The Legend of King Arthur

The Legend of King Arthur is a fantasy serial made for British television, produced by the BBC alongside Time-Life Television and the Australian Broadcasting Commission. It aired on BBC 2 in 1979. The story begins at the court of King Uther, where he develops a desire for Igraine, the wife of Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwall. The cast includes Andrew Burt as Arthur, Felicity Dean as Guinevere, Maureen O'Brien as Morgan le Fay, David Robb as Lancelot, Geoffrey Bateman as Gawain, James Simmons as Galahad, Robert Eddison as Merlin, Patsy Kensit as the young Morgan, and Steve Hodson as Mordred. The production design aimed for an earnest historical feel, set in the heroic age around A.D. 500, similar to the earlier HTV series *Arthur of the Britons* (1972–3). However, this BBC version’s tragic plot stayed more faithful to the chivalric romance found in *Le Morte d'Arthur*. Scholar Norris J. Lacy noted that the serial has the space to portray the legend in detail, but that its periodic presentation—rather than the medium itself—weakens the story’s force and drama in a way rarely seen in literature, including the French Vulgate or Malory’s work. A tie-in novel by screenwriter Andrew Davies was published in London by Fontana/Armada in 1979. The serial came out on VHS from BBC Video in 1985, and on DVD from Simply Media in 2016.