Katie McGrath Fan, a website for Merlin actor Katie McGrath
Tag Archives: y: 2012
Rupert Young Fans (Live Journal community)
Rupert Young Fans, a community on Live Journal for fans of our own Rupert ♥
MCM Expo, Birmingham (2012)
Rupert attended this fan convention, along with fellow Knights of the Realm, Adetomiwa Edun (Sir Elyan in BBC Merlin) and Tom Hopper (Sir Percival). Julie took a few photos, when she wasn’t being dazzled.
MCM Expo, Birmingham (2012)
Three of the Merlin Knights – Rupert Young ♥ (Sir Leon), Tom Hopper (Sir Percival) and Adetomiwa Edun (Sir Elyan) – attended the MCM Expo fan convention in Birmingham on Saturday 31 March. They were available for autographs much of the day, offered photo opportunities, and took part in a short panel. And Julie was lucky enough to be there!
Julie’s Report
I arrived a bit before 11, and the autograph queue was already in full swing. So I queued… Rupert was the first on the table. He was his usual delightful self. I complimented him on his recent turn as Prince Albert in The Charles Dickens Show on BBC2. (I have a bit of a thing for Prince Albert, so this was guaranteed to make me swoon.) Rupert seemed rather relieved when I assured him I hadn’t actually stayed up to watch the original broadcast at 3:30am, but instead caught it on iPlayer. He knew I’d be interested that it was directed by Metin Huseyin, who also directed three episodes of Merlin in 2009.
The Charles Dickens Show (2012)
Rupert featured as Prince Albert ♥ in an episode of this chat show ‘live from the 19th century’ hosted by, yes, Charles Dickens.
- Christmas (30 March 2012)
- Directed by Metin Huseyin
That Dark Place (2012)
Rupert starred as Nathan in this play, presented as part of Fragments, an evening of five short plays written by Anna Jordan.
- Riverside Studios, London (1 February 2012)
- Directed by Anna Jordan of Without a Paddle Theatre
There is a related article by Anna Jordan here on the WAP Theatre site: Small But Perfectly Formed: The Short Play.
Julie’s Response
I was lucky enough to see Rupert Young perform in a short play called ‘That Dark Place’. It was one of five short pieces, collectively titled Fragments, written by Anna Jordan. All the plays were interesting, and certainly well presented by a great ensemble cast. They were very much about being human in an overwhelming world. All of them were a bit twisted in some way, but all heartening and mostly managing to find a glint of optimism somewhere in amidst the heartache. All of them were a bit black, but also very funny. And all of them were very well written!
Rupert was in the third play, ‘That Dark Place’, as Nathan, with Christina Gallon as his wife Constance, and Roger Woods as Dermot.
This Love (2012)
Rupert features as the Other Man in this short film which was accepted for the Short Film Corner 2012 at the Cannes Film Festival! His Company co-star Poppy Roe also stars.
- Filmed in January 2012
- Director: Joseph Warley
I don’t know anything much about it yet, but here are some links:
- page on IMDB
- page on Forward Motion Pictures (production company) website
- page on Facebook… with behind-the-scenes photos! (Thanks to Kay for the heads-up. ♥)
Merlin (2009-2012)
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)
- 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.