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22 March 2026: Rupert’s brother Justin Young created (and wrote most of the episodes for) the BBC series Crookhaven, based on the books by J.J. Arcanjo.

25 March 2022: Rupert’s brother Justin Young is listed as executive producer and head writer for the first episode of Sanditon season 2.

12 September 2019: Rupert’s brother Justin Young co-wrote four episodes of the recent TV series Sanditon (2019), Andrew Davies’ adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel. Justin wrote episodes 3, 4, 6 and 7, and acted as series consultant throughout the first season.

14 July 2019: Rupert was to have been a guest at the convention Myth & Magic in Birmingham, England on 17-19 April 2020, along with fellow Merlin alumni Emilia Fox (Morgause), Fintan McKeown (King Odin), Michelle Ryan (Nimueh) and Alex Vlahos (Mordred). Unfortunately Rupert will no longer be able to attend this convention. Alex and the other Merlin actors will be there, though!

25 April 2019: Rupert was to have been a guest at the convention Magic Con to be held in Bonn, Germany on 26-28 April 2019, along with Alex Vlahos (Mordred in Merlin). Unfortunately, Rupert had to cancel with short notice, due to “a new filming role”.

5 December 2018: Rupert was to have been a guest at the convention Highway to Albion in Paris on 26 January 2019. Unfortunately the event was cancelled due to low ticket sales. Alas and alack!!!

19 September 2018: Rupert was to have attended the convention MCM Comic Con Scotland in Glasgow on 22-23 September 2018, along with Merlin’s Alex Vlahos (Mordred). Unfortunately, Rupert had to cancel with short notice, due to a change in rehearsal schedule for Twelfth Night. He sent his sincere apologies.

22 June 2018: Rupert was the first guest announced as attending Celtic Reminders, a Merlin convention to be held in Paris on 13-14 October 2018. Unfortunately, however, this event has now been cancelled.

4 June 2015: Justin Young’s play In My Father’s Words is featuring in Brits Off Broadway! It runs from 4-28 June 2015 at 59E59 Theaters in New York. For more details, check the 59E59 website.

30 November 2014: Unfortunately Rupert couldn’t attend Wales Comic Con 2014 Part 2 in Wrexham on Sunday 30 November. It seems this was because he went to the Supanova conventions in Australia in lieu of Eoin Macken and Alex Vlahos.

19 June 2014: Rupert’s brother Justin Young wrote a play titled In My Father’s Words which was performed at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow on 19-28 June 2014, before touring Scotland throughout July. See the Dundee Rep Ensemble page for full details.

MagicCon 8, Bonn (2025)

Rupert attended MagicCon 8 in Bonn throughout the convention, 26-28 September 2025.

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Rupert was his usual charming self in answering questions… Thanks to Bunnysworld for her report!

During a Q+A session, Bunnysworld asked, “We all know Colin wrote a book, and it’s about to be published… Bradley was also talking about writing a book… If you were writing a book, which genre could we look forward to reading?”

Rupert thought about it for a moment, then said, “A kids books. One of those adventure books. ‘If you want the character to do this and that, go to page 43. If you rather have them explore this… go to page so-and-so.’ Do you know what I mean?”

“Yes, I know what you mean. Thank you!” (And now we all really want to read that book).

Another fan asked him about his favorite Disney movies. They are… in this order… Encanto, Frozen and The Princess and the Frog.

“Speaking of Disney,” Bunnysworld followed this up with. “Disney princesses usually wear a special gown that sets them apart from everyone else. They can talk to animals.” I was ticking these off with my fingers and Rupert was nodding along. “And at some point, they do get their prince. So… is Merlin… a Disney princess?”

The room erupted in laughter, Rupert laughed really hard, then nodded and – his eyes shining – did a stage whisper “YES!”

During a Meet+Greet session, the fans talked about wishing the knights could get back together for another MagicCon, and Rupert said that would be so much fun and probably a good thing as people tend to like group shoots a lot more.

There were a few questions about Bridgerton and Death in Paradise.

Rupert said he liked that some stuff he has done deals with mental health. He thinks that people were drawn to Merlin so much because he was the overlooked person who did all the work and never got the credit and it was hard for Merlin dealing with that. Bunnysworld asked if that was the reason he did Dear Evan Hansen as well, and he said it was one of the main reasons and that it’s nice to imagine they did something good by having this show that at least opened up discussions about mental health.

At another Q+A, Bunnysworld said, “My friend just wondered when we will finally see the Merlin spin-off about Leon. Would it be ‘Leon – the early years’ or would it be ‘Leon – after Camlaan’?”

Rupert loved the idea of a Leon spin-off. He wasn’t sure which one he would like better but then decided that it would be fun to reunite the knights, so went for ‘Leon – after Camlaan’. He talked about how the actors were all still in touch, and it would be nice to get them all back together for a show. And then he started joking about how the scripts are in the making and we would hear it from him first when they start shooting.

Bunnysworld asked Rupert about being creative in his private life, whether painting or gardening or writing or something else.

Rupert had already said in a previous session that he really admires cosplayers as most of them have a day job and then create their costumes on such a professional level in their spare time. Now he said that his brother is the writer in the family, not him. Rupert tried to write music when he was younger and then noticed that most of his songs turned a bit naughty in the end. So, he said no, he isn’t a very creative person, he’s boring and mediocre.

“Never!” said Bunnysworld.

There was a lull in questions, so Bunnysworld approached the microphone again. Rupert grinned and said, “Oh, look, someone new!”

Bunnysworld asked about Rupert’s favorite character from Bridgerton (aside from Lord Featherington, of course). He didn’t have to think about that for too long and answered “Eloise”, because she tried to escape the norms and do her own thing.

At another session, Bunnysworld asked about the theatre show High Society, as they not only had to do a lot of singing and dancing, but also eating (they prepared fresh food on stage that they ate). So, she wondered if it doesn’t make the rest all the more difficult.

Rupert said the eating was the easiest part of all that. He talked a bit about the central stage and that the surrounding audience was so close to the performers that they could make out people’s faces. Whenever Rupert sang he had a talent for catching someone looking terribly bored like “OMG, this guy has to sing again” while he was doing a wonderful Cole Porter song and that was no fun – but basically he did that to himself, always finding that single face in every performance.

Bunnysworld asked if Rupert would like to narrate an audio book or if this is something he finds boring, just sitting there reading out loud an entire book.

He replied that he did some audio plays for the radio which he really enjoyed doing but he would be very interested in doing an audiobook. Depending on the book, of course, how long it is and such.

At the closing ceremony, Rupert was full of warm words about the convention, the atmosphere, that feeling of it all being a big family, as if everybody knew everybody else. So, hopefully, he really had a good time!

It certainly sounds as if the fans did.

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Photos kindly provided by bunnysworld!

Representing for Tomiwa

This is second or third hand by now, but a BBC Merlin fan account shared the following image from Eoin Macken’s Instagram stories.

“Myself and Rupert representing for Tomiwa (with the Lagos filter for the afficionados of Insta) … This guy is way too cool.”

One doesn’t like to speculate too far, but Tomiwa was born in Nigeria, and still has many ties there. It seems as if his Merlin besties were there to support him.

David Holmes Cricket Cup, London (2024)

Rupert has again participated in the David Holmes Cricket Cup, helping to raise awareness and donations for the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) charities. You can read about earlier appearances in this post.

The wonderful news is that this year’s match was streamed live, and is available to watch on YouTube!

Also, I was delighted to see Rupert and Bradley James (Arthur in Merlin) promoting the live stream on Instagram. Check out Rupert’s video here. (His longer hair is looking mighty fiiine, I have to say! Bradley seems to agree.)

If you would like to contribute to these marvellous causes, check out the GoFundMe page!