Merlin (TV series)/Trivia

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• Recap
  • S01
    • E01 The Dragon's Call
    • E02 Valiant
    • E03 The Mark of Nimueh
      • YMMV
    • E04 The Poisoned Chalice
    • E05 Lancelot
    • E06 A Remedy to Cure All Ills
    • E07 The Gates of Avalon
    • E08 The Beginning of the End
    • E09 Excalibur
    • E10 The Moment of Truth
    • E11 The Labyrinth of Gedref
    • E12 To Kill the King
    • E13 Le Mort d'Arthur
  • S02
    • E01 The Curse of Cornelius Sigan
    • E02 The Once and Future Queen
    • E03 The Nightmare Begins
    • E04 Lancelot and Guinevere
    • E05 Beauty and the Beast Part I
    • E06 Beauty and the Beast Part II
    • E07 The Witchfinder
    • E08 Sins of the Father
    • E09 The Lady of the Lake
    • E10 Sweet Dreams
    • E11 The Witch's Quickening
    • E12 The Fires of Idirsholas
    • E13 The Last Dragonlord
  • S03
    • E01 The Tears of Uther Pendragon Part I
    • E02 The Tears of Uther Pendragon Part II
    • E04 Gwaine
    • E05 The Crystal Cave
    • E06 The Changeling
    • E07 The Castle of Fyrien
    • E08 The Eye of the Phoenix
    • E09 Love in the Time of Dragons
    • E10 Queen of Hearts
    • E11 The Sorcerer's Shadow
    • E12 The Coming of Arthur Part I
    • E13 The Coming of Arthur Part II
  • S04
    • E01 The Darkest Hour Part I
    • E02 The Darkest Hour Part II
    • E03 The Wicked Day
    • E04 Aithusa
    • E05 His Father's Son
    • E06 A Servant of Two Masters
    • E07 The Secret Sharer
    • E08 Lamia
    • E10 A Herald of the New Age
    • E11 The Hunters Heart
    • E12 The Sword in the Stone Part I
    • E13 The Sword in the Stone Part II
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Trivia Tropes

• Ability Over Appearance: Given the time-period and the fact that Guinevere means "white" or "fair one", there were some raised eyebrows over mixed-race Angel Coulby getting the part of the future queen. The producers said that they had looked at hundreds of potential Guineveres, but Angel Coulby was the only one that could nail the quirky, clumsy servant girl, but also "bring the queen" when the occasion called for it.
• Channel Hop: In the USA, the first season aired on NBC during the Summer of 2009. From the second series onwards, it was transferrred to the SyFy Channel where it faired much better than it did on Broadcast TV and it stayed there for the rest of it's run.
• Deleted Role: Emilia Fox as Morgause was all set to return after her death (at the start of season four) in order to appear to Morgana in a vision and give her the coin that she later uses to resurrect Lancelot. The scene was cut and never released on DVD, though there are some promotional shots out there.
• Fake Brit: Morgana is played by Irish actress Katie McGrath, and Merlin is played by Northern Irish actor Colin Morgan. Morgana, however, retains her Irish accent, possibly because Colin Morgan's natural Armagh accent is much more distinctively regional to British ears than Katie McGrath's softer and unfamiliar South Dublin lilt. Gwaine is also played by an Irish actor (Eoin Macken.)
  • All three actors - Morgan, McGrath & Macken - were interviewed on Irish television together so their real accents can be compared and contrasted.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Emilia Fox was pregnant for most of season 3; it was hidden with her tunics but not always entirely successfully.
• Hey, It's That Guy!
  • There are plenty of familiar faces among the cast, most obviously King Giles, but a huge amount of actors have also featured in Doctor Who before or since featuring in Merlin. To date:
    • Merlin is Jethro Cane.
    • King Uther eats small children.
    • Gaius is Doctor Constantine.
    • Gwen is best friends with Madame de Pompadour!
    • Queen Annis is Adelaide Brooke.
    • Nimueh is Lady Christina de Souza.
    • The Gleeman is Lucius Petrus Dextrus.
    • Lady Vivian is The Doctor's Daughter.
    • The same episode featured Will (Merlin's old friend) as Cline.
    • Lady Catrina is The Racnoss.
    • Gaius's old girlfriend is Queen Victoria!
    • Harmless "Sir" William is a vampire.
    • Aglain is Doctor Moon.
    • Lady Helen is Gwen Cooper from Torchwood.
    • Cenred helped out Martha during the Missing Year.
    • Isolde is Tallulah "with three L's and a H!"
    • According to the Doctor, Percival has to clean his internet history.
  • Then there's:
  • Alexander Siddig: Kanen, ep 1x10 (Dr. Bashir from Deep Space Nine)
  • Uther kills people for their organs.
  • The guy who played Alvar played Jesus in an adaptation of the Passion a few years ago...
  • "Have you heard about our John? He's a gay man now!"
  • Issac Mendez is Lancelot.
  • Morgause is a forensic pathologist and Georgiana Darcy.
  • The leader of Merlin's home village (at least, before he gets shot) is Sherlock's Butt Monkey.
  • The man who became the host for Cornelius Sigan's spirit seems to have no problem with his wooden eye this time around.
  • Pompey moonlights as a Sidhe.
  • Merlin's childhood friend in episode 1x10 is Skins stoner Chris.
  • Dudley is sure a skilled wizard, better warn Vernon!
  • Mordred is Bruno.
  • "Courage, Willow! Oh, look, It's Strength and Magic as well!" (Hint: it refers to the eponymous hero of a certain movie, not the character from Buffy!)
  • Inspector Lynley is joining the cast as Arthur's uncle Agravaine!
  • And so is Gaius. A different Gaius.
  • Before being Elena´s nanny, Grunhilda had a position as Herbology professor Sprout.
  • Freya is too much into that whole Star-Crossed Lovers thing.
  • Ragetti is after Merlin's job, and ends up being possessed by Cornelius Sigan.
  • Court Historian Geoffrey of Mounmouth is "Bullet" Baxter the sadistic P.E. Teacher.
  • The cabbie sure has expanded his murder business, hasn't he? Maybe if he'd used a poisoned pill, Uther wouldn't have had time to sword-fight him into submission.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: John Hurt voicing a dragon. How cool is that?
  • Arthur Weasley was the voice of the goblin.
• Romance on the Set: Bradley James and Georgia King (Princess Elena) started dating after "The Changeling". Hilariously ironic given that their characters mutually agreed to call off their Arranged Marriage after coming clean with the fact that they definitely don't love each other. Apparently, the actors felt a bit differently. There is also plenty of speculation surrounding Angel Coulby and Rupert Young (Sir Leon) considering their closeness on-set and their tendency to do a lot of publicity together.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Nathaniel Parker (Agravaine) apparently joined the cast because his children were fans of the show.
• Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: The reason Bradley stopped updating his Twitter account (it's still there but is no longer being updated by him personally), as "fans" started attacking his girlfriend on Twitter. The girlfriend in question, Georgia King, also closed down her Twitter account at the same time. The whole thing warranted at least one newspaper to run with the story.

General Trivia

• James Callis, who is best known for playing Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica, not only played opposite a character called Gaius on Merlin, but rode a horse called Galactico.
• Katie McGrath and Emilia Fox also played sisters in the TV movie The Queen. (Not to be muddled up with the film version of The Queen.)
• * Uther's forehead scar is made by applying makeup to a natural crease in Anthony Head's forehead-the crease is prominent in most of his Buffy photos.
• Stories of the legendary King Arthur usually place the day in which he pulls the sword from the stone as December 25th. The episode in which this version of Arthur pulls the sword from the stone first aired on Christmas Eve, 2011. (Though if you're an international viewer, there's a good chance that you watched it on Christmas Day).
• Angel Coulby and Janet Montgomery (Guinevere and Mithian) never interacted during the episode in which they both appeared, however, they are going to share several scenes in the upcoming drama Dancing on the Edge.
  • Though Bradley James and Janet Montgomery also featured together in Dis/Connected, along with Hunith, Sophia the Sidhe, and Sir Owaine.
• If you're a fan of Miss Marple, then the ITV adaptations starring Geraldine McEwan/Julia McKenzie is a line-up of familiar Merlin faces, including Morgause ("The Moving Finger"), Nimueh ("By the Pricking of My Thumbs"), Valiant ("Nemesis"), Lady Vivian ("Why Didn't They Ask Evans?"), Lady Catrina ("Sleeping Murder"), the Gleeman ("Sleeping Murder"), Edwin Muirden ("Ordeal By Innocence"), and the Witchfinder ("By the Pricking of My Thumbs").
  • And from Poirot we have the Callieach ("Five Little Pigs"), Queen Annis ("The Mystery of the Blue Train"), Edwin Muirden (again) and Princess Elena ("Halloween Party").