Spell-binding success for Camelot kids
Source: The Age (print version)
by Michael Idato
399 words
29 April 2010
THE strength of Merlin, says producer Johnny Capps, is the power of the literary tradition from which it descends. But the challenge is choosing the right moment to visit the touchstones of the legend of King Arthur, such as the famed sword Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake and Guinevere's doomed love for Lancelot.
"There is fun in finding the mythological signposts and then subverting it. And in the case of this mythology there are so many stories, if you tried to be true to all of them you'd have a nervous breakdown," he says.
The series, created in 2008 by British production company Shine, is to the Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and Malory's Morte d'Arthur what Smallville is to the Superman mythology - a pre-legend coming-of-age, which takes a snapshot of the characters before they rose to prominence.
The second series, Capps says, takes the pressure away from establishing the characters - Merlin (Colin Morgan), Prince Arthur (Bradley James), Gwen (Angel Coulby), Morgana (Katie McGrath), Uther (Anthony Head) and Gaius (Richard Wilson) - and the world of Camelot.
"The challenging thing with a high-concept show is getting the tone right and making it look like a big movie," Capps says. "Our ambition was always to push what you could achieve on a television time frame and budget."
CGI effects, he says, pose the greatest challenge. "You don't have huge amounts of time, so it's all in the planning and we learned a lot making Demons for ITV and Hex for Sky One."
The second series, for example, includes a spectacular jousting arena and an impressive appearance by the fire-breathing dragon that lurks deep beneath Camelot. "We've done things in series two we would have never ever dreamed of doing in series one," Capps says.
He is continually surprised at the success the show has enjoyed internationally. In Australia, it was the fifth-most-watched program on the Ten Network in 2009, among a field that included two of the year's biggest hits, MasterChef and Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation.
"You have to pinch yourself. When someone says to you Merlin is an international hit, you have a moment of real excitement," Capps says.
Merlin airs on Sunday at 6.30pm on Ten.
by Michael Idato
399 words
29 April 2010
THE strength of Merlin, says producer Johnny Capps, is the power of the literary tradition from which it descends. But the challenge is choosing the right moment to visit the touchstones of the legend of King Arthur, such as the famed sword Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake and Guinevere's doomed love for Lancelot.
"There is fun in finding the mythological signposts and then subverting it. And in the case of this mythology there are so many stories, if you tried to be true to all of them you'd have a nervous breakdown," he says.
The series, created in 2008 by British production company Shine, is to the Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and Malory's Morte d'Arthur what Smallville is to the Superman mythology - a pre-legend coming-of-age, which takes a snapshot of the characters before they rose to prominence.
The second series, Capps says, takes the pressure away from establishing the characters - Merlin (Colin Morgan), Prince Arthur (Bradley James), Gwen (Angel Coulby), Morgana (Katie McGrath), Uther (Anthony Head) and Gaius (Richard Wilson) - and the world of Camelot.
"The challenging thing with a high-concept show is getting the tone right and making it look like a big movie," Capps says. "Our ambition was always to push what you could achieve on a television time frame and budget."
CGI effects, he says, pose the greatest challenge. "You don't have huge amounts of time, so it's all in the planning and we learned a lot making Demons for ITV and Hex for Sky One."
The second series, for example, includes a spectacular jousting arena and an impressive appearance by the fire-breathing dragon that lurks deep beneath Camelot. "We've done things in series two we would have never ever dreamed of doing in series one," Capps says.
He is continually surprised at the success the show has enjoyed internationally. In Australia, it was the fifth-most-watched program on the Ten Network in 2009, among a field that included two of the year's biggest hits, MasterChef and Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation.
"You have to pinch yourself. When someone says to you Merlin is an international hit, you have a moment of real excitement," Capps says.
Merlin airs on Sunday at 6.30pm on Ten.