The Adventures of Sir Lancelot

"The Adventures of Sir Lancelot" is one of that stream of 1950s historical drama series that also included 'The Adventures of Robin Hood', 'William Tell', 'Sir Francis Drake' 'The Buccaneers' and 'Ivanhoe'. Probably aimed primarily at boys aged 8 - 14, they were good fun though frequently limited in scope. They embraced a mixture of history with myth and legend, historical accuracy frequently being non-existent although, frankly, this really didn't matter. It was all about the good guys beating the bad guys, British versions of the plethora of US series that centred on cowboys and Indians.

Viewed as products of their time they were all decent enough - I certainly remember enjoying them all, which may not be so surprising when one considers that the principal characters were often played by actors who were already, or later became, well known. Younger generations may well find all of these series far too dull and stagy for their tastes, having been brought up on a diet of loud and flashy imagery, but for those whose introduction to television was in the black and white days of the 1950s, they still have merit.

"The Adventures of Sir Lancelot" wasn't the best, but it's still worth a score of at least 5 and I'll give it 6 out of nostalgia..

Our family loves Sir Lancelot, and are sorry that there was not a season 2 made. We are pleasantly surprised by the color episodes in the 2nd half of the 1st and only season. My 6-yr old daughter loves these episodes. She takes sword and shield and gets her friends and infants to place the Caledon (Lancelot's horse), Brian (Lancelot's squire), King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. The episodes are fast-paced and open with a scene that usually immediately sets up the story. The story- lines are for the most part good for children. The humor is pleasant. When you watch them in close succession, its easy to pick up on the actors who play multiple people during the series, townspeople, villains, and friends. The theme song is wonderful. The main untenable thing in terms of story lines that stands out as totally untenable, is the fact that the other knights of the round table never want to fight. So, the task always falls to Sir Lancelot.

A bygone era for TV series for sure. If you like these, you will also like Robin Hood, William Tell, and the Buccaneer.

Sir Lancelot was one of a series of cheaply made but highly crafted TV shows made for the new ITV network in England in the 1950s These were all set in medieval times and even as a child at the time I was amazed by how similar they were. Among these shows were "Robin Hood" starring Richard Greene Sir Lancelot (William Russell" William Tell (Conrad Phillips) Ivanhoe (Roger Moore who later became a James Bond) and Richard the Lionheart (Dermot Walsh)

As they were made on a shoestring, props and uniforms and "extra actors" tended to appear and reappear in the shows. One money saving device was castle parts on wheels which could be rearranged to make it seem that there were several castles in the one show

I remember watching this television series as a child. I fell in love with Sir Lancelot (naturally!) and this program encouraged my lifelong interest in King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table.

Since this series there have been numerous versions in film of the story of Arthur and his Queen Guinevere, the castle Camelot and those chivalrous Knights. Strangely enough none are ever the same but they are all based on the original legends of Arthur. This series had a fresh adventure for Sir Lancelot each week - whether it was rescuing damsels in distress or joining his fellow Knights in battle. The acting and the production values were very good for the time - everyone dressed in suitable period outfits. Then Sir Lancelot admired his Queen from a distance - there was never a hint of an affair as this was a children's program! The settings always looked very authentic and for Camelot itself no doubt a real castle was used - there are plenty of them in the UK.

I'm not sure who it was who said that the most important historical fact in the 20th century is that the UK and the USA spoke the same language, albeit very differently.

As in our first full decade of television, in the fifties, the British went back to their past and crafted a nice series of adventure programs for the kids and occasionally the grownups. We in American had westerns, over in the UK I guess you could call them "medievalers."

Although The Adventures of Robin Hood was the most popular, probably due to the presence of Richard Greene who had a good list of film credits and was popular here before, other shows got exposure in America at that time.

The Sir Lancelot show was one of those. I had a play collection of knights at the time this came out. William Russell was a stalwart Sir Lancelot who did battle with all kinds of villainy for 30 minutes every week. I used to repeat those programs with my knights.

It was good to see those shows then, it gave Americans a fine appreciation of British culture.