The Adventures of Sir Lancelot

Looking back on these episodes of the Sir Lancelot legend, it recalls fond memories of a more innocent age, when TV series such as this one, and Robin Hood, William Tell, the Buccaneers etc, etc were king. Nowadays, the obvious budget restrictions on the production are clearly apparent but hey, who cares, it is still a marvellous little series. It has lots of plus points - joyous and carefree adventure, authentic settings, neat story lines, strong ensemble cast, and a splendidly energetic Sir Lancelot, played by that fine actor William Russell. Highly recommended for children and adults alike, and in many ways makes one wish for the values of an age gone by to return.

OBVIOUSLY DONE ON a less than grand scale, this juvenile series representation of 'Life in Camelot' gave our 1950's television viewing a little break from all of those Westerns. Based on those Mythic , Tales and the Arthurian Legend, the series owns a limb on the same family tree as CAMELOT, Excalibur and Hal Foster's Newspaper Strip of PRINCE VALIANT.

TAKING THE SPOTLIGHT away from Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin and Gallahad and the other boys, Sir Lancelot became the main character (obviously, duh!) and the various stories revolved around his Knoghtly deeds; as well as how a Knight of the Round Table handles the everyday problems that plague all of us.

WE WELL RECALL one episode in which a young, beautiful Princess fell for Lancelot; even though she was betrothed to some other nobleman. The show centers on his efforts to portray himself as an ignorant buffoon; in order to put back on track to marry the other, younger guy.

THE SUPPORTING CAST was at least adequate for representing the employees of the Camelot Castle. Arthur looked regal, Guinevere stately and the other Knights appeared to fill out their rank well. Sir Kay, a portly chap, was used in comic relief. Only Merlin looked in authentic to us; being a skinny white bearded guy in a bath robe and 'dunce cap!'

WE DON'T REMEMBER the name of the actor who portrayed Lance, but we do remember that he was a rather handsome, noble looking sort. Our older sister, Joanne, who was in High School by then, said that he was cute.

WELL, THAT'S GOOD enough for us!

"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..

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.

Tough and brave Lancelot fights his way to a place in Arthur's Court, becoming a Knight of The Round Table. Sir Lancelot of The Lake battles rogue kings, vikings, doppelgangers and saves many a damsel in distress.

William Russell shines as Sir Lancelot, just a few years before he'd become known to millions of fans in Doctor Who, he started as Sir Lancelot. Handsome, brave, fearless and true, there is no challenge the brave knight won't take on.

Solid stories, solid acting, an adventure series from the 1950's, it rivals, but isn't perhaps as good as The Robin Hood series, but it's definitely watchable.

It has appeal to viewers young and old, sword fights and action sequences aplenty, plus some wry humour. Some of the fight sequences look dodgy at best, sometimes they turned out well.

The costumes, though perhaps not accurate, looked splendid. I liked the location work also, considering they made this on a small budget, they did a fine job.

When it switches to colour, it looks and feels so very different, I understand it was done for The US market, most of them are in black and white however.

Episode quality does vary, the best of the lot for me, Sir Crustsbread, it's hilarious, and features some very strong characters, Lancelot really does meet his match.

A real shame that only one series was made, I think it improved as time went on, more would have been nice.

7/10.