Arthur of the Britons, HTV Series (1972-3) OLIVER TOBIAS

[ballynafeighbluedog]

arthur of the britons used to be on at 13.10 on a sunday afternoon on ulster television.1400 hrs brian moore with the big match london weekend tv.happy childhood entertainmaint

[chockycake1]

OMG this brings back memories..as a teenager in the 70's had a huge crush on Oliver Tobias! Thank you... :-)

[sonofherne]

@chockycake1 Fans will be meeting with Oliver this August Bank Holiday at the location this show was filmed at. If you are free, come along. It's free! Email for details ...

[chockycake1]

@sonofherne Thank you for this..unfortunately I won't be able to go :-( How exciting tho.....and it's free too.....lol I hope everyone has a great time.... :-)

[xanglat]

Les deux acteurs principaux sont excellents. Mais j'avoue un gros faible pour le regretté "MICHAEL GOTHARD" !

Cela dit, c'est une série magnifique... comme on n'en crée plus, hélas ! A quand une rediffusion... en français ? D'avance "merci".

[dmspar70]

@xanglat Why did Michael Gothard have to take his own life? Such a shame for such a great actor.

[sonofherne]

@dmspar70 No one seems to have any details to this dilemma. Isn't it often from some untreated condition that one has not worked out their own mind. Perhaps it stemmed from problems in his childhood, depression from an unsuccessful career or love life that was not diagnosed in time? The motives are different from person to person, but usually end up being because of one of the above.

[beguilingeyes]

Oliver Tobias...sigh...so beautiful.

[davidleigh65]

arthur of course was welsh........as were the ancient britons

[sonofherne]

True, but then DNA shows that 90 percent of British people's DNA goes back 5,000yrs to the neolithic peoples of Britain, For the most part we are ALL ancient britons, disproving the popular racist Victorian myth of English being anglo-saxon, & everyone in Cornwall,Wales & Scotland are all "celtic". Alot of lowland Scots have more saxon dna than any found in the rest of UK.

This is a tv show thread,not a forum for political debate.I'd ask you to read any book by Bryan Sykes & see for yourself.

[sonofherne]

Of course in the time of Arthur, if you accept he existed at all, the people of Britain were romano-british. Many think he was a romanised native, active in the West of England, but also the Scots have an Arthur figure too, so do the Bretons. Just like Robin Hood, many groups lay a claim to them & people have tried to pin these figures down to a real person, which is problematic.

You're probably talking about a "title" assumed by a ruling warrior class, not any one person.

[monif312]

I'm soooo thrilled that due to the comments here I found out this is available on DVD. Thank you everyone! I've been searching high and low for decades, all to no avail. And now it's all on DVD! I just hope I'll be able to play it on some computer here in the U.S.

I got hooked on the series back in 1974 when it was shown in Eastern Europe. It's been a sentimental favorite ever since. Wonderful to see so many fans here. If anyone wants to chat about it, drop me a line.

[Chiggs58th]

Holy crap! I remember this from when I was a very young child. It was an Awful show with a great theme that I would always stop what I was doing to listen to. However, as soon as the theme ended I was off like a shot. Awful show. Just awful.

[sonofherne]

There's nothing like constructive criticism & thats nothing like it! I would be surprised if youre old enough to have remembered it.If you were you'd recognise that it was one of the most sympathetically done,original versions of saxon/celt life there's been+good moralistic stories spiced with realistic action.If you haven't seen the episodes,especially after so long,what gives you the right to comment? It'd just be an uneducated opinion & the world is full of twits who think they know it all.

[ewaf88]

Thanks for the post - great theme tune and one of my favourite series as a kid. Oviver Tobias was actually born in Switzerland and now ofter only appears in German language programms

[magslyfarnham1]

RIP Kai.....Michael Gothard was just brilliant

[sonofherne]

Indeed. A fine actor, gone too soon. Not much is known of his life is it or why he took his life. I guess quality actors walk a fine line sometimes, and are so often going from role to role they can forget to release, and play themselves. Quite often they are painfully unhappy unless working.

[magslyfarnham1]

Michael had suffered from depression on and off for a while but it got worse towards the end of his life.........this coupled with a relationship break-up and dissolusionment about his career and acting led him to tragically take his own life......it was such a tragic loss and with treatment depression can be overcome......RIP Michael/Kai

[tisa1988]

do you know where i can watch the episodes online?

[sonofherne]

Nowhere I know of. Sorry. Please do consider buying the dvd's. It's a quality release and not all that expensive for the hours of enjoyable television HTV have provided for us.

[1981Marcus]

No, but Lovefilm claims it will have them available to rent - eventually! I booked them months ago and there's still no word of when they'll actually be able to send them to me. I suspect pretty soon I'll get tired of waiting and buy them!

[weaville]

Thank you for putting this on. As a result I have bought the DVD and am now re-living my early teens remembering racing home from school to watch this! Far more violent than I remembered - but Oliver and Michael still look great!

[sonofherne]

Oliver Tobias was interviewed relatively recently for ITV3. He spoke very fondly of AotB's and commented that they all did their own stunts back then. It was very risky as they did go for it in the fight sequences. An early episode where Arthur and Kai are competing got very rough. As the cameras stopped, the director was wiping the sweat from his brow!

[1981Marcus]

Delighted that this series is now out on DVD: but does anybody know where I can find the 1979 miniseries "The Legend of King Arthur"?

[sonofherne]

I've been trying to source this for ages. All I found was the tv tie-in novel for it. This is the version with a young Patsy Kensit, right?

It is highly doubtful it will be released officially. I would also like to know if anyone has memories (or a copy) of the 80's BBC (?) mini series, Morte D'Arthur.

[meeffbee3]

Brilliant...so I'm not goin mad an imagining things from when I was a kid! Right...anyone any ideas where to get a copy of ANY of the episodes????

[sonofherne]

All the series is now available to buy on Region 2 DVD. I have no information about whether it will be available soon in any other region code, but if you go to Amazon, Ebay, or any good video store they will order you a copy. Or, order direct from Network DVD's in the UK. They have a lot of rare cult shows instock.

[aormanuk]

i saw a box set of this on amazon at xmas time

regards Robert Scotland

[mikesey1]

Not a bad series, and one which portrayed Arthur as he should be, not as some sort of Medieval knight in armour. As a point of interest, I made the video "The Real Camelot" to show where Arthur's base is very probably situated and there is good supporting archaeological evidence for that. Take a peek, and by all means give a video response if you want to. Click my profile here. See you, mate.

[sonofherne]

Yes, indeed. South Cadbury? Yes. Loved the site from an early age, and have read Geoffrey Ashe too. Visited it many a time when I lived fairly close. Always seemed like Camelot to me. Thanks for your comments.

[mikesey1]

Yep, no other place qualifies for the title "Camelot" like Cadbury does.

It was Geoffrey Ashe who found the earlier reference to Cadbury being Camelot; earlier than that of John Leland in 1542.

I hope you'll visit the place again soon.

Mike.

[1981Marcus]

What was the pre-Lelabd reference?

[Cynisca]

I used to love this series when younger....and still have one of the books..!

[Spinningwheel07]

Wow this was my favorite program when I was a kid! Still kept all the pictures from the magazines! Thnx so much for posting! You got others?

[sonofherne]

No problem. I was planning on splicing together some good scenes, but I've become a little busy with other things. If no one else does in the meantime, I shall be on it soon. Not whole scenes/episodes however. I do urge people to go and buy the dvd set though. You'll need to order as it's not being stocked in stores.

[984rtgh]

Can remember a kids show on Saturday morning's around 74-5 co-presented by Anne Aston (Golden Shot). Any ideas???

[terrymanning1]

Magpie?

[984rtgh]

Thanks, Terry, but no, it wasn't Magpie...

[terrymanning1]

Cant find any info on Anne Aston doing a tv show in the mid 70's. Are you certain it was her?

[984rtgh]

Yeah, It was on in the Anglia area and I think her co-presenter was a bloke called Graham Miller who went on to do sports reporting with ITN. I know it's a long time ago but I'm sure I'd remember Anne Aston!!!

[sonofherne]

Ace of Wands - Yep. Now on DVD, btw. Black Arrow - Great! Anyone recall a show called "Sparrow?" Not sure if I got the name right.

[984rtgh]

I always liked it when Brian Blessed was Mark of Cornwall - always threatening to slice Arthur's head off but never did!! Another great series from around that time was Ace of Wands. Remember that one?

[984rtgh]

Nothing on TV Cream for ''Sparrow''...

[984rtgh]

Always loved Arthur of the Britons as a kid. Do you remember Black Arrow, Robots Robots, Tottering Towers and Redgauntlet?

[Vinnymonster2]

YES! God that takes me back.

Loved Arthur of The Britons, made me interested in history.

Good days :D

[EmmaPeel666]

Thank you so much!

I can fibally listen to the theme by Bernstein. :)

[anotherblonde]

I used to rush home from school in the 70s to get my jollies lusting after Oliver Tobias and Michael Gothard (later a baddie in one of the James Bond movies) - great posting, perhaps Santa will bring me the dvd for Christmas.

[Wingdoss]

This takes me back, and thanks for the heads up that it's out on dvd. I always view this as the forerunner to Robin of Sherwood and imagined that Oliver was featured in ROS as a homage to his role in this earlier series.

[sonofherne]

I quite agree, they both had much the same feel. Of course, both had their 'hero' as a much younger person than the archetypal, square jawed, 30-ish matinee idol. Heroes had to young and idealistic. I always had trouble reconciling people like Richard Greene, Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone etc playing these parts, as good as they were it was a touch unrealistic.

[Wingdoss]

I wasn't taken with Greene's series but liked the Flynn film for the Americanisms, some of the characters (Friar Tuck!) and the fact that Rathbone actually could fight with a sword in real life. But for me, realism didn't come into it in those days, it was just good entertainment.

I doubt we'll ever see anything better for Robin Hood that combines a degree of realism with entertainment as good as Robin of Sherwood. The BBC effort was garbage. As for Arthur, filmwise I still love Excalibur.

[laserlady7]

Oh yes, I loved this programme. About 1971 or 1972 I think. Long before The Stud. Thanks for this.

[Prospro8]

Thanks ... that title music by the great Elmer Bernstein is one of my all-time favourites.

[anglotim]

Great to see things like this on Sonfherne.

[sonofherne]

Happy to oblige! I was amazed no one had taken the time to upload it yet to You Tube, seeing as the official dvd set has at long last been released!

This was, up until recently, a lost classic, destined never to be repeated, let alone given the dvd treatment (barring a very poorly edited collection of episodes for Canadian release)

It was wonderfully written for the most part, filmed on location in the West Country. Oliver always had a very enigmatic screen presence, perfect for the role.

[Setanta2006]

Haven't seen this in a long time. Thanks for posting.