The Magic Kingdom (a little spoiler for S2)
I have a post on Bradley today, so here's one with high praise of Colin.
The Magic Kingdom
by Stephen Downie
Daily Telegraph (Australia); 5 August 2009
IT WAS a big risk to take. Would audiences go for a young Merlin and a more than slightly arrogant Arthur?
After all, anyone familiar with the legend knows Merlin is usually depicted as a wizened old wizard with Arthur his younger pupil.
Still, the creators of the British television series, The Adventures Of Merlin, were confident there was real magic in their new twist on the old tale.
`"When we first developed the idea for the show we really wanted to update the legend for a 21st-century audience," co-creator Johnny Capps says.
"One area that hadn't been looked at a lot was Merlin as a young man. Once you have a strong concept in your mind you tend not to think about whether people are going to respond to it, you just keep trying to turn out an amazing, universal story. Certainly, we didn't think what Merlin or Arthurian scholars would think of the show."
The confidence in the series of Capps and his offsider Julian Murphy has been justified. Following a strong reaction in the UK, the 13-episode series worked wonders when it aired recently on Channel 10, conjuring up ratings of 1.5 million viewers at its peak.
Now, with the first season on DVD, fans can get their Merlin fix all over again. And newcomers can dive in.
While some might think the story of a young wizard is fertile ground, given the Harry Potter phenomenon, Capps believes the popularity of Hogwarts' most famous pupil was a double-edged sword. As he says, while Harry Potter might have opened people's eyes to the idea of a young wizard, he would hate to think people assumed they were devoid of original ideas.
Now, midway through production on the second season, Capps is buoyed by the success of the show thus far.
The story begins with Merlin coming to Camelot to live with family friend and court physician Gaius (Richard Wilson) but quickly becoming the manservant of Prince Arthur (Bradley James). With magic outlawed in the kingdom, Merlin must hide his abilities but also fulfil his destiny to protect the would-be king, Arthur.
In this way, it is as much the story of the forging of their friendship as anything else.
The key to the series, says Capps, was the casting of 23-year-old Irishman, Colin Morgan, as Merlin.
"Beyond concepts and sets, that was absolutely the most important thing," he says. "For the part, the young actor has to have a huge emotional range and can handle comedy, action and spending large amounts of time standing in front of a green screen pretending to talk to a large dragon. I think we saw every actor in the UK between the ages of 18 and 26 and we just had an instinct the audience would be drawn to Colin. But if they didn't like Merlin they wouldn't go along for the ride."
Capps says season two is looking great, with hints of romance between the Prince and Gwen (Angel Coulby) and a jousting contest featured in the second episode.
"We've got the horse expert who worked on A Knight's Tale, with Heath Ledger, and the jousting looks absolutely superb," he says.