Merlin: Secrets and Magic Season 1 Episode 12

Katie McGrath: Asa Butterfield is back. Mordred returns. I was so excited when I read that script. He is one of my favourite actors to work with.

Joseph Mawle: Mordred is probably the most important character in this episode. He is kind of like the ultimate prophet for the pagans.

Johnny Capps: Asa [Butterfield] is this very, very interesting and intriguing young actor. The camera just absolutely loves his face and he has this amazing screen presence which was so captivating that it just seemed obvious to cast him in the first place.

Joseph Mawle: (About Asa Butterfield) In a way he is amazing, he blew me off the screen. He is just so natural, very comfortable. When we're studying lines he'll be reading a completely different book and just nail it, every time.

Johnny Capps: (About Mordred) He is just this really enigmatic figure that we keep bringing back, that's the sort of challenge and is a catalyst for a lot of Morgana's behaviour.

Colin Morgan: Merlin is given the knowledge that Morgana is destined, her destiny is to hold an alliance with Mordred who's destiny I know is to bring about the dying of Arthur and to see her being so close to Mordred and have a strange affection for him, being drawn towards him I can see her destiny kick in place. And knowing that those two paths are joining is something that is extremely disturbing for Merlin to see.

Julian Murphy: At the heart of the legend is the mother-son relationship between Morgana and Mordred and we've kept that, we have built around a mother-son relationship between Morgana and Mordred. He is not her son but they have the same quality of relationship and the same bond so I think that's still dramatically very interesting.

Johnny Capps: The challenge that Morgana has is that she is tempted to the dark side through circumstances not because she is essentially an evil person.

Katie McGrath: (About Morgana) Because she is more accepting of who she is, she has more strength to do the things that she believes to and she doesn't back down which is great for her but not so good for Uther. The thing you need to remember about Morgana is she is been brought up in a kingdom where magic is banned and to use magic means death and she's slowly realizing that she is magical and what that means to her, and she doesn't want to be, she is scared, she doesn't know what it is, she can't control it.

Joseph Mawle: There is a beautiful scene between Morgana and Alvarr in the den and for me that is the most poignant scene in the part.

Julian Murphy: I think in Morgana's eyes now there's a world that accepts magic that she believes in and Uther's world that rejects it.

Johnny Capps: (About Morgana) She is attracted to Alvarr because he seems to offer her hope and an identity and a life where she could be accepted.

Julian Murphy: There is a little romantic hint, they are attracted to each other, especially Morgana to him. I think he is perhaps cynically using that to get her to do what he wants, but yes, there's a little freeze in there. It is about time we did something with Morgana in that sense.

Katie McGrath: (About Angel Coulby in her role of Gwen) She gets all the men, it's not fair! Morgana gets nothing! I get powers, great. I get frogs, brilliant. But no men.

Johnny Capps: Katie [McGrath] is always saying she never gets the men but I never really thought that, I was thinking that everybody in the court all seems to be very attracted to Morgana, I always thought she gets a lot of attention but it made me laugh that Katie think she didn't get much male attraction.

Joseph Mawle: (Asked if Alvarr is really attracted to Morgana) I dunno. Is a yes something? We'll see what happens.

Johnny Capps: (About Morgana) We wanted to see her fall in love, and we wanted again to see her fall in love with the wrong person and Alvarr is a very charismatic leader of this magic rebellion who is completely manipulating her and I think that adds to the tragedy of the story and hopefully the audience will sympathetic to why she turns to the dark side.

Johnny Capps: The challenges for any of the fight sequences are that you always have a short space of time.

Andreas Petrides: Obviously the more rehearsal time you get the better, so the time I do get we gotta make sure that works and I put a lot of time in what needs to be done. It's good to get as much time as you can to go through and know the routines, everybody knows exactly what they are doing, nobody is making it up, it's all choreographed.

Joseph Mawle: (About the fighting scenes) We just work out what the character are like, for instance if you are a stealthier mover then the moves will be more stealthy. He [Andreas Petrides, the stunt coordinator] plans the fight to make sure it works for his characters and not just tipping and tapping but there's actual sense of work up on the body you are going for and what you are trying to do to the other person rather than purely make some noise and clash some blades. Luckily, the stunt guys are fantastic.

Andreas Petrides: Bradley [James] is great. He's put a lot of time and that helps me tremendously. He's somebody who is really enthusiastic, really physical.

(Bradley is using a portable fan to refresh himself while shooting sword fight scenes)
Katie McGrath: So Bradley, you're pretty hot?
Bradley James: Erm… in a temperature sense, yes.
Katie McGrath: And in no other sense you don't think no?
Bradley James: That's not for me to decide.

Narrator: That might be the first time we've seen a royal blush.