Merlin: Secrets & Magic (2009) s01e11 Episode Script
Beauty and the Thief
Welcome to Secrets and Magic, the show that goes behind the scenes to reveal how Merlin's made.
Coming up, we've got some fighting It's a great way to warm up.
There's someone who's a little frightening.
Mordred returns.
And then a female of the species who's most definitely more deadlier than the male.
MUSIC: "Female Of The Species" by Space All this and more on Merlin - Secrets and Magic.
We're back behind the scenes of the latest sword-wielding adventure from the BBC Wales drama series, Merlin.
Today, there's a new man in the Medieval mix, but who exactly is this mysterious visitor? Morgana and I have a relationship of sorts, which is predominantly manipulated by my character that I play, called Alvarr, who wants to kill the King, basically.
Because the King killed his parents when he was younger and he's got this long, drawn-out battle plan to revenge.
That's really what it's all about.
Morgana is someone he can use to get to the King.
And just look who's back to help out with these dastardly deeds.
MUSIC: "Without Me" by Eminem Yes, that's right.
The evil little munchkin, Mordred.
Mordred.
Asa Butterfield's back, Mordred returns.
I was so excited when I read that script.
Mordred is probably the most important character in this episode.
Because without him, he's kind of like the ultimate prophet for the pagans.
But what was it that made the producers mad about the boy? Asa's this very very interesting and intriguing young actor who just, the camera just absolutely loves his face.
He has this amazing screen presence which was so captivating that it just seemed obvious to cast him in the first place.
You know what, he's amazing.
He blows me off the screen.
He's He's just so natural at it.
I'll be studying lines, he'll be reading a different book, come on and just nail it, every time.
You will help us, then? Please, Morgana.
We need you.
Yes.
I will.
Of course, I will.
He's one of my favourite actors to work with.
MORDRED: 'I shall never forgive this and I shall never forget.
' He's just this really enigmatic figure that we keep bringing back that challenges us and is a catalyst for a lot of Morgana's behaviour.
And when she robs the magical crystal, it spells only one thing for Merlin - mayhem! The ancient prophesies speak of an alliance of Mordred and Morgana.
United in evil.
Merlin is given the knowledge that Morgana is destined, her destiny, is to have and alliance with Mordred, whose destiny, I know, is to bring about the downfall of Arthur.
And to see her being so close to Mordred and have this strange affection for him - as being drawn towards him, I can see her destiny taking place.
And knowing that those two paths are joining is something that's extremely disturbing for Merlin to see.
At the heart of the legend is is the mother-son relationship between Morgana and Mordred.
And we've kept that.
We have built our own mother-son relationship between Morgana and Mordred.
He's not her son but they have the same quality of relationship and the same bond.
Um, so I think that's still dramatically very interesting.
The challenge that Morgana has is that she's tempted to the dark side through circumstance and not because she's essentially an evil person.
And because she's more, I think, accepting of who she is, she has more strength to do the things she believes in and she doesn't back down.
Which is great for her, but not so good for Uther.
From this day forward I disown you.
You will go to your chambers! And you, Uther .
.
you will go to hell.
DOOR SLAMS The thing that you need to remember about Morgana is she's been brought up in a kingdom where magic is banned.
And to use magic means death.
And she is slowly realising that she is magical and what that means to her.
She doesn't want to be.
She's scared of it.
She doesn't know what it is.
She can't control it.
The boy he told me you have magic.
You need not be afraid.
I know.
I'm sorry.
I've just grown so used to concealing the truth.
There's a beautiful scene between Morgana and Alvarr in the den.
And for me, yeah, that's the most poignant scene in the part.
You have been very brave.
I don't want to be brave.
I just want to be myself.
I don't want to be alone any more.
You need never be alone again.
I think in Morgana's eyes now, there's a world that accepts magic, that she believes in.
And Uther's world that rejects it.
Everyday I look Uther in the eye knowing that if he were to discover who I really am he'd have me killed.
She's attracted to Alvarr because he seems to offer her hope and an identity and a life where she could be accepted.
There's a little romantic hint.
They're attracted to each other, especially Morgana to him.
I think he is perhaps cynically using that to get her to do what he wants, but, yes, there's a little frisson there.
For Katie, it's quite a relief that Morgana's finally getting some male attention.
And she's always been slightly envious of her maid Gwen's pulling power.
Oh, kiss me She gets all the men.
She has snogged everyone.
It's not fair! Morgana gets nothing.
I get powers, great(!) I get frocks, brilliant(!) But no men.
Though during the making of this episode, there was plenty of interest in HER and not just from Alvarr.
I don't know if you can see, but we are being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Like I think there's about 400 of them in my hair.
Disgusting! Katie's always saying she never gets the men, but I never really thought that.
Everybody in the court always seem very attracted to Morgana so I thought she got a lot of attention, but it made me laugh that Katie didn't think she did.
It IS about time we did something with Morgana in that sense.
So is Alvarr really attracted to her? I don't know.
It suggests something.
'We'll see what happens.
' We wanted to see her fall in love and we wanted, again, to see her fall in love with the wrong person.
And Alvarr is a very charismatic leader of this magic rebellion who's completely manipulating her.
And I think that adds to the tragedy of the story, and hopefully the audience will be sympathetic to why she turns to the dark side.
Alvarr! What brings you here? Arthur's been sent to recapture the crystal.
The knights of Camelot are almost upon us.
Well whoever was here .
.
is not here any more.
MAN SCREAMS As they say, if you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise.
Unless you're part of the special effects crew, that is and then all you're sure of is a lot of hard work.
To simulate the effects of arrows flying through the air, a pressurised rig fired fake arrows along wires.
These wires were then later digitally removed.
Ahhh! And if that wasn't complicated enough, add to that some swordplay and a prince flexing his pecs and things get a bit tricky.
The challenges for any of the fight sequences are that you always have a short space of time.
Keep it simple, Andreas.
Push it down, like that.
That's it.
The more rehearsal time you get, the better so the time I do get, you've got to make sure it works, put time in what needs to be done.
We'll work out what the characters are like, for instance, if you're a stealthier mover then the moves will be more stealthy than if you're someone who's just aa bull in a china shop going for it, kind of Ricky Hatton style, then, you know, he'll adhere the fight to make sure it works for his character, so you're not just tipping and tapping.
There's an actual sense of what part of the body you're going for and what you're trying to do to the other person, rather than purely make some noise and clash some blades.
There! Mike's like, "Aaaaahh!" Distracting him.
Exactly.
Protecting his king.
Exactly.
So you've got to have someone attacking you, otherwise you'll kill me.
And he will.
Luckily, the stunt guys are fantastic.
It's good to get as much time as you can so the guys know the routine I do various routines, mix it all up so everybody knows exactly what they're doing.
So nobody's winging it and nobody's making it up.
It's all safe.
We don't want injuries.
Stay clever! Bradley's great, you know, he's put a lot of time and he's keen to look the part and that helps me.
When you've got somebody who is enthusiastic, very physical, makes my life a lot easier.
According to Katie, all this physical activity can make you a bit hot.
Bradley, are you hot? Um, in any temperature sense, yes.
And in no other sense you don't think, no? That's not for me to decide.
That might be the first time we've seen a royal blush! The character, basically is evading a guard going after her.
She basically runs, she puts a foot on the tree and then flips over, but again, the only problem with that is for the height.
The illusion is that she goes up the tree and she goes over the top of the guys.
So we incorporating a trampette as well to the first bit, which she did independently.
We got a shot of her doing that.
We got a shot of her feet going up the tree and then a shot with the trampette going over the guys.
Then a shot of the actress, killing the two guards.
That's how we do the magic of stunt action.
Give me the crystal.
Why should you care? What use is it to you? You are a fool, Arthur Pendragon.
How many lives have been lost this day and for what? You do not have the power! None of you do! Ah! But Merlin DOES have the power.
And when he sneaks a peek of the crystal, what he sees is truly terrifying.
There are lots of things that all come to a head and end with a sort of thrilling climax in both episodes 12 and 13.
Coming up, we've got some fighting It's a great way to warm up.
There's someone who's a little frightening.
Mordred returns.
And then a female of the species who's most definitely more deadlier than the male.
MUSIC: "Female Of The Species" by Space All this and more on Merlin - Secrets and Magic.
We're back behind the scenes of the latest sword-wielding adventure from the BBC Wales drama series, Merlin.
Today, there's a new man in the Medieval mix, but who exactly is this mysterious visitor? Morgana and I have a relationship of sorts, which is predominantly manipulated by my character that I play, called Alvarr, who wants to kill the King, basically.
Because the King killed his parents when he was younger and he's got this long, drawn-out battle plan to revenge.
That's really what it's all about.
Morgana is someone he can use to get to the King.
And just look who's back to help out with these dastardly deeds.
MUSIC: "Without Me" by Eminem Yes, that's right.
The evil little munchkin, Mordred.
Mordred.
Asa Butterfield's back, Mordred returns.
I was so excited when I read that script.
Mordred is probably the most important character in this episode.
Because without him, he's kind of like the ultimate prophet for the pagans.
But what was it that made the producers mad about the boy? Asa's this very very interesting and intriguing young actor who just, the camera just absolutely loves his face.
He has this amazing screen presence which was so captivating that it just seemed obvious to cast him in the first place.
You know what, he's amazing.
He blows me off the screen.
He's He's just so natural at it.
I'll be studying lines, he'll be reading a different book, come on and just nail it, every time.
You will help us, then? Please, Morgana.
We need you.
Yes.
I will.
Of course, I will.
He's one of my favourite actors to work with.
MORDRED: 'I shall never forgive this and I shall never forget.
' He's just this really enigmatic figure that we keep bringing back that challenges us and is a catalyst for a lot of Morgana's behaviour.
And when she robs the magical crystal, it spells only one thing for Merlin - mayhem! The ancient prophesies speak of an alliance of Mordred and Morgana.
United in evil.
Merlin is given the knowledge that Morgana is destined, her destiny, is to have and alliance with Mordred, whose destiny, I know, is to bring about the downfall of Arthur.
And to see her being so close to Mordred and have this strange affection for him - as being drawn towards him, I can see her destiny taking place.
And knowing that those two paths are joining is something that's extremely disturbing for Merlin to see.
At the heart of the legend is is the mother-son relationship between Morgana and Mordred.
And we've kept that.
We have built our own mother-son relationship between Morgana and Mordred.
He's not her son but they have the same quality of relationship and the same bond.
Um, so I think that's still dramatically very interesting.
The challenge that Morgana has is that she's tempted to the dark side through circumstance and not because she's essentially an evil person.
And because she's more, I think, accepting of who she is, she has more strength to do the things she believes in and she doesn't back down.
Which is great for her, but not so good for Uther.
From this day forward I disown you.
You will go to your chambers! And you, Uther .
.
you will go to hell.
DOOR SLAMS The thing that you need to remember about Morgana is she's been brought up in a kingdom where magic is banned.
And to use magic means death.
And she is slowly realising that she is magical and what that means to her.
She doesn't want to be.
She's scared of it.
She doesn't know what it is.
She can't control it.
The boy he told me you have magic.
You need not be afraid.
I know.
I'm sorry.
I've just grown so used to concealing the truth.
There's a beautiful scene between Morgana and Alvarr in the den.
And for me, yeah, that's the most poignant scene in the part.
You have been very brave.
I don't want to be brave.
I just want to be myself.
I don't want to be alone any more.
You need never be alone again.
I think in Morgana's eyes now, there's a world that accepts magic, that she believes in.
And Uther's world that rejects it.
Everyday I look Uther in the eye knowing that if he were to discover who I really am he'd have me killed.
She's attracted to Alvarr because he seems to offer her hope and an identity and a life where she could be accepted.
There's a little romantic hint.
They're attracted to each other, especially Morgana to him.
I think he is perhaps cynically using that to get her to do what he wants, but, yes, there's a little frisson there.
For Katie, it's quite a relief that Morgana's finally getting some male attention.
And she's always been slightly envious of her maid Gwen's pulling power.
Oh, kiss me She gets all the men.
She has snogged everyone.
It's not fair! Morgana gets nothing.
I get powers, great(!) I get frocks, brilliant(!) But no men.
Though during the making of this episode, there was plenty of interest in HER and not just from Alvarr.
I don't know if you can see, but we are being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Like I think there's about 400 of them in my hair.
Disgusting! Katie's always saying she never gets the men, but I never really thought that.
Everybody in the court always seem very attracted to Morgana so I thought she got a lot of attention, but it made me laugh that Katie didn't think she did.
It IS about time we did something with Morgana in that sense.
So is Alvarr really attracted to her? I don't know.
It suggests something.
'We'll see what happens.
' We wanted to see her fall in love and we wanted, again, to see her fall in love with the wrong person.
And Alvarr is a very charismatic leader of this magic rebellion who's completely manipulating her.
And I think that adds to the tragedy of the story, and hopefully the audience will be sympathetic to why she turns to the dark side.
Alvarr! What brings you here? Arthur's been sent to recapture the crystal.
The knights of Camelot are almost upon us.
Well whoever was here .
.
is not here any more.
MAN SCREAMS As they say, if you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise.
Unless you're part of the special effects crew, that is and then all you're sure of is a lot of hard work.
To simulate the effects of arrows flying through the air, a pressurised rig fired fake arrows along wires.
These wires were then later digitally removed.
Ahhh! And if that wasn't complicated enough, add to that some swordplay and a prince flexing his pecs and things get a bit tricky.
The challenges for any of the fight sequences are that you always have a short space of time.
Keep it simple, Andreas.
Push it down, like that.
That's it.
The more rehearsal time you get, the better so the time I do get, you've got to make sure it works, put time in what needs to be done.
We'll work out what the characters are like, for instance, if you're a stealthier mover then the moves will be more stealthy than if you're someone who's just aa bull in a china shop going for it, kind of Ricky Hatton style, then, you know, he'll adhere the fight to make sure it works for his character, so you're not just tipping and tapping.
There's an actual sense of what part of the body you're going for and what you're trying to do to the other person, rather than purely make some noise and clash some blades.
There! Mike's like, "Aaaaahh!" Distracting him.
Exactly.
Protecting his king.
Exactly.
So you've got to have someone attacking you, otherwise you'll kill me.
And he will.
Luckily, the stunt guys are fantastic.
It's good to get as much time as you can so the guys know the routine I do various routines, mix it all up so everybody knows exactly what they're doing.
So nobody's winging it and nobody's making it up.
It's all safe.
We don't want injuries.
Stay clever! Bradley's great, you know, he's put a lot of time and he's keen to look the part and that helps me.
When you've got somebody who is enthusiastic, very physical, makes my life a lot easier.
According to Katie, all this physical activity can make you a bit hot.
Bradley, are you hot? Um, in any temperature sense, yes.
And in no other sense you don't think, no? That's not for me to decide.
That might be the first time we've seen a royal blush! The character, basically is evading a guard going after her.
She basically runs, she puts a foot on the tree and then flips over, but again, the only problem with that is for the height.
The illusion is that she goes up the tree and she goes over the top of the guys.
So we incorporating a trampette as well to the first bit, which she did independently.
We got a shot of her doing that.
We got a shot of her feet going up the tree and then a shot with the trampette going over the guys.
Then a shot of the actress, killing the two guards.
That's how we do the magic of stunt action.
Give me the crystal.
Why should you care? What use is it to you? You are a fool, Arthur Pendragon.
How many lives have been lost this day and for what? You do not have the power! None of you do! Ah! But Merlin DOES have the power.
And when he sneaks a peek of the crystal, what he sees is truly terrifying.
There are lots of things that all come to a head and end with a sort of thrilling climax in both episodes 12 and 13.