Friday, September 19, 2008

Hype Alert! It's Merlin, Folks!!

Yep, right now us folks in the UK are being bombarded with all sorts of promotional material (adverts, magazine interviews, billboards, you name it) for the BBC's latest Saturday night fantasy filler, Merlin. The series, devised by Julian Murphy and Johnny Caps of Hex fame, had been in development hell for a number of years - at one point former Torchwood producer/writer Chris Chibnall was in talks about creating a Sunday evening series devoted to the character of Merlin, who originates from the King Arthur legend.

FILMING TORCHWOOD'S THIRD SERIES HAS TAKEN ITS TOLL ON POOR EVE MYLES

Episode one features Eve Myles, quite possibly as you've never seen her before - as a witch! DigitalSpy have reported on an interview that Wales Online conducted with the star, regarding her appearence in the show. Sounds very promising, then.

Of course, the series also stars a number of other leading cult television stars - including Anthony Head, who played librarian Rupert Giles on the WB/UPN series Buffy the Vampire Slayer for seven years, and then there's Santiago Cabrera... you know, Santiago Cabrera - the guy who played that part on Heroes, Issac Mendez, who painted prophecies of the future? No? Oh come on! It's Santiago Cabrera already!!

Richard Wilson, respected RSC thesp and star of the BBC's comedy gem One Foot in the Grave - not to mention 2005's Doctor Who adventure "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances", which first introduced audiences to John Barrowman's Captain Jack Harkness - also appears, playing the role of 'Gaius'.

Russell T Davies seems very keen on the new series. In the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine he goes as far as to compare it to his own Saturday night ratings smash, Doctor Who: "Merlin is the first proper rival to Doctor Who that I've seen, and that's my finest compliment. [It's] a really, really fine piece of work."

Infact, the end credits go as far as to include a special "Thanks to Russell T Davies" message at the end. Aww... no wonder Davies loves the show so much - just watching it gives his ego a much needed boost!

But, ultimately, it's for you to make up your own mind. The series kicks off tomorrow night on BBC One, at 7:30pm - miss it, and I'm afraid you miss out. Unless you I-Player it; it which case, you don't so much miss out on it.

I'll shut up now and stop rambling, hey?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well - now we know why Torchwood Season 3 only has 5 episodes !!

Seriously, Torchwood was the first ever truly adult science fiction series, and no matter how good Merlin is, it is still basically a 9 - 90 years production.

How sad that the BBC couldn't see that the largest audience now available is the "baby boomer" one which is currently around 60 years old. (Baby Boomer - reference to time after World War 2 when families re-united resulted in lots of babies !!).

Anonymous said...

Infact, the end credits go as far as to include a special "Thanks to Russell T Davies" message at the end.

LOL what a joke

Anonymous said...

i never watch this tv series but i am sure i will