Tag Archives: e: fan conventions

Quiz Night with Bradley James (2020)

Our awesome King Arthur, Bradley James, hosted an online Merlin quiz – partly to help entertain us during the COVID-19 quarantine and partly to help raise money for a noble cause. He invited the Knights of the Round Table to participate, so we ended up blessed with a mini online convention, with special guests Rupert (Sir Leon), Tom Hopper (Sir Percival), Tomiwa Edun (Sir Elyan) and Eoin Macken (Sir Gwaine).

The chosen charity was Redemption Paws @RedemptionPaws, a Toronto-based non-profit organisation focused on helping dogs in disaster situations. We raised over $15,000 (Canadian) for them, which is utterly awesome!

Bradley kindly uploaded a recording of the quiz to his YouTube channel, which was such a relief to people like me who regretted missing out on the fun! (I live in Australia, and I unwisely let the 4 a.m. start time dissuade me from participating.) Here’s the link:

Rupert was, of course, his usual funny and charming self, and proved himself delightfully human to boot! I mean to say… drinking what appeared to be a beer, saying “fuck”, and announcing he was off to have a wee. You’d be forgiven for thinking he isn’t a minor deity after all! I love the quarantine beard, but his lovely hair is still short, as contractually required by Dear Evan Hansen.

It was a joy to see all the knights gathered together once more, and to see them enjoying not only their own company but also ours. Tomiwa used a few Merlin and location photos as his background. Rupert changed his shirt a few times, as did Bradley – and Eoin gradually stripped away layers to reveal something pink and sultry… Oh my. The Merlin Family Rules!

The quiz had some easy questions, but also some harder ones. I think I would have got all but 2 or 3 – but who knows what silly choices I might have made at that time of the morning! Most people did very well, with only a handful of questions attracting a number of “alternate” choices.

I’ve included some screen captures below, but of course please do yourself the proverbial favour and watch the video itself.

Thank you, everyone, for taking part!

Rupert, soon after he was introduced, and still making sure his settings were right.
One by one the Knights arrive – and change shirts and beanies…

London Comic Con Spring (2020)

Rupert was a guest at London Comic Con Spring on Sunday 1 March, along with Tom Hopper (Percival in Merlin) who was there on both days.

My awesome friend Karen shared these photos from Rupert and Tom’s panel. You can see more via her Flickr account.

German Castle Con, Solingen (2019)

Rupert was a guest at the convention German Castle Con in Solingen, Germany on 24-25 August 2019.

My fellow fan bunnysworld attended, and had a marvellous time. She was kind enough to share her photos of Rupert with me. You can see one in the banner of this post, and I’ve posted more to a gallery. ♥

You’ll see that on the Sunday he wears a baseball hat with an Ottilie Seed badge. Off I popped to Google, to discover that Ottlie Seed is a seed farm in Iowa. How random is that…?

You can also find a video of Rupert’s Q&A on the Saturday on YouTube (embedded below). He’s such a lovely guy!

… and I have to add that his bare ankles are delightfully distracting!

MCM Comic Con, Birmingham (2019)

BBC Merlin was well represented at the MCM Comic Con, held in Birmingham on 23-24 March 2019. Guests included Asa Butterfield (young Mordred), Tom Hopper (Percival), Alex Vlahos (older Mordred) and our own Rupert Young.

Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the con (having been exiled to the Antipodes) but my mate Shell did, along with her lovely family. They asked Rupert ♥ for an autograph for me, which was awesome! Thanks to my friends, I was definitely there in spirit.

Shell blogged about the day on her site The Copper River. This includes photos, and a link to the official live stream so that we can all enjoy the panel held on Saturday.

Thank you again, Shell!

EM-Con Worcester (2018)

Rupert attended EM-Con Worcester on 8 April 2018. While the con was a bit busier than the previous one in Kent, Rupert took the time to have a good chat with all the fans who came his way. He’s such a great guy to meet!

He didn’t take part in any panels this time, but there were autographs available and a photo shoot. I took the opportunity to ask for a ‘portrait’ shot of just him, as well as one of me with him. Here’s a scanned and cropped version for your delectation…

Isn’t he lovely? ♥ Once I have the full version, I’m wondering how best to use it for the site. Are splash screens terribly passé these days…?

Medway Comic and Screen Festival, Gillingham, Kent (2018)

Rupert attended the Medway Comic and Screen Festival along with Alex Vlahos (Mordred in Merlin) on the Saturday.

It was a nice, friendly, small convention, so I had the chance to have a bit of a chat with Rupert, which was lovely. I don’t have any real news to pass on, though! We haven’t seen him for a little while, but he says he’s been doing lots of workshops.

Given that I’m moving back to Australia later this year, I took the opportunity to give away the last of my Merlin Locations tat. Most of it went to my fannish friends, but I gave Rupert a beanie and Alex a baseball hat. They were both kind enough to thank me for the hats via their autographs.

The organisers of the Merlin 10 Year Anniversary Convention were then kind enough to use the beanie to hold the tickets when they asked Rupert to draw a raffle winner. How cool is that! You can see the video here on Twitter. Thank you, all, and congratulations to Tess!

All in all, it was a really lovely day, with lots of Rupert and lots of Merlin Family fun. I’m gonna miss you guys!

MCM Comic Con, London (2017)

I have had the most awesome Ruperlicious day today! Rupert attended MCM Comic Con in London, along with Merlin castmate Alex Vlahos, on the Saturday and Sunday. They seemed to be having a fun time of it, and the fans certainly were, too.

Autographs

I started off my Sunday with an autograph from Rupert. He was kind enough, as usual, to ask me what was happening with me, so I told him my big news – which is retiring from the day job, and being able to write full time. He was appropriately congratulatory in response!

It’s been far too long (for us fans, anyway!) since we saw him last in Wrexham, but he seems to have enjoyed taking some time out.

He seemed pretty impressed by my Sir Leon t-shirt, which is a Red Scharlach special, and he quizzed me about it at length. So (later in the day) I asked if we could take a ‘reaction shot’ for Red…

Rupert is astounded by Red Scharlach’s artwork!

After my Rupert autograph, I went to seek one from Warwick Davis. He’s such a great guy with us fans, has the most gorgeous smile, and he’s just been in everything that’s anything – including Merlin, of course!

I had to ask them for a Merlin photo, as there weren’t any on display – but a very nice one was duly forthcoming, and I asked him to sign it with ‘Courage, Strength and Magic’. He is such a sweetheart. ♥

Continue reading MCM Comic Con, London (2017)

Wales Comic Con, Wrexham (2017)

Rupert attended this fan convention on 8-9 April 2017, along with his Merlin colleagues and fellow knights, Tom Hopper and Alex Vlahos.

A terrific time was had by all! I wrote about it at length in this post on the Merlin Locations site. But here’s a little bit of Ruperlicious goodness to tide you over!

Rupert, Julie, the mischievous Alex and Tom at Wales Comic Con.

These three are just totes adorbs!