Plot
The legend of King Arthur, this time, from the perspective of the King's Wizard, Merlin. Merlin is a creature born of pagan magic, living in a world converting to Christianity. Merlin is beside Arthur as he gains Excalibur, builds Camelot and is betrayed by his wife, Guinevere. Merlin and Arthur are both menaced by the plots of Morgan Le Fey, her son by Arthur, Mordred, and their cohorts. Through it all, Merlin tries to keep Arthur from the destructive path set by fate.
Keywords: 5th-century, 6th-century, adventure-hero, arthurian-legend, barbarian, battle, battlefield, betrayal, black-magic, blood-on-snow
The most magical adventure of all time.
Imagine a world where dreams come true...and magic is real.
Merlin: How are you Frik?::Frik: Over-worked and under-paid, how terribly sweet of you to inquire.
Merlin: It's a lovely story. And so are you.
Merlin: They say that when you're unhappy, time crawls by. When you're happy, however... my childhood must have been very happy.
Morgan: Mordred, never be rude! Being rude is weak.
Mordred: Why didn't you kill him, Auntie Mab?::Queen Mab: Because that's what he wanted me to do.
Merlin: You killed her.::Queen Mab: No, I didn't. I only let her die.
Ambrosia: And you can tell Her Royal High and Mighty Queen Mab that magic or no magic, if she harms you in any way, I'll have her guts for my boot laces.
Mordred: Die, dear Auntie Mab? That's the last thing I shall do.
Queen Mab: Don't die!::Mordred: Die? That is the last thing I shall do.::[dies]::Queen Mab: No... [roars]
Lady of the Lake: It's human to make mistakes Merlin, and part of you is human, the best part.
Plot
During the times of King Arthur, the story of an adventurous brave girl, named Kayley, whose father, a Knight of the Round Table, is killed by Sir Ruber, a maniacal brute who steals Excalibur and ultimately threatens to seize King Arthur's Camelot. Kayley enlists the blind, reclusive knight-aspirant Garrett and a young blind hermit and a goofy two headed dragon to brave the Enchanted Forest and retrieve the magic sword, and their adventure is also of course fraught with danger.
Keywords: adventurer, ambush, animal-human-communication, attack, axe, based-on-novel, battle, battlefield, black-magic, blame
Devon & Cornwall: A two-headed dragon with an identity crisis.
Garrett & Kayley: A noble warrior and a brave girl find the magical sword.
Bladebeak: A fearful chicken runs afowl.
Ruber: An evil knight gives nobility a bad name.
Bladebeak: You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel - clucky? Well, do ya... punk?
[Trying to start a fire with two sticks]::Cornwall: Come on, baby, light my fire...::Devon: You know, there's nothing more pathetic than a flame-retarded dragon.
Devon: Anyway, cheer up. When we get to Camelot, we'll be kissed by the world's most beautiful women.::Cornwall: Yeah, we're a giant talking lizard with two heads. We're gonna have to beat them off with a stick.
Devon: Enchanté, mademoiselle. I'm Devon, and this growth on my neck is Cornwall.::Cornwall: But you can call me Corny for short.
Cornwall: Eh, you're better off without him. He walks funny. He even looks funny. People'd throw darts at him.::Devon: How can you be so cold-blooded?::Cornwall: I'm a reptile.
Kayley: Are you *sure* this is dragon country? I mean, shouldn't there be a sign or something? It could say, 'Welcome to Dragon Country.'... You don't think we'll *see* any... do you?... Is a group of dragons a pack or a flock? Is it a gaggle or a pride? Is it a herd?::Garrett: Quiet.::Kayley: Do you hear something?::Garrett: No, I just want you to be quiet.
Bladebeak: Dragon a la king. It's such a pleasant change from - -chicken?
Garrett: What are you?::Devon: Frankly, we're the reason cousins shouldn't marry.
Kayley: You *saved* my life! Thank you!::Garrett: Well, everyone makes mistakes sometimes.::Kayley: Oh, I get it. This is where King Arthur sends his unfunny jesters, right?::Garrett: And now I'll thank you...::Kayley: For what?::Garrett: For reminding me why I'm a hermit. Good day!
Garrett: [singing] I know the sound of each rock and stone./ I embrace what others fear./ You are not to roam in this forgotten place./ Just the likes of me are welcome here./ Everything breathes and I know each breath./ For me it means life, for others it's death/ Perfectly balanced,/ Perfectly planned,/ More than enough for this man.
Plot
Lear is an aging King who wants to retire by abdicating to his three daughters. However, in an act of petty ego stroking, he asks them who among them loves him most. While two daughters eagerly toady to him, his one loving daughter, Cordelia, refuses play along with this foolish charade. In a rage, Lear exiles her along with his one loyal aide who dares to stick up for her. This foolish move works to Lear's sorrow as his two remaining daughters cruelly and gradually strip him of his status and possessions until he is rendered an insane hermit attended only by his fool. All the while, the illegitimate son of another lord is plotting his own ambitions while contributing to this tragic tale of ego and familial cruelty.
Keywords: abandonment, ambition, banishment, based-on-play, betrayal, blindness, brother-murders-brother, character-name-in-title, craziness, cruelty
King Lear: How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!
Kent: Fellow, I know thee.::Oswald: What dost thou know me for?::Kent: A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deny'st the least syllable of thy addition.
King Lear: You do me wrong to take me out of the grave. Thou art a soul in bliss.
Gloucester: As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.
King Lear: Ay, every inch a king.
King Lear: I know you do not love me, For your sisters have, as I remember, done me wrong. You have some cause; they have not.::Cordelia: No cause, no cause.
Edmund: Now gods, stand up for bastards.
Plot
The myth of King Arthur brought once again to the screen. Uthur Pendragon is given the mystical sword Excalibur by the wizard Merlin. At his death Uthur buries the sword into a stone, and the next man that can pull it out will be King of England. Years later Arthur, Uthur's bastard son draws Excalibur and becomes king. Guided by Merlin, Arthur marries Guenivere and gathers the Knights of the Round Table. Arthur's evil half-sister Morgana sires a son with him, who may prove his downfall.
Keywords: 5th-century, 6th-century, adultery, affection, anger, armor, arthurian-legend, assumed-identity, attraction, axe
No mortal could possess it! No kingdom could command it!
Forged by a god. Foretold by a wizard. Found by a king.
Arthur: Now, once more, I must ride with my knights to defend what was, and the dream of what could be.
Merlin: STAND BACK! Be silent! Be still!... That's it... and look upon this moment. Savor it! Rejoice with great gladness! Great gladness! Remember it always, for you are joined by it. You are One, under the stars. Remember it well, then... this night, this great victory. So that in the years ahead, you can say, 'I was there that night, with Arthur, the King!' For it is the doom of men that they forget.
Arthur: Move aside! This is the king's road - and the knights you joined arms against were his very own.::Lancelot: I await the king himself. His knights are in need of training.::Arthur: I am King. And this::[draws the sword]::Arthur: , is Excalibur, sword of kings from the dawn of time. Who are you? What do you seek?::Lancelot: I am Lancelot of the Lake, from across the sea. And I have yet to find a king worthy of my sword.::Arthur: That is a wild boast. You lack a knight's humility!::Lancelot: Not a boast, sir. But a curse. For I have never met my match in joust or duel.::Arthur: Move aside!::Lancelot: I will not. You must retreat, or prove your worth in the test of arms under the eyes of God.::Arthur: Then may He give me the strength to unhorse you. And send you with one blow, back across the sea.::Lancelot: Then come across, sir.
Uther: The sword. You promised me the sword.::Merlin: And you shall have it; but to heal, not to hack. Tomorrow, a truce; we meet at the river.::Uther: Talk. Talk is for lovers, Merlin. I need the sword to be king.
Merlin: Now look, I once stood exposed to the Dragon's Breath so that a man could lie one night with a woman. It took me nine moons to recover. And all for this lunacy called, "love", this mad distemper that strikes down both beggar and king. Never again. Never.
[Arthur has broken Excalibur on Lancelot's chest]::Arthur: Merlin! What have I done?::Merlin: You have broken what could not be broken! Now, hope is broken.::Arthur: My pride broke it. My rage broke it! This excellent knight, who fought with fairness and grace, was meant to win. I used Excalibur to change that verdict. I've lost, for all time, the ancient sword of my fathers, whose power was meant to unite all men... not to serve the vanity of a single man. I am... nothing.
Arthur: Merlin, where are you going?::Merlin: Where do you think? You have a kingdom to rule.::Arthur: But how? I don't know how.::Merlin: You knew how to draw the sword from the stone.::Arthur: That was easy.::Merlin: Was it? I couldn't have done it.
Merlin: It is a lonely life, the way of the necromancer... oh, yes. Lacrimae Mundi - the tears of the world.
Merlin: Remember, there's always something cleverer than yourself.
Merlin: You're not listening... well, your heart is not. Love is deaf as well as blind. That's it.
Plot
The Shakespeare tragedy that gave us the expression "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child." King Lear has not one but two ungrateful children, and it's especially galling because he turned over his entire kingdom to them. Paul Scofeld is an ancient, imposing shell of a Lear tormented by his too-long life as well as by daughters he calls "untatural hags." At one point, the king looks his eldest daughter, Goneril (Ireme Worth), straight in the eye and declares, "Thou art a boil, a plague-sore, of embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood." These are the troubles not even the best-trained family counselor could ever hope to resolve.
Keywords: banishment, based-on-play, battle, betrayal, blindness, brother, castle, character-name-in-title, court-jester, curse
Plot
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
Keywords: based-on-play, character-name-in-title, foreign-language-adaptation, shakespeare's-king-lear, tragedy
Plot
Young man comes home to get ready to take over the family company, only to find that his father has been corrupted by power. In addition, he falls for the daughter of one of his father's poverty-stricken workers.
Keywords: family-company
A DARING STORY OF LOVE AND INTRIGUE! (original print ad - all caps)
Cornwall ( /ˈkɔrnwɔːl/ or /ˈkɔrnwəl/;Cornish: Kernow [ˈkɛrnɔʊ]; Latin: Cornubia or Cornuvia) is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of 537,400 and covers an area of 3,563 km2 (1,376 sq mi). The administrative centre and only city is Truro.
The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age peoples, and later (in the Iron Age) by Brythons with distinctive cultural relations to neighbouring Wales and Brittany. There is little evidence that Roman rule was effective west of Exeter and few Roman remains have been found. Cornwall was a division of the Dumnonii tribe—whose tribal centre was in the modern county of Devon—known as the Cornovii, separated from Wales after the Battle of Deorham, often coming into conflict with the expanding English kingdom of Wessex before King Athelstan in AD 936 set the boundary between English and Cornish at the Tamar. From the early Middle Ages, British language and culture was apparently shared by Brythons trading across both sides of the Channel, evidenced by the corresponding high medieval Breton kingdoms of Domnonee and Cornouaille and the Celtic Christianity common to both territories.
Sir David Frederick Attenborough ( /ˈætənbərə/) OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA (born 8 May 1926) is a British broadcaster and naturalist.
His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years. He is best known for writing and presenting the nine Life series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, which collectively form a comprehensive survey of all life on the planet. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s.
Attenborough is widely considered a national treasure in Britain, although he himself does not care for the term. He is a younger brother of director, producer and actor Richard Attenborough.
Attenborough was born in Isleworth, west London, but grew up in College House on the campus of the University College, Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was principal. He is the middle of three sons (his elder brother, Richard, became an actor and his younger brother, John, an executive at Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo). During World War II his parents also adopted two Jewish refugee girls from Europe.
As the hound obeys the hunters' horn call
So I'm called back home to Cornwall
For that's where my heart lies buried
'Neath the standing stone
Where a white cross on a black field standing
Proudly waves above the landing place
Beneath the rugged cliffs of Cornwall, my true love
Broken images of memories awaken in my bones
When I do recall the land I left behind that was my home
Sailing out from Falmouth bay way back in nineteen-eighty-three
Green behind the ears, just fifteen years of age, well that was me
Like a fool searching for freedom, roving further far and wide
I set out but I did not return upon the running tide
Where the timeless cliffs resound with mournful echoes of the cries
Of fearless seabirds chasing storm clouds though the silver sky
From the all-night clubs of west Berlin to lonely Pyrenees
From chaotic squats in Amsterdam to New World 'cross the sea
From the forests of New Hampshire to the streets of London Town
Though I loved each place, I could not stay, forever homeward bound
Where the gorse and foxglove dance and sway upon the rolling moors
And the sea wind blow her emerald kiss from north to southern shore
Where a song of stone sings out in-tune to transatlantic waves
If I could but hear that song again, my soul it would be saved
When I die as we must do one and all
Send my body home to Cornwall
Place my bones down with my heart
Beneath the standing stone
Put white cross on black field standing
On my coffin then I'll finally rest in peace