The whimsically talented artist RedScharlach has now included Sir Leon among her lovely Merlin crew. All the related goodies can be found on RedBubble.
Follow the link, and you’ll see the greeting card option. Scroll down, click Available Products if it’s not already selected, and you’ll see all the goodies available featuring Sir Leon.
This includes:
t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies in a range of styles and colours
cases for iPhone, iPad and Samsung Galaxy
cushion covers and acrylic blocks
mugs and travel mugs
tote bags and drawstring bags
greeting cards, postcards and stickers
spiral notebooks and hardcover journals
The sticker doesn’t appear on the page linked above, but you can find it here.
It’s worth noting that Sir Leon is also included in the Team Merlin group, along with darling Gaius and the other regular characters. And what serendipity that Sir Leon (on his own) is featured against a purple background – my favourite colour! … My credit card just took a right hammering!
Although we weren’t sure at the time, September 2012 saw the last block of Merlin‘s last season being filmed in Pierrefonds. This gallery contains various images of Rupert. You can see other photos from the block here on Flickr.
Julie was lucky enough to be in Pierrefonds to watch the filming of Merlin‘s fifth season. Rupert was there, of course, playing Sir Leon and charming the fans. ♥
Julie took these photos of Rupert and the other lovely knights while they were filming BBC Merlin at the Chateau de Pierrefonds. You can see other photos from September here on the Merlin Locations Flickr page.
Julie was lucky enough to have watched BBC Merlin being filmed in Pierrefonds, France in May 2011. These are the photos she took of Rupert. You can see more photos from that time (and even more of Rupert!) on her Merlin Locations Flickr page here.
Rupert plays the perfect chivalrous knight Sir Leon in Merlin.
We first see Leon during a jousting tournament, in which he is too noble to take advantage of Arthur’s sudden vulnerability, and too careful of Arthur’s wellbeing. Arthur wasn’t impressed, but we were. And all that glorious hair made an immediate impact, too!
We slowly start to see more and more of Leon, though much of the time he’s simply running errands and passing messages. Rupert is such a great guy to have around that the main cast were campaigning for Leon to become a recurring character long before the fans got on board! It must have become obvious that he was being underutilised, too, and was certainly capable of carrying a more involved role.
As the story winds on through the seasons and Arthur transforms from prat prince to wise king, Leon becomes an essential part of Arthur’s inner circle, and a ‘founding member’ of the Round Table. Leon is the quintessential knight, and as Rupert says, he would have been really annoyed if he didn’t win ‘Knight of the Year’ each and every year.
Leon is serious, practical, articulate and dependable – which contrasts nicely with Lancelot’s slightly otherworldly nobility, Gwaine’s mischief and iconoclasm, Percival’s pure simplicity, and Elyan’s bad-boy edginess. The young king Arthur relies on Leon for advice, along with Gaius and Guinevere.
We never find out much about Leon’s background. It’s clear from the start that he’s well-born, otherwise he’d never have become a knight during Uther’s reign. We later learn that Gwen’s mother worked as a servant for Leon’s family, and that Leon and Gwen were childhood friends who grew up together. But the rest is left to our imagination.
Eventually, he is one of only two ‘inner circle’ knights who survive to the last scenes of the fifth season, and so his future is left to our imagination as well. But if there’s one thing that’s certain, Camelot was, is and always will be a better place for having Sir Leon in it. ♥
In summary, he appeared as follows:
Seven episodes of season two (2009), starting with The Once and Future Queen (26 September 2009)
Six episodes of season three (2010)
All thirteen episodes of season four (2011)
All thirteen episodes of season five (2012)
Rupert as Sir Leon in BBC Merlin, by Nick Briggs
The lovely photo is an official publicity shot, used with great respect but without permission. I assume it was taken by Nick Briggs. All rights remain with the photographer, BBC One and Shine.
