the series.

By a series of total coincidences, I was running low on money in Bristol when I heard that Harlech TV was having open casting sessions, to find extras for "Arthur of the Britons." I was hired, and worked until the end of the series. I remember often being there six days a week.

Extras were only used when they need villagers to “fill in” of course, but I was very lucky; I seemed to get most work, probably because I looked the most scruffy. Each morning I would ask the make-up lady to put more of the dirt makeup on me because it was obvious that this series wanted a more authentic look for that time period. So, I got many days of work in the morning calls while many of the other male extras got less work because they came in with nice hairdos.

I always thought the Brits were the best filmmakers. Having already worked in TV in production in New York and had a degree in film-making this was a great gift to watch and learn from them.

When I came in, I was told they were making some changes (I don’t know what they were) and the series was half done. When I watched the DVDs, I saw that I was in some of “Season Two” and not in any of “Season One.”

Gerry centre

In this scene from "Rowena", Gerry is the person in the middle, standing next to Arthur.

For me, it was paid graduate school. The demanding schedule called for rotating directors, so I was able to observe their different styles and methods, and how they interacted with the actors. Most of the talk that I had access to was about blocking, director/DP discussions on camera placement, and lighting. I also got to see some of the very good character actors who bolstered the roster. That experience gave me solid confidence throughout my modest career as a camera production person.

The set was always very calm and orderly; very professional. It seemed to me that they were trying to keep to filming one episode per week, so there was a lot of pressure to hit the short deadlines for a quick turn-around; the actors and crew had a lot to do to make a half hour weekly action show. We worked long days; the extras would meet early, often about dawn, or before, at HTV Bristol, and usually come back late in the day, sometimes in the dark. The filming was extremely well organized and all the crew and actors created a friendly, but always moving forward, atmosphere.

Shooting wasn’t always in sequence; there was definitely some overlap between one episode and another. I remember hearing sometimes that a B crew was shooting cutaways and other footage at different locations, to help keep things moving.

Since it was all 16 mm film back then, all the good takes would have to be developed, and the dailies would have to be looked over. Film editing was very time consuming back then; the editor was dealing with many, many, short clips of film that would need to be physically spliced together, then the music mixed in the audio department, and titles added in the lab. I would guess a month at least from shoot week to air. If I remember rightly, it was airing during production, but I didn’t have a TV, and I only saw one broadcast episode while I was there.

Back then it was a big deal to have Arthur in the more primitive environment, rather than the glossy concept of shining armour and big gleaming castles and such.

I remember two main buildings, and some smaller ones to make the village for the Celts. The make-up area was in a tent; wardrobe was in there too. The Celts main building was often converted back and forth between sleeping quarters and also used for inside banquets. The series won some awards for the location set designs and costumes. The food was real, but no alcohol; the wine was grape juice. As I recall the boars were real but don't remember anyone eating them. I was a strict vegetarian for the about 5 years back then so I didn't pay to much attention to them even though I sat right near them in some scenes!

Speaking of the dining tent, the food was great but what I found intriguing was the afternoon tea break, where everyone had banana sandwiches; I had never heard of such a thing but they were very good.

With regard to stunts – from what I observed it was always Oliver and Michael doing everything; I don't recall any stuntmen standing in for either of them. When there was a group of riders I believe some of those were stuntmen. Oliver and Michael always did their own riding, and they both were very good at it.

Extras would get an additional £2 per day if they were involved in any stunts, or got pummelled. They probably don’t allow that today – too many lawyers – but it was fun then. In one episode, “The Marriage Feast”, a scene called for Mark of Cornwall (Brian Blessed) to storm off, mad because Arthur had just embarrassed him. It must have been my turn that day, as the director picked me to be thrown over Brian Blessed’s shoulder as he rampaged through the village, knocking people out of his way. We did at least 5 takes where Blessed literally threw me over his shoulder and into the air; he was a strong guy. Lucky for me, I studied jiu-jitsu in high school, so I knew how to land in hard falls, but it was still somewhat rough. I was disappointed when I watched the DVD; the take they used was the only one where he did not do that; instead, they used the one take where he just throws me down.

The Fight (143)

I was involved in inside banquet scenes in two different shows. One was “The Marriage Feast”; I am sitting next to Brian Blessed, on his right. You can only see me in a quick wide shot at 14:45, and some back and forth over the shoulder shots in that scene, one is at 16:15.

The Feast (18)

In the other, I sit next to Arthur in a scene where Arthur and an opposing group, I cannot remember which one, decided to make a treaty and be peaceful with each other, so they hold a feast to celebrate.¹

While Arthur and the leaders of the opposing group are inside at the banquet, some of the villagers from both sides have a knife throwing contest at a target. There is an accidental death when a knife misses the target and kills one of the villagers, and things get tense. A messenger rushes into the banquet to tell everyone, and things get tense. I remember that one well. It was shot of course out of sequence. In the filming of it, first the outdoor scene was shot, in that shot I am standing near the target when the man next to me gets killed by the stray knife. Later the banquet scene is shot and the messenger comes in and tells Arthur what happened, when he does everyone gets tense and I was told by the director to slowly start pulling out my knife as if a fight was about to happen. Normally I wouldn’t say anything to the director but I thought I better tell him I was in the previous outside shot and he might have a continuity problem if I was noticeable. But he wasn’t worried so he probably had plenty of coverage. ²

At an outside feast in “Rowena” at 19:48 I am sitting down in front of the table and throw wine at a villager, who falls down.

Look at her (14)

In "Some Saxon Women" I am in quite a few shots but more interestingly there are good shots of the young woman that Michael Gothard was seeing. She is most easily seen in the scene starting at 7:00 where the two men look over the Saxon women who are chained up. In the shot where the two men stop and shake hands “to make the deal” was Michael’s girlfriend; she was German, and had a young child.

On set, Oliver was always the quietest of the three main actors, and was always very courteous to everyone. He was the youngest, and – as the lead – he had the biggest responsibility. While waiting, he seemed to keep it very serious. He was perfect for the role of Arthur, and he did a great job, even though he was not that experienced.

Jack Watson was the most laid back. Having previously worked on TV productions in New York, I already knew never to bother the actors; always wait until spoken to, and stay on business unless someone else brings up a topic, because they need their space to think about their lines, and get into the character, but while waiting for his part, Jack would often stand on the side among the extras, chatting amiably. He usually had fewer lines to deliver than the others, so I would think that made it easier to be relaxed, plus he had the most experience.

The most serious I ever saw him was on the occasion when, in a nice manner, he scolded me. It was very cold on some of the early mornings, so I had gone to a second-hand shop and bought the warmest overcoat I could find: a long dark blue wool coat, that only cost three pounds.

While we were watching a scene being prepared, Jack, who was standing next to me, said, “Are you a medic?” I answered, “No. What makes you think I would be?”

He explained that I was wearing a Navy medic’s coat; it still had the patch on it.

I told him I didn’t know what it meant, I just bought it because I was trying to keep warm.

He wasn’t mad or anything; he was just very worried that if there was an emergency, it would cause confusion. I couldn’t imagine anyone would think I was a medic, since – other than the coat – my clothes were those of an impoverished medieval Celt, but I realized later that he was a WW2 Navy man, so I could understand his concern.

Michael Gothard was probably the most physical actor. Even standing still, the man seemed to be moving. I noticed that whenever he was in a scene that was being shot, the energy on the set went up; I think he was the sort of actor who made everyone rise up without their even realizing it. Somehow, Michael began talking with me, and found out I had just been travelling about Europe, much as he did some years earlier. During that period, we hit the pubs a few times.

Whoever cast this series really knew what they were doing. The contrast between Oliver and Michael made for good interplay between the two. Oliver was sturdy, emanated inner strength, and kept his cards close, while Michael was lanky, had his energy “out there”, and was often edgy.

It was my impression that the three lead actors liked each other very much.

It is amazing how popular and long-lasting Arthur of the Britons has been. Many of the Brits and Aussies that I have known here in the US remember the show very fondly and vividly. It is an incredible testament to everyone involved.

¹ “The Treaty.”

² This indoor scene, where a messenger comes in to tell the assembled chiefs about the death, does not appear in the episode as shown on TV; the footage must have been discarded.

This poster must have been made up after the filming of "The Penitent Invader", which took place during the second week in August.

Featured scenes, left to right, are from "Daughter of the King" (two scenes) and "The Penitent Invader" (above), and "The Gift of Life", "Arthur is Dead", and "The Challenge" (below).

HTV publicity 3 small

This alternative version post-dates the filming of "The Duel", during during the second week in September.

Featured scenes, left to right, are from "Arthur is Dead", "Go Warily", and one not yet identified (above), and "The Gift of Life", "Arthur is Dead", and "The Duel" (below).

HTV film King Arthur epic

Saxon and Celt are again locked in combat in the West Country woods that once rang to the clash of sword and shield.

Cooking fires burn in Celtic and Saxon settlements, and even the cattle are the breeds that browsed 1500 years ago on British pastures.

KTV created the settlements in realistic detail, for the £500,000 series now being filmed on the exploits of the fabled King Arthur. The 24 episodes, produced by Peter Miller, will be completed later this year. Worldwide sales are expected.

Oliver Tobias, the 24-year-old star from the London production of “Hair” is finding his role as “Arthur,” the fighter, a more rugged proposition. In one desperate battle sequence a flying spear glanced from his raised shield and put him in hospital for a day with a head wound.

Also in the thick of the fighting are Michael Gothard, as Kai, a warrior second in stature only to Arthur, and Jack Watson, who plays Ludd (sic), the King’s loyal right arm.

Rupert Davies, Brian Blessed, Ian Cuthbertson and Cive Revill are among other actors who feature in the series.

Cheddar Valley Gazette 8 Aug 1972

The text under the photo, featuring a scene from "Enemies and Lovers", reads: Warriors Mark Eden (left) and Michael Gothard (right) fight it out watched by King Arthur, Oliver Tobias (centre) and his men. A scene from HTV’s 24-part series on the exploits of the hero King.

This photo in this news article giving advance publicity for the series, shows the heroes wearing a prototype costume, some elements of which were abandoned before filming began. For example, Llud is never seen wearing a jacket like this in the series, and - in colour versions of this picture - Arthur and Kai are shown cross-gartered, whereas in the series, this is an element of the Saxon and Jute costumes.

costume clip