King Arthur's Disasters - Characters

Characters

The show uses a stock series of characters drawn from the popular reception of the Arthurian Legend, and whose most notable features demonstrate the influences of 20th century, rather than medieval, incarnations of the knights. The main recurring characters are:

• Arthur (Rik Mayall), the eponymous king whose disasters provide the main plot motivation.
• Guinevere (Morwenna Banks), the archetypal bored princess whom her creators describe as "the Paris Hilton of her generation" (see King Arthur's Disasters home page). While having no intentions of actually marrying Arthur she uses her hold over him to will him into finding her the things she desires; water from the fountain of youth, a winter palace, a golden bear, and so on. In the later episodes, however, she really starts to love Arthur. Guinevere is so self-absorbed sometimes she doesn't even notice Arthur's absence.
• Merlin (Matt Lucas), Arthur's only faithful servant, whose bumbling manner might hide a devious, brilliant mind... or might not.
• Lancelot (Phil Cornwell), Arthur's first knight, who resembles nothing so much as a fusion of James Bond and Terry-Thomas. Holding a grudge since a childhood dispute, Lancelot seeks any occasion to rid himself of Arthur and usurp the vacant throne; a trope which leads him to heartily encourage Arthur's more perilous quests, and recalls Steve Barron's Merlin (film) TV series, transferring the adultery theme to a more 'child-friendly' comic equivalent.
• Lady 'M(Margret), is King Arthur's cunning older sister. She is claimed to live in France.(in the episode Glass Rose, King Arthur stayed at her castle in France)Unknown to Arthur,her brother she is also the famous Sir Margret who is liked by townsfolk.She does thing for the benefit of the townsfolk as seen in Glass Rose. She has come to Arthur and Guinevere's rescues a couple of times in a few episodes as Sir Margret.She made her first appearance in the episode - Glass Rose.
• Robin Hood (Phil Cornwell), a cheery denizen of the forest who (along with his not so merrie men) serves as antagonist to Arthur since an encounter with the Singing Oak Tree and the ruse of a cunning pig... While technically speaking an anachronism (depending on which Arthurian source you prefer), the inclusion of Robin Hood is not without precedent in Arthurian films, since Nathan Juran's Siege of the Saxons included a Robin-esque character, and the backdating of Robin places him within broadly the same time period as Chrétien de Troyes was writing his Arthurian legends (late 12th Century). His voice was based on Tony Blackburn.
• Sir Martyn, a deliberately anachronistic (or perhaps anatopistic) insertion into the legend, perhaps an homage to Akira Kurosawa whose Seven Samurai present a similarity with occidental medieval knights.
• Splag, Arthur's only loyal knight, who is a stocky brute capable of only monosyllabic grunts.