The Boy Merlin

I've been tracking down series and films that depict the origins of Merlin as research for my Kalamazoo paper next month. One work I had heard about but never tracked down is the British series The Boy Merlin (launched on the series Shadows in 1978 and then airing for six more episodes as a separate series in 1980). The story is very much inspired by Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and alludes to Merlin as a "fatherless" boy but never (at least not on the episodes online) reveals the truth or falsehood of the incubus story.

The series anticipates a lot of the ideas found in Shine Entertainment's more recent series (2008-2012) with Merlin training as a mage and working to prepare for Arthur and himself to discover their destinies. It is also very similar to Mary Stewart's novel The Crystal Cave published in 1970 (and adapted to film in 1991), but embraces the magical elements of the character rather than rationalizing them.

The pilot from Shadows and three of the six episodes from the series are available on YouTube (see below).

A trailer for the Region-2 DVD set is also online and includes footage from yet another episode.