Merlin: a new 13-part drama series on 91Èȱ¬ One
Bradley James plays Arthur
Bradley James admits audiences are in for a surprise when they first cast eyes on the young Prince Arthur in Merlin.
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"No one is going to like him to begin with," he smiles.
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The young man James portrays is a spoilt, boorish and over-protected teenager, which is one of the reasons why the 24-year-old, Devon-born actor was so keen to take on the role.
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"One of the appeals of playing him is that he is not really perfect. He is not a noble figure to begin with. He is not a so-called hero, and he is not good for the sake of being good. There are flaws to him," he says.
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"It's a long journey for him to make to become the Arthur that is so familiar to us."
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Arthur's troubled past has made him a proud and emotionally repressed young man, Bradley explains.
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"He is a teenager encroaching on adulthood. He's grown up without a mother and he's never had an outlet for his emotions so he is keeping a lot within himself," he says.
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"He will be King one day. So he would not dare allow his friends to see a weaker side. He's expected to be a pillar of strength. There's a stubbornness that comes with that and as a result he is not able to sympathise with other people."
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The arrival in Camelot of the mysterious young Merlin brings out Arthur's worst side at first.
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"They fall out straight away when Merlin doesn't take too kindly to the way Arthur is treating a servant," he explains.
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"Arthur tends to use brute force and ignorance to get what he wants."
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"His privileged upbringing has an effect on his personality. When you grow up with people deferring to you it has an impact on the way you behave."
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"But Merlin is a catalyst for a change in his behaviour," he says.
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"He sees in Merlin a lot more than he judges at first and it helps him realise the kind of man he could become," he explains.
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A sports fanatic, James admits he has had the time of his life working on Merlin.
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"The workload has been very intense. The sword work was the thing I enjoyed the most. They were the most fun sequences. I think that's why they hired me. I look like I can run fast and swing a sword around with conviction," he smiles.
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It was a steep learning curve, he admits. "On the first day I found myself holding a sword with Will Mellor charging at me like a maniac. It was like being thrown in at the deep end," he says.
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"I learned on the job from the brilliant stunt director Andreas Petrides. He was fantastic. He made the whole thing quite easy."
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James picked up more than his share of injuries during filming.
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"I managed to pick up a bruise most days. I still have a couple of scratches on my arm from Will Mellor. It makes you feel like you are a big warrior hero suffering for his art," he smiles.
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