God, I’m so infuriated with the BBC because they have totally butchered one of our finest legends in an attempt to appeal to the Harry Potter brigade. What am I talking about? Merlin of course. I was intrigued when I heard the BBC were going to be doing a new version of the tale because the BBC have an excellent track record with classic tales. The first doubts crept in when I saw how young the cast were and that Arthur and Merlin were the same age. So, so wrong!

You have Prince Arthur himself who has always been a prince by the looks of it, so no being raised as a peasant and pulling the sword out of the stone to reveal the “one true king”. Of course, Excaliber and the Lady of the Lake haven’t even been introduced. Merlin is Arthur’s vassal in this version and magic has been banned from Camelot so he has to use it in secret. What happened to Merlin being Arthur’s mentor and an old man? Guinevere (handly called Gwen) is a black lady’s maid and the daughter of a blacksmith. I have no problem with the colour of her skin but how exactly will Gwen be transformed enough to become Arthur’s queen and eventual betrayer? There is zero chemistry there anyway although the writers seem to be throwing Gwen at Merlin instead. Is the three way love triangle going to be between Arthur and Merlin instead of Lancelot?

The whole thing just infuriates me no end.