Hollywood Avalon, Episode 35 – “The Queen’s Knight”/”Maid of Somerset”

The Hollywood Avalon logo, a drawing a green hill with stone steps leading up to a castle tower, with Hollywood Avalon written on the hill and Mary vs the Movies written against a colorful sky.

We return to the 1950s tv series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot with two episodes:

Episode 3, “The Queen’s Knight”, which takes some inspiration from Chretien de Troyes’ Lancelot, le Chevalier de la charrette as well as Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, with Guinevere abducted by Mordred and Lancelot disguising himself as a peasant driving a cart in order to rescue her.

Episode 20, “Maid of Somerset”, where the people of Cheddar, famed for its cheese, are subjected to the cruel king Meliot, who sells his people into slavery, until Lancelot conspires with the peasants to conduct an uprising against the king.

Both episodes are interesting in how they utilize Arthurian legend in order to tell more egalitarian stories, with common people frequently pointing out that all these knights and kings never have to deal with the pains and humiliations they live under.

Starring William Russell, Cyril Smith, Bruce Seton, Jane Hylton, and Patricia Kneale. Written by Leslie Poynton (episode 3); Selwyn Jepson (episode 20). Directed by Ralph Smart; Bernard Knowles.

Black and white still of medieval or whenever people around a table. One man has a crown on his head, one is very much a knight.

Preview here: https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/hollywood-avalon-ep-35-the-queens-knightmaid-of-somerset

This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.

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