Transcript of the live Merlin Q&A at London Expo 2008
Full transcription of live audience questions and answers for a panel of Merlin cast and production staff.
Saturday 25th October 2008 - London MCM Expo 2008
To celebrate the return of the Merlin cast to London Expo on Saturday 23rd May 2009 I’ve transcribed their appearance at the Q&A session last year. All my work is for sharing.
My thanks to Feilongfan for pointing out the audio resources from the London Expo 2008
Taking part: Polly Buckle, Johnny Capps, Bradley James and Colin Morgan
Notes for this transcript.
Only the first five episodes had been broadcast at the time of Expo 2008 (The Dragons Call, Valiant, The Mark of Nimueh, The Poisoned Chalice, Lancelot)
The recording is difficult to understand in places but I’ve captured nearly all the content accurately and only tidied up a few 'erms'. I’ve tried to capture the feeling of all the banter between the cast and some of the atmosphere in the hall. Inevitably a tiny amount of content is lost to mumbles so words that are indistinct are presented in brackets with a question mark (thus?) or (__?)
Effects are presented for example {sfx} {giggles} {snort} {whisper}
An accent or acting voice is preceded by {voice} or {accent}
An interruption or simultaneous speaking is shown as/
Clarification or notes of context are shown [ed: like this]
Look out for
Colin speaks Italian and gobbledy-gook. Yes.Really. Well - a tiny bit of the former and lots of the latter *sighs*. Please stop mashing my brain.
-BEGIN-
Host: Ah ladies and gentlemen please put your hands together for the people from the only show that can steal viewers from the X-Factor, lets give it up for Polly Buckle story editor, Johnny Capps producer, the man we know as Arthur Mr Bradley James and Merlin would not be Merlin without Merlin so lets hear it for Colin Morgan! {audience applause and whistles}
00:38 JC: Hello everyone thankyou very much for coming and thank you for all your erm appreciation it’s wonderful. Erm I thought what would be useful just before we do questions and answers is just to talk to you very briefly about the genesis of the idea of Merlin and where it came from if I don’t start having an epileptic fit with all these flashes going off.
Erm what happened was that Julian Murphy and myself were very keen to look at the erm Merlin stories and the legends and reinterpret it for a 21st century audience and our starter point really was asking the question what if Merlin and Arthur were young contemporaries so it was really recreating the legend and that was basically our stating point and in a sense at the time when we made it we were huge fans of the show called Smallville which I’m sure you’re all very familiar with and what we really admired about that was how they turned the clock back on mythology and we thought that would be a really good idea to do with Merlin so that as our starting point and I think key to that was to erm take the character of Arthur and Merlin and to see them in a way that was slightly unexpected and to ask the question what would they be like if they were young men and what their friendship would be about and then we developed the idea that why don’t we put Merlin in a world where magic is banned so therefore in a classic sense he is the unsung hero who always has to hide his magical talents so that was kinda the basis for how we started the show and we developed about five scripts over about a two year period so it was a very long time before we actually got the green light to make the show. Eventually then when we did get the green light we had to make the show very quickly and we started production in March of this year [ed: March 2008] and only finished filming erm last week [ed: October 2008] so its been quite an extraordinary experience and ride for making the show so that’s sort of a very brief outlining of where we are erm we’re going to do questions now?
02:43 Host: if we could if you’ve got a question for anyone to ask and could you please put your hand up. Now I know you’re not shy especially that one I know she’s not shy right ok what’s your question?
02:54 Q: is there meant to be a love story between Arthur and Merlin?
{squeals of delight and giggles from the audience}
03:00 Host: I should never ask a question from a blue person, really, never. [ed: blue facepaint]
03:06 JC: I think that the erm in answer to that question I think that there is erm Merlin is about a friendship between Merlin and Arthur which goes very deep and they do care for each other hugely erm but its not necessarily, y’know, it isn't a gay love story, no. But it is a story of extreme friendship and erm...and support and I think that bit is crucial for us to tell the story that…that Merlin realises that his destiny is to look after Arthur.
{squeals from the audience}
03:39 Host: although I do...I must admit Colin and Bradley now both look very relieved
{laughter}
Host:...they were thinking there's one DVD excerpt we’ll...no/
Host: Right we got another question here?
03:51 Q: Ah you’ve got a show that’s primarily aimed at sort of younger audience but you’ve also gained a lot of viewers from like adults and sort of broad people how do you when creating it have to keep it sort of so that you can get both audiences, and stop it getting either too sort of immature and sort of childish but keep it from being too serious err the younger audience would be alienated?
04:20 JC: erm that’s a good question I think that erm our key aim would be when developing and creating Merlin is that is was to have a broad audience appeal and tone-wise we’re always thinking of shows like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Spiderman in that there can be erm that it’s sophisticated family viewing and that there’s enough fun for a young audience but also enough sophistication in our story telling and in our casting that would appeal to an older audience as well so I mean we’re thrilled that it has a cross generational appeal because that was absolutely the aim when we created the show that it was good kind of good high quality family drama.
04:55: PB: and also that’s why we wanted Uther and Gauis the older characters to be a big part of the show to appeal to adults as well as the four younger characters.
Host: here we are a question from a lady here
05:12 Q: Er like when I was younger and like the legends it seems like the loves the love story’s like really mixed up like Guinevere’s not meant to be in love with um Arthur or something its like is that purposeful?.{feedback}…MERLIN! sorry-oops {giggles}.
05:28 JC: yeh it was absolutely one of the whole kind of erm concepts of the show was to subvert the expectation of the Arthur and Merlin legend so to have Guinevere the future Queen of England as a lowly servant girl who started of with only a crush on Merlin for us is a very interesting place to start in season one because ultimately the audience will be asking when does she fall for Arthur when will that relationship start so it was an absolute aim for us to subvert all of the Merlin and all of the Arthur legends.
Host: right well a question from a young lady here
06:08 Q: Hi if I can ask a question directly at Colin and Bradley? erm do you enjoy working wi’ each other, with each other like in a cast? {audience laughter}/
BJ: …yes…/
Q: /you get a certain amount of enjoyment but as a cast do you in that kind of environment?
BJ: [ed: looks at Colin?] do you want to answer that? {audience giggles}
06:26 CM: {chuckles} yeh yeh we get on really really well I mean erm I think when you start any new project like this you have to really work with everybody and although our relationship erm on screen er doesn’t get off to the best of starts erm we have to learn to work together even Arthur and Merlin have to learn to work together and I think y’know the start it takes a while y’know t-t-to know, t’know who you’re working with but I think at this stage we kinda we kinda know what er what er the shows quirks are and erm yeh I think erm I don’t know if he agrees but er that’s that’s what I think {chuckles}
06:58 BJ: I think erm first of all hello thanks very much for coming by the way/
07:03 CM: {accent} grazie/
BJ: good to see you...erm when we -err- when I first met Colin erm I, I didn’t really know what he was saying most of the time/
{audience laughter}
CM: it was you trying to (____?)
07:15 BJ: and er so y’know I sort of left conversations being very bemused and I thought right this could be a bit of a slow burner to be honest with you erm, but…as times gone on I’ve kindof…attuned to his very sort of dark twisted sense of humour {laughter} erm and, and so now - keep this on the quiet only because it’s him I’m saying it for the microphone - but er no I think we get on well and I think it helps erm I think it helps the show I think it’s it’s more like fun working with Colin as also I do a lot of work with erm Anthony as well so er the cast I think we’ve been very lucky it’s er it’s a very good atmosphere on set.
Host: k, next question
Q: This question is directed at Colin, erm what was David Tennant like to work with in Dr Who?
08:07 CM: erm I mean cause you know the the new series of Doctor Who is, ‘y;know, was great y’know this is the audition I y’know did y’know/
BJ?: (whenever?)/
CM: /whenever soon after it was just great that it felt very lucky to be a part of something like that and then Dave Tennant himself is is is a lovely guy he’s er full of energy and I think there’s a lot to learn about from his (director?) and he puts a lot or energy into everything he does and yeh a great experience I do feel quite very lucky for it.
Q: This is a question for Bradley was it hard work learning how to do the sword fighting and stuff?
08:46 BJ: Hard work, erm it…it would be a bit unfair to describe it as that I think it was hard work but the thing is er it was very…enjoyable erm y’know give a kid a sword and tell him to swing it around he’s probably going to enjoy himself I happen to be a very big kid {audience giggles} and er they gave me a sword and I swung it around and I enjoyed myself erm I think we had a guy called Andreas who sort of worked erm on the team that worked on Gladiator and from the first moment I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing there was no question of me sort of being worried or anything and I had Will Mellor charging at me like a maniac on my first day er…and I had to defend myself and kind of got thrown in at the deep end and I just enjoyed it so much its erm the work that I put in doesn’t seem like work it’s erm we’re just having fun.
Host: Ok a question from this lady here
09:49 Q: Hello to all of you and thank you for being here today erm I do have a question for Colin but I do want to say to you that every week that we have an episode it diligently gets transferred to the (web?) and I send it home to my sister’s family in Australia and they’re just lovin’ this show as well so if you can get the show on the ABC in Australia y’know you would have another whole continent at your beck and call, erm so to Colin, just a brief question for you/
CM: yeh/
10:16 Q: I just wonder how you learn the spells or how you get your words or y’know your head round some of the words?
10:22 CM: yeh ah I think that when you first get the script and you read through it erm and you come across erm gobbledy-gook written down the page and you think great got a whole scene to do that with but erm what’s good is erm and Polly can probably tell you about this is that they are genuine actual olde English erm words and they actually do translate as y’know if its something that we’re trying to do like cast [ed: catch?] fire or something they actually do mean you know ‘I Summon Fire’ they do actually mean things whether I pronounce them right or not I don’t know but erm but erm yeh it’s yeh it is a challenge I think erm Richard Wilson who plays Gauis does does not enjoy those spells at all so I don’t mind them they’re ok but erm/
11:07 PB: :the spells are in 7th century Olde English and they are it’s a real language and we have an expert who translates them and on the first episode I erm got Colin to listen to lots of the lots of Olde English recordings on the internet so Colin listened to those a lot to get the accent right the pronunciation right so it was erm quite long research and Colin did quite a lot of work to get the erm to get it right/
11:31 JC: and it was one of those great production meetings you have when you’re creating a live concept show and you’ll have a whole meeting where a group of adults is sitting round having a very serious conversation about what language we should - should we use when Merlin is casting spells and we went through quite a lot of languages and we came up with this as Polly said the Olde English which we felt kind of worked and erm having direct translations of what Merlin is doing as well cause I think that was important it it actually when you set a spell that its actual details of what he was doing.
Host: k got a question from this gentleman here
12:09 Q: This is a question for Johnny how long did you envisage the series to last in terms of years?
12:15 JC: Well I mean you know when you’ve created a show and erm it becomes your little baby really and you hope that it goes on for a long time I mean the plan that we always have with Merlin is that it has it goes to three to five seasons that’s certainly how we’ve been storylining it, is that the way we work the legend is that it should work through five seasons but y’know fingers crossed.
Host: A question from the lady in front.
Q: Good afternoon I’m just wondering for all of you is there anything particularly about the story the legend of Merlin that really drew you towards doing the show?
12:57 JC: erm I’ll answer that first I think that for me I was always fascinated by the legend of Merlin when I was a child and erm…I’m always drawn to stories where people have extraordinary powers and erm that they have their kind of life mapped out they have a destiny and so that intrigued me and I felt that on television currently that nobody had done a fresh or original take on Merlin for a while so it just seemed to be ripe for development and (also its something?) I can provide passion really it just seemed the right thing for me to develop.
13:32 PB: and I think for me as a is to develop the characters it was great to have the two characters of Merlin and Arthur because with Merlin you have the magic and wizardry erm and all of that mystery and with Arthur you have the gallantry and heroism which is just a great combination of kindof so many stories but you’ve got those two things and that’s why I think the two characters work so well together.
13:58 BJ: (…you first?)
13:59 CM: {chuckles} erm I mean, I just enjoy it with being given the chance to actually do magic and er adventures and doing different stuff every day I mean I-I have a real fascination with my magic anyway and I really enjoy it and then yeh its just with Merlin with its whole Merlin started out to er and so, so (basically?) in the end and he gets the bits and the bobs I thought that’s really interesting thing and - its fun! {chuckles} y’know so er so there’s me.
14:32 BJ: erm I’ve been using this time to try to think of a good answer {audience laughs} erm a thought that had come - then, but didn’t and I can just sort of say that…the story of Arthur is kinda I’ve been familiar with it growing up and y’know and as soon as I hear sort of…a tale told about him its fascinated me he…he’s a hero!...there’s also a patriotic element in it which erm interests me erm, and so when y’know hearing of this project the opportunity to play future King Arthur came round I can’t tell you how excited I was about it so I can’t really sum it up to words hopefully I’ll give you some indication of what I’m trying to say {audience chuckles} yes.
15:24 Host: I think that was a good answer don’t you? {applause} sorry, question from a lady at the front
15:33 Q: erm, hi!/
BJ: hello!
I just want to know does Arthur really know about Merlin’s powers or is he just slightly…unobservant? {audience giggles}
15:43 BJ: erm another word for…’unobservant’ being Dim! {laughter} erm no I…don’t worry about it I know what you meant, erm no I think…erm…at this early stage in the series erm I think y’know I don’t think he has a clue its not like you’d expect erm...in this world we’ve created sorcery to be under your noses erm but I think as the series progresses they’ll be lots of clues for Arthur to eventually add up and go “hang on…one minute…something’s…something’s going on here…” and hopefully - Merlin fans - hopefully we get there in the end we’ll see yes.
16:34 Host: I got a question from Ben here. Say Hello.
{microphone feedback then small boy voice} Hello!
CM: Hello!
16:40 Host: Does Colin use his magic when he’s not filming that’s the question
16:46 JC: things always keep on going missing so y’know…
16:51 CM: {laughs} yeh I use it for everyday things all the time.
16:58 Host: we got a question from the young man down the front {small boy voice}
Q: How do you get your powers?
Host: He’s only four don’t worry we’ll (___?)
17:11 CM: {laughs} erm Merlin’s powers are his I was born with them really erm it was just a natural gift and luckily you know in front of the camera I get the chance to really to y’know develop them and work with them erm how did you get your powers as spiderman? {chuckles} He’s dressed as spiderman! [ed: Colin explains to the audience]
Host: Ok we’ve got time for two more questions starting off with this one
17:38 Q: You know that the dragon in the film is…CG? so when you’re actually filming d’you is there like somebody in a dragon costume or suspended from the ceiling?
17:51 CM: I wish! {laughs} er no, er what I’m looking at erm, God, when I’m doing the dragon scenes is erm, is a green screen that has a cross a little cross on it so to me the dragon is a cross so erm, so it’s as much a surprise, y’know to me whenever I see it and they put a big dragon in there and I’m like aah right! that’s what it looks like/
18:16 JC: what we do try to do though is before we shoot the dragon sequences we record erm we’ve recorded John Hurt so he’s read out on the first lines so that when Colin does film even though he’s sort of reacting to a green screen with a cross on it he does have John Hurts voice so he can interact with which is a little bit of a help, yes/
CM: yeh it’s great {laughs}
18:37 JC: Maybe if we can get a bigger budget we can afford a real dragon {Colin laughs}
Host: and we’ve got one final question.
18:45 Q: Is it frightening to be in front of like this kind of fan-base? {audience giggles}
18:52 CM: Yeh!...we erm…we were just standing back there and we could hear you guys reacting and its great to see because we spend so long y’know doing the shows maybe once doing it and we kinda locked away in the world and its great to see erm the reaction to it and erm yeh you guys are great so its good to see the reaction from/
19:14 BJ: I wouldn’t say I was frightened as such maybe a little (treble?) tongued to make any sudden movements (___?) but I think erm primarily I’m quite proud to see you guys up here because the team that has been working on this show has been a real pleasure to work in the team that’s been assembled, and I’ve been personally I’ve been quite happy with the result of the show and just so you guys know oh good we’re doing something right so erm again (__?)
19:50 JC: I think with Merlin the our aim was always to make a really good piece of television drama which each week is like watching a really good action adventure mini movie and erm and for us to get good reaction to us is always hugely thrilling.
20:08 Host: well ladies and gentlemen if you’d like to give a massive round of applause for our Merlin panel {applause} Polly Buckle, Julian Capps [ed: Julian?], Bradley James and Colin Morgan! {wild applause}
-END-
Saturday 25th October 2008 - London MCM Expo 2008
To celebrate the return of the Merlin cast to London Expo on Saturday 23rd May 2009 I’ve transcribed their appearance at the Q&A session last year. All my work is for sharing.
My thanks to Feilongfan for pointing out the audio resources from the London Expo 2008
Taking part: Polly Buckle, Johnny Capps, Bradley James and Colin Morgan
Notes for this transcript.
Only the first five episodes had been broadcast at the time of Expo 2008 (The Dragons Call, Valiant, The Mark of Nimueh, The Poisoned Chalice, Lancelot)
The recording is difficult to understand in places but I’ve captured nearly all the content accurately and only tidied up a few 'erms'. I’ve tried to capture the feeling of all the banter between the cast and some of the atmosphere in the hall. Inevitably a tiny amount of content is lost to mumbles so words that are indistinct are presented in brackets with a question mark (thus?) or (__?)
Effects are presented for example {sfx} {giggles} {snort} {whisper}
An accent or acting voice is preceded by {voice} or {accent}
An interruption or simultaneous speaking is shown as/
Clarification or notes of context are shown [ed: like this]
Look out for
Colin speaks Italian and gobbledy-gook. Yes.Really. Well - a tiny bit of the former and lots of the latter *sighs*. Please stop mashing my brain.
-BEGIN-
Host: Ah ladies and gentlemen please put your hands together for the people from the only show that can steal viewers from the X-Factor, lets give it up for Polly Buckle story editor, Johnny Capps producer, the man we know as Arthur Mr Bradley James and Merlin would not be Merlin without Merlin so lets hear it for Colin Morgan! {audience applause and whistles}
00:38 JC: Hello everyone thankyou very much for coming and thank you for all your erm appreciation it’s wonderful. Erm I thought what would be useful just before we do questions and answers is just to talk to you very briefly about the genesis of the idea of Merlin and where it came from if I don’t start having an epileptic fit with all these flashes going off.
Erm what happened was that Julian Murphy and myself were very keen to look at the erm Merlin stories and the legends and reinterpret it for a 21st century audience and our starter point really was asking the question what if Merlin and Arthur were young contemporaries so it was really recreating the legend and that was basically our stating point and in a sense at the time when we made it we were huge fans of the show called Smallville which I’m sure you’re all very familiar with and what we really admired about that was how they turned the clock back on mythology and we thought that would be a really good idea to do with Merlin so that as our starting point and I think key to that was to erm take the character of Arthur and Merlin and to see them in a way that was slightly unexpected and to ask the question what would they be like if they were young men and what their friendship would be about and then we developed the idea that why don’t we put Merlin in a world where magic is banned so therefore in a classic sense he is the unsung hero who always has to hide his magical talents so that was kinda the basis for how we started the show and we developed about five scripts over about a two year period so it was a very long time before we actually got the green light to make the show. Eventually then when we did get the green light we had to make the show very quickly and we started production in March of this year [ed: March 2008] and only finished filming erm last week [ed: October 2008] so its been quite an extraordinary experience and ride for making the show so that’s sort of a very brief outlining of where we are erm we’re going to do questions now?
02:43 Host: if we could if you’ve got a question for anyone to ask and could you please put your hand up. Now I know you’re not shy especially that one I know she’s not shy right ok what’s your question?
02:54 Q: is there meant to be a love story between Arthur and Merlin?
{squeals of delight and giggles from the audience}
03:00 Host: I should never ask a question from a blue person, really, never. [ed: blue facepaint]
03:06 JC: I think that the erm in answer to that question I think that there is erm Merlin is about a friendship between Merlin and Arthur which goes very deep and they do care for each other hugely erm but its not necessarily, y’know, it isn't a gay love story, no. But it is a story of extreme friendship and erm...and support and I think that bit is crucial for us to tell the story that…that Merlin realises that his destiny is to look after Arthur.
{squeals from the audience}
03:39 Host: although I do...I must admit Colin and Bradley now both look very relieved
{laughter}
Host:...they were thinking there's one DVD excerpt we’ll...no/
Host: Right we got another question here?
03:51 Q: Ah you’ve got a show that’s primarily aimed at sort of younger audience but you’ve also gained a lot of viewers from like adults and sort of broad people how do you when creating it have to keep it sort of so that you can get both audiences, and stop it getting either too sort of immature and sort of childish but keep it from being too serious err the younger audience would be alienated?
04:20 JC: erm that’s a good question I think that erm our key aim would be when developing and creating Merlin is that is was to have a broad audience appeal and tone-wise we’re always thinking of shows like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Spiderman in that there can be erm that it’s sophisticated family viewing and that there’s enough fun for a young audience but also enough sophistication in our story telling and in our casting that would appeal to an older audience as well so I mean we’re thrilled that it has a cross generational appeal because that was absolutely the aim when we created the show that it was good kind of good high quality family drama.
04:55: PB: and also that’s why we wanted Uther and Gauis the older characters to be a big part of the show to appeal to adults as well as the four younger characters.
Host: here we are a question from a lady here
05:12 Q: Er like when I was younger and like the legends it seems like the loves the love story’s like really mixed up like Guinevere’s not meant to be in love with um Arthur or something its like is that purposeful?.{feedback}…MERLIN! sorry-oops {giggles}.
05:28 JC: yeh it was absolutely one of the whole kind of erm concepts of the show was to subvert the expectation of the Arthur and Merlin legend so to have Guinevere the future Queen of England as a lowly servant girl who started of with only a crush on Merlin for us is a very interesting place to start in season one because ultimately the audience will be asking when does she fall for Arthur when will that relationship start so it was an absolute aim for us to subvert all of the Merlin and all of the Arthur legends.
Host: right well a question from a young lady here
06:08 Q: Hi if I can ask a question directly at Colin and Bradley? erm do you enjoy working wi’ each other, with each other like in a cast? {audience laughter}/
BJ: …yes…/
Q: /you get a certain amount of enjoyment but as a cast do you in that kind of environment?
BJ: [ed: looks at Colin?] do you want to answer that? {audience giggles}
06:26 CM: {chuckles} yeh yeh we get on really really well I mean erm I think when you start any new project like this you have to really work with everybody and although our relationship erm on screen er doesn’t get off to the best of starts erm we have to learn to work together even Arthur and Merlin have to learn to work together and I think y’know the start it takes a while y’know t-t-to know, t’know who you’re working with but I think at this stage we kinda we kinda know what er what er the shows quirks are and erm yeh I think erm I don’t know if he agrees but er that’s that’s what I think {chuckles}
06:58 BJ: I think erm first of all hello thanks very much for coming by the way/
07:03 CM: {accent} grazie/
BJ: good to see you...erm when we -err- when I first met Colin erm I, I didn’t really know what he was saying most of the time/
{audience laughter}
CM: it was you trying to (____?)
07:15 BJ: and er so y’know I sort of left conversations being very bemused and I thought right this could be a bit of a slow burner to be honest with you erm, but…as times gone on I’ve kindof…attuned to his very sort of dark twisted sense of humour {laughter} erm and, and so now - keep this on the quiet only because it’s him I’m saying it for the microphone - but er no I think we get on well and I think it helps erm I think it helps the show I think it’s it’s more like fun working with Colin as also I do a lot of work with erm Anthony as well so er the cast I think we’ve been very lucky it’s er it’s a very good atmosphere on set.
Host: k, next question
Q: This question is directed at Colin, erm what was David Tennant like to work with in Dr Who?
08:07 CM: erm I mean cause you know the the new series of Doctor Who is, ‘y;know, was great y’know this is the audition I y’know did y’know/
BJ?: (whenever?)/
CM: /whenever soon after it was just great that it felt very lucky to be a part of something like that and then Dave Tennant himself is is is a lovely guy he’s er full of energy and I think there’s a lot to learn about from his (director?) and he puts a lot or energy into everything he does and yeh a great experience I do feel quite very lucky for it.
Q: This is a question for Bradley was it hard work learning how to do the sword fighting and stuff?
08:46 BJ: Hard work, erm it…it would be a bit unfair to describe it as that I think it was hard work but the thing is er it was very…enjoyable erm y’know give a kid a sword and tell him to swing it around he’s probably going to enjoy himself I happen to be a very big kid {audience giggles} and er they gave me a sword and I swung it around and I enjoyed myself erm I think we had a guy called Andreas who sort of worked erm on the team that worked on Gladiator and from the first moment I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing there was no question of me sort of being worried or anything and I had Will Mellor charging at me like a maniac on my first day er…and I had to defend myself and kind of got thrown in at the deep end and I just enjoyed it so much its erm the work that I put in doesn’t seem like work it’s erm we’re just having fun.
Host: Ok a question from this lady here
09:49 Q: Hello to all of you and thank you for being here today erm I do have a question for Colin but I do want to say to you that every week that we have an episode it diligently gets transferred to the (web?) and I send it home to my sister’s family in Australia and they’re just lovin’ this show as well so if you can get the show on the ABC in Australia y’know you would have another whole continent at your beck and call, erm so to Colin, just a brief question for you/
CM: yeh/
10:16 Q: I just wonder how you learn the spells or how you get your words or y’know your head round some of the words?
10:22 CM: yeh ah I think that when you first get the script and you read through it erm and you come across erm gobbledy-gook written down the page and you think great got a whole scene to do that with but erm what’s good is erm and Polly can probably tell you about this is that they are genuine actual olde English erm words and they actually do translate as y’know if its something that we’re trying to do like cast [ed: catch?] fire or something they actually do mean you know ‘I Summon Fire’ they do actually mean things whether I pronounce them right or not I don’t know but erm but erm yeh it’s yeh it is a challenge I think erm Richard Wilson who plays Gauis does does not enjoy those spells at all so I don’t mind them they’re ok but erm/
11:07 PB: :the spells are in 7th century Olde English and they are it’s a real language and we have an expert who translates them and on the first episode I erm got Colin to listen to lots of the lots of Olde English recordings on the internet so Colin listened to those a lot to get the accent right the pronunciation right so it was erm quite long research and Colin did quite a lot of work to get the erm to get it right/
11:31 JC: and it was one of those great production meetings you have when you’re creating a live concept show and you’ll have a whole meeting where a group of adults is sitting round having a very serious conversation about what language we should - should we use when Merlin is casting spells and we went through quite a lot of languages and we came up with this as Polly said the Olde English which we felt kind of worked and erm having direct translations of what Merlin is doing as well cause I think that was important it it actually when you set a spell that its actual details of what he was doing.
Host: k got a question from this gentleman here
12:09 Q: This is a question for Johnny how long did you envisage the series to last in terms of years?
12:15 JC: Well I mean you know when you’ve created a show and erm it becomes your little baby really and you hope that it goes on for a long time I mean the plan that we always have with Merlin is that it has it goes to three to five seasons that’s certainly how we’ve been storylining it, is that the way we work the legend is that it should work through five seasons but y’know fingers crossed.
Host: A question from the lady in front.
Q: Good afternoon I’m just wondering for all of you is there anything particularly about the story the legend of Merlin that really drew you towards doing the show?
12:57 JC: erm I’ll answer that first I think that for me I was always fascinated by the legend of Merlin when I was a child and erm…I’m always drawn to stories where people have extraordinary powers and erm that they have their kind of life mapped out they have a destiny and so that intrigued me and I felt that on television currently that nobody had done a fresh or original take on Merlin for a while so it just seemed to be ripe for development and (also its something?) I can provide passion really it just seemed the right thing for me to develop.
13:32 PB: and I think for me as a is to develop the characters it was great to have the two characters of Merlin and Arthur because with Merlin you have the magic and wizardry erm and all of that mystery and with Arthur you have the gallantry and heroism which is just a great combination of kindof so many stories but you’ve got those two things and that’s why I think the two characters work so well together.
13:58 BJ: (…you first?)
13:59 CM: {chuckles} erm I mean, I just enjoy it with being given the chance to actually do magic and er adventures and doing different stuff every day I mean I-I have a real fascination with my magic anyway and I really enjoy it and then yeh its just with Merlin with its whole Merlin started out to er and so, so (basically?) in the end and he gets the bits and the bobs I thought that’s really interesting thing and - its fun! {chuckles} y’know so er so there’s me.
14:32 BJ: erm I’ve been using this time to try to think of a good answer {audience laughs} erm a thought that had come - then, but didn’t and I can just sort of say that…the story of Arthur is kinda I’ve been familiar with it growing up and y’know and as soon as I hear sort of…a tale told about him its fascinated me he…he’s a hero!...there’s also a patriotic element in it which erm interests me erm, and so when y’know hearing of this project the opportunity to play future King Arthur came round I can’t tell you how excited I was about it so I can’t really sum it up to words hopefully I’ll give you some indication of what I’m trying to say {audience chuckles} yes.
15:24 Host: I think that was a good answer don’t you? {applause} sorry, question from a lady at the front
15:33 Q: erm, hi!/
BJ: hello!
I just want to know does Arthur really know about Merlin’s powers or is he just slightly…unobservant? {audience giggles}
15:43 BJ: erm another word for…’unobservant’ being Dim! {laughter} erm no I…don’t worry about it I know what you meant, erm no I think…erm…at this early stage in the series erm I think y’know I don’t think he has a clue its not like you’d expect erm...in this world we’ve created sorcery to be under your noses erm but I think as the series progresses they’ll be lots of clues for Arthur to eventually add up and go “hang on…one minute…something’s…something’s going on here…” and hopefully - Merlin fans - hopefully we get there in the end we’ll see yes.
16:34 Host: I got a question from Ben here. Say Hello.
{microphone feedback then small boy voice} Hello!
CM: Hello!
16:40 Host: Does Colin use his magic when he’s not filming that’s the question
16:46 JC: things always keep on going missing so y’know…
16:51 CM: {laughs} yeh I use it for everyday things all the time.
16:58 Host: we got a question from the young man down the front {small boy voice}
Q: How do you get your powers?
Host: He’s only four don’t worry we’ll (___?)
17:11 CM: {laughs} erm Merlin’s powers are his I was born with them really erm it was just a natural gift and luckily you know in front of the camera I get the chance to really to y’know develop them and work with them erm how did you get your powers as spiderman? {chuckles} He’s dressed as spiderman! [ed: Colin explains to the audience]
Host: Ok we’ve got time for two more questions starting off with this one
17:38 Q: You know that the dragon in the film is…CG? so when you’re actually filming d’you is there like somebody in a dragon costume or suspended from the ceiling?
17:51 CM: I wish! {laughs} er no, er what I’m looking at erm, God, when I’m doing the dragon scenes is erm, is a green screen that has a cross a little cross on it so to me the dragon is a cross so erm, so it’s as much a surprise, y’know to me whenever I see it and they put a big dragon in there and I’m like aah right! that’s what it looks like/
18:16 JC: what we do try to do though is before we shoot the dragon sequences we record erm we’ve recorded John Hurt so he’s read out on the first lines so that when Colin does film even though he’s sort of reacting to a green screen with a cross on it he does have John Hurts voice so he can interact with which is a little bit of a help, yes/
CM: yeh it’s great {laughs}
18:37 JC: Maybe if we can get a bigger budget we can afford a real dragon {Colin laughs}
Host: and we’ve got one final question.
18:45 Q: Is it frightening to be in front of like this kind of fan-base? {audience giggles}
18:52 CM: Yeh!...we erm…we were just standing back there and we could hear you guys reacting and its great to see because we spend so long y’know doing the shows maybe once doing it and we kinda locked away in the world and its great to see erm the reaction to it and erm yeh you guys are great so its good to see the reaction from/
19:14 BJ: I wouldn’t say I was frightened as such maybe a little (treble?) tongued to make any sudden movements (___?) but I think erm primarily I’m quite proud to see you guys up here because the team that has been working on this show has been a real pleasure to work in the team that’s been assembled, and I’ve been personally I’ve been quite happy with the result of the show and just so you guys know oh good we’re doing something right so erm again (__?)
19:50 JC: I think with Merlin the our aim was always to make a really good piece of television drama which each week is like watching a really good action adventure mini movie and erm and for us to get good reaction to us is always hugely thrilling.
20:08 Host: well ladies and gentlemen if you’d like to give a massive round of applause for our Merlin panel {applause} Polly Buckle, Julian Capps [ed: Julian?], Bradley James and Colin Morgan! {wild applause}
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