Arthur of the Britons

Following a request from the creator of this archive in the Chew Valley Gazette, a number of people involved in the filming of "Arthur of the Britons" got in touch with the paper, and kindly shared their memories. This article was published in the November edition.

The Gazette’s article and letter about the filming of “Arthur of the Britons” at Woollard in the 1970s have brought some interesting responses from readers with clear recollections of the half year’s filming.

Roger Pearce was the camera operator on much of the series, and now lives within two miles of its eventual location at Woollard. He has replied saying that shooting began in a place called Woodchester Park in Gloucestershire, where the first village was constructed on the banks of a lake.

He says Woodchester was actually a far better place to shoot Iron Age Britain: a vast park, managed and farmed, but allowed to live and decay naturally, so pictorially it looked more convincing.

However, it proved far too expensive to transport the cast and crew from Bristol every day, so it was decided to build a village much nearer to the Bristol base and the chosen spot was the top and eastern side of Woollard, in a large and steep meadow which slopes down to the river Chew.

Roger adds: “Our unit base was at the top of the field where vehicles and large marquees were erected, one of which was the dining area; during really bad weather, we had to raise one side of the tent to allow a flow of water through and out the other side down to the river. It being the 70s many of our extras were student types who, apart from their everyday clothes quite looked the part and some took to hiding at the end of each shooting day to evade crew so that they could re-emerge and occupy the better made huts where they could co-habit under furs and skins to the warmth of wood fires and be ready for filming next day!”

Barbara Hatherell and her husband still live in Woollard and were extras in some episodes, as well as providing a comfortable house for the director to take his morning cup of tea. The coupel ran the Chew Valley Restaurant in Keynsham for many years, so the hospitality was much appreciated!

Barbara recalls: “As there was no shop in the village, we supplied ice creams, and our telephone was also useful for the cast.

We got to appear in some episodes, dressed up in sack cloth. There was one scene where my husband played a jeweller in the village, and then after a raid he had to be covered in fake blood, in the ransacked buildings.

Another exciting scene was where Oliver Tobias, who played Arthur, had to walk over hot ashes as a penance.”

The whole of the first and second series from 1972 – 73, were released on DVD about five years ago and can be bought from a number of sources online.

Reviewers are mostly nostalgic re. 1970s television – and very complimentary.

RJ
[Rowland Janes - Editor]

In 2013, the creator of this archive wrote to the Chew Valley Gazette, in the hope of contacting anyone involved in the filming of "Arthur of the Britons" who still lived in the area. The letter was published in the October edition.

In the latter part of 1972, a film crew arrived in the Chew Valley and built a village in a field at Woollard, to be inhabited by various denizens of the Dark Ages – Celts, Saxons and Jutes. They were filming the Harlech TV series “Arthur of the Britons”, starring Oliver Tobias, Michael Gothard and Jack Watson, with an array of guest stars including Brian Blessed, Tom Baker and Michael Gambon. Extras were hired from the local area to perform as villagers from the various tribes, and often to be thrown around and kicked in the pants by Brian Blessed in the guise of Arthur’s some-time ally, Mark of Cornwall.

“Arthur of the Britons” was a new take on the Arthurian legend, but stripped of its castles and shining armour, and set in an often muddy village where every day for Arthur (Oliver Tobias), his lieutenant and adopted brother Kai (Michael Gothard) and their mentor, Llud (Jack Watson) was a struggle for survival against their neighbours and the encroaching Saxons.

The series came out on DVD in 2008, and since that time, fans have been trying to find out more about its history. We know that filming took place both in Woollard and Compton Dando, but we would love to locate, and perhaps visit, the exact spots featured in the series. There were also scenes at what was called in the series “The Giant’s Dam”, though it was small by modern standards.

So if you lived in the area at the time, and were an extra or worked on the production, if filming took place on your land, or if you saw filming taking place or met any of the cast while they were based in the area, fans would love to hear your stories.

Please get in touch with: joya.ghose@gmail.com or write to Joya Ghose, “Tabula Rasa”, La Rue du Hocq, St Clement, Jersey, JE2 6LF.

This article by Charles Evans-Gunther is featured here with his permission.





Charles Evans-Gunther says:

"The journal, 'Dragon', started in 1982 with an interest in history rather than legend or literature concerned with Arthur and what was being called the Dark Age in those days. It was a bit more than a fanzine and grew in size from 1982 till 1993 when it ran out of articles.

It was created without the knowledge of another Arthurian journal - 'Pendragon' - and it got to the point that it was in competition, and the latter had more members of their society. I continued to contribute to Pendragon for years, and was at one point editor.

A number of members of Dragon went on to write books on the subject - in some cases factual (Chris Gidlow for example) and other cases fiction (Helen Hollick).

I was editor and printer (or got it printed) and posted the journal myself to as far away as Japan and the USA, though most member of the Society were from Britain.

Though continuing to be interested in a historical Arthur I have never wanted to publish a book on the subject. I considered there were already far too many.

This earnest entreaty appeared in first position among the "Letters to the Editor" under the heading "Television programs."

Sir, - The undersigned are member of a community where “Arthur of the Britons”, screened Monday to Friday at 5.55 pm, is a favourite program. We all feel that the recent extraction of this program from television is depriving us of a good program, from which much can be learnt.

All of us agree that this program contains some of the best acting and story plots seen in a long time, and is an educational addition to television. Not only does it give us educational information but provides us with sensible enjoyment and relaxation for all.

Not only do we agree that “Arthur of the Britons” should remain, but more such programs should be available for public viewing.

D.DIMAKIS
Curtin
(This letter was signed by 16 other people as well).

If, as the writer states, “Arthur of the Britons” was shown Monday to Friday, the whole series must have been shown within a four week period. These fans would have been disappointed to learn that filming had ended, and the cast and crew dispersed, more than two years before they put pen to paper.

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



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

This article in Look-in advertises the second series of "Arthur of the Britons", which began airing on 12 September 1973. It includes some interesting biographical information about Oliver Tobias, and a quotation describing him, from Executive Producer, Patrick Dromgoole:

He has about him an atmosphere of brooding power. He is dangerously quick in his movements, an expert horseman and sword fighter, with the added qualities of charm, humour and wit. If we'd searched the world we couldn't have found a better actor to play King Arthur.

It also includes quotations from Oliver about the character he plays:

I immersed myself in Arthur's character. I discovered he was no butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-royal-mouth monarch, but a hard, often brutal, warrior, a master schemer in cavalry warfare, who rode his armies up and down the West Country fighting invaders, and winning battles, though often heavily out-numbered. He really was the stuff that legends are made of, but only one side of his character was ever remembered - his code of honour.

Of the stunt work which led to his injury - which in this article is said to have needed fourteen stitches, whereas in the TV Times, in December 1972, it was said to be ten - he said:

If I was to play Arthur I had to live like him. There was no point in letting anyone else do the dangerous stuff.





Full text:

The man said: “He has about him an atmosphere of brooding power. He is dangerously quick in his movements, an expert horseman and sword fighter, with added qualities of charm, humour and wit.”

And the man was not repeating a job reference for a factory canteen manager. He was Patrick Dromgoole, executive producer of Arthur of the Britons talking about 26-year-old Oliver Tobias, the star of the series which returns on Wednesday.

He goes on: “If we’d searched the world we couldn’t have found a better actor to play King Arthur.”

Which is just as well because before the first series, last year, there was Celtic grumbling about why a young man from Switzerland should play our great freedom fighter – “Would the Swiss like it if we sent Mick Jagger over there to play William Tell?” they asked. But now I’m sure those protesters would be the first to call on Oliver should the Swedes and Danes ever decide to invade us again.

There’s a constant stream of letters to Oliver from love-struck schoolgirls (and their sisters), while local newspapers report battered and bruised schoolboys littering the West Countryside following games of Celts v. Saxons.

Anyhow everyone seems to be getting the Arthur bug – which may be some compensation because we haven’t given Oliver a particularly smooth passage since he arrived here from Zurich at 10 not speaking English.

“The boys at my school were a lively lot,” Oliver recalls. “They would tell me to ask the masters things such as: “Please sir, my pen has run out, may I leave the room to try and catch it…” and I’d do it, not knowing what I was gabbling about.”

Why did Oliver come here? “My parents, both successful actors on the Continent, were always travelling,” he explained. “My education was suffering so they sent me to England as they believed English schools to be the best in the world.”

The family ability soon showed itself, and after appearing in a leading part in the school’s production of King Lear, Oliver, now speaking perfect English, found himself stage-struck.

“But when I left school there wasn’t much I could do about it. As I couldn’t get a work permit,” he said.

So he went to Germany and became a member of a pop group playing in a Hamburg beat cellar.

“Then I found I was destroying my voice, screaming at the top of my lungs every night,” said Oliver, “so if I was ever to be an actor I had to give that up.”

He returned to England and studied for nearly three years at an acting school. Having taken up British residency, Oliver was able to work in Britain and the first job he got was a plum – the lead in the musical Hair.

He moved on to Holland and then Israel – where he choreographed the show himself, made a couple of films on the Continent, appeared as Judas in a German stage version of Jesus Christ Superstar and was then spotted as a potential King Arthur and brought back to Britain to start filming.

“I immersed myself in Arthur’s character,” said Oliver. “I discovered he was no butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-royal-mouth monarch, but a hard, often brutal, warrior, a master schemer in cavalry warfare, who rode his armies up and down the West Country fighting invaders, and winning battles, though often heavily outnumbered.

“He really was the stuff that legends are made of, but only one side of his character was ever remembered – his code of humour.”

Oliver discovered that Arthur built such a reputation for himself as the heroic saviour of his country that countless parents named their sons Art or Arthur as a tribute to him. Proof of that is to be found in numerous church records.

Oliver does all his own stunts, riding with heavy shield and sword for as long as eight hours a day, quite a feat in itself. It was inevitable that at the end of one harrowing day he should mis-parry a spear thrust and land up in hospital with 14 stitches needed.

Said Oliver: “If I was to play Arthur I had to live like him. There was no point in letting anyone else do the dangerous stuff. Those days were vile. Arthur and his men fought because they were warriors. The peasants didn’t count – they just got slaughtered. If I had lived then, I know which side I would have chosen to be on.”

Caption: Oliver Tobias, as King Arthur, rides with his trusty squire, Kai to meet whatever dangers may occur. Tobias fights all his own battles with no “stand-in.”

Here is a rebuttal to Michael Kittermaster's review of "The Challenge" (published on 28 December 1972), sent in for publication by R.J. Simmons, Press Officer for HTV West.

Dear Sir,

One can appreciate Michael Kittermaster’s failure to understand the episode of Arthur of the Britons (Television Today, December 28).

Through a Post Office fault, no sound accompanied the first eight minutes of transmission. As those vital minutes contained much dialogue, their loss made it necessary thereafter to possess rare powers of clairvoyance in order to avoid total bewilderment. Which is why several companies chose to give the programme a second screening.

In the circumstances I am not surprised the reviewer failed to identify “Arthur” or vestige of plot. I would only question the inference that the production itself was to blame.

Mr Kittermaster will be reassured to know that the series has achieved No 4 place in HTV’s top ten programmes with both the first and second episodes. These, of course, were un-marred by Post Office breakdowns.

Yours faithfully,

R. J. Simmons,

Press Officer, HTV West.

This puzzle feature may have been from a magazine such as "Look-in" - date unknown.



The photo was taken at Black Rock Quarry.

This review of "The Gift of Life" appeared in the Western Daily Press, 14 December 1972, under the heading, "On my TV last night."

The second episode of HTV’s new series, Arthur of the Britons, included an unusual tumble in the bracken.

This was a deadly game of hide-and-seek with Arthur’s man, Kai, being pursued by a swarm of Saxons, each armed with a large axe.

This action-filled sequence followed his escape from their custody as a result of which he later told Arthur, with commendably up-to-date tolerance, that the Saxons “are men like us, and like us, they believe in justice.”