characters in Knightmare
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Ive always wondered how and why there wre so many characters that came and lasted 1 series and those who lasted years. Ive always wondered why Tim decided to get rid of Mogdred and Morghana/Malice and replace them with fear. i wish Mogdred had had more exposure in s 4 as it was quite an easy season in comparison. but i did enjoy all aspects of opposition be it fear or mogdred
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Mogdred & Merlin were got rid of because TC always felt that they were far too derivative i.e. a direct lift from Arthurian mythology. Lord Fear was used as a replacement to satirise the technological revolution.
One-season characters were usually gotten rid of simply because a lot of them didn't seem to work very well and often the audience didn't like them very much e.g. Gwendoline, Fidjit, Romanha. Although that does lead you to wonder why the likes of Mildread and Mrs Grimwold, who were both quite popular, only got one season each, and Casper the Key appeared in two...
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With a few exceptions, we have no hard facts about why certain characters didn't last longer. Merlin/Mogdred are two of those exceptions; this vintage thread quotes Tim Child's exact words on the matter, and has some interesting discussion of them too.
David Learner spoke about Pickle's departure when interviewed in 2002; it's here.
Edmund Dehn has also spoken in interview about his departure; Q5 here.
Perhaps in some cases, the actors were only given one-year contracts so as to maintain variety. Without appropriate inside information, we can only speculate.
i wish Mogdred had had more exposure in s 4
I agree. While I don't think Mogdred would have worked as one of the Level 1 eyeshield bargain-strikers, a few Level 2 appearances by him, similar to his apparent scene with Ross & McGrew in Series 3, might have done a lot to enhance Series 4.
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Regarding characters that were supposed to be parodies of political situations of the time...
These days one of the concerns facing manufacturers in the western world is the competition from China, where (despite the Amnesty International official viewpoint) there are people actually willing to work long hours for little pay to churn out cheap goods for us in the developed world, possibly because that small pay by our standards goes a lot further in China than it does here, and then there's the official "all work and no play makes a good Communist Party member" mantra, where the state always comes first, etc etc etc... you see what I'm getting at.
Was this as much of a concern in 1992, when we saw Julius Scaramonger (note: a Brummie who may possibly have been a satire of the striking British Leyland worker from the eighties) lose all his trade to Ah Wok?
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I like that idea. I get the feeling that I missed, and am still missing, a lot of KM's political/topical satire, so I really welcome theories like that. Then again, it's also possible that Ah Wok was created simply so that Mark Knight could muck about in a funny accent, and that Scaramonger's business troubles were Tim Child's attempt to run the character into the ground prior to Rayner Bourton's departure.
I like to add one more thing about Mrs Grimwold not appearing afterwards...
Didn't she got eaten by Festas in the last episode of Knightmare series 3?
She was clearly having a Mrs. G spot of bother with Festus - but we never saw her die. And the references to the Grimwolds in Series 6 suggest that the family unit remained intact. On the Knightmare Roleplay Forum, at least, Mrs. Grimwold's still alive and well. The 'Characters' Demise' thread, which contains further speculation on characters meeting their ends, might be of interest.
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I was always peeved that we never saw Gundrada after series 4. None of the maidens that followed (Romana, Stiletta, Gwendoline) were as entertaining. Gundrada was very funny and Samantha Perkins was a confident actor and great at improvising!
Dungeoneer: Maidens shouldn't fight with swords!
Gundrada: Yes but I'm a big strong maiden with huge muscles!
Yeah, she was a good character but sadly only lasted one series.... and of course in losing Gundrada we also lost Malice, SP's other part in Knightmare. Totally different to Gundrada, and again played superbly. Malice was terrifyingly menacing, not only when she meant harm, but also (even moreso) when she was being faux-nice.
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The biggest travesty was that Fatilla only lasted one series. I found him hilarious.
"I'm gonna blip yer. Then I'm gonna blop yer!"
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I agree that malice, gundrada and especially fatilla were crutial characters to s 4 Malice did a great job chasing Dickon and friends and fatilla bought that new comedy element. fatilla could have easily hve been part of it
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