Knights of God
Encyclopedia
Knights of God was a British
science fiction
children's television
serial
, produced by TVS
and first broadcast on ITV
in 1987. It was written by Richard Cooper, a writer who had previously worked in both children's and adult television drama. Set in the year 2020, it showed a Britain ruled by the Knights of God, a fascist and anti-Christian religious order that came to power during a brutal civil war twenty years previously. It starred George Winter as Gervase Owen Edwards, the Welsh
son of a resistance
leader (Gareth Thomas
), and John Woodvine
as the Prior
Mordrin, leader of the titular cult. Patrick Troughton
played Arthur, the apparent leader of the English
resistance, and Julian Fellowes
played Mordrin's ambitious and ruthless second-in-command, Brother
Hugo.
reported Don Henderson's appearance in the serial in its edition of 14–20 September 1985, accompanied by a photograph of the actor as his character in the programme, stating: "Filmed in Hampshire and North Wales, this vision of a bleak future is set in the year 2020 after Britain has been devastated by civil war." There were two directors credited to the serial, Andrew Morgan (episodes 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12 and 13) and Michael Kerrigan
(episodes 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11), and the executive producer was Anna Home. Music for the series was composed by Christopher Gunning
.
The serial was shown in France by Canal Plus from 7 October to 30 December 1987, under the title Les Épées de feu ("The Swords of Fire"), and subsequently repeated on La Cinq and FR3. It appeared in Germany as 2019 - Die Gnadenlosen Knechte Gottes ("2019 – The Merciless Servants of God"), and a dubbed 210 minute compilation was released on VHS
there. This compilation was also released in Denmark
under its original title, although spread over two tapes. As of October 2010, there has been no domestic video release of the series on any format in the UK.
were supposedly all slaughtered by Hugo (Fellowes). Mordrin has renamed the south of England "Anglia," while the north - which has only now been brought under control - he calls "Northumbria." In between is the "Wasteland", where the remaining resistance fighters - labelled "terrorists" by Mordrin - are still at large. Winchester
is the new capital, as London
was largely destroyed in the war.
Gervase Owen Edwards (Winter) has grown up in Wales, which has finally succumbed to the rule of the Knights, although the resistance led by his father, Owen (Thomas), still operates. When most civilians are interned
, Gervase is sent to a "re-education and training camp," initially accompanied by Owen disguised as a Knight, who tells him that it is important that he lives. During the journey, Gervase meets an English girl, Julia Clarke (Parker).
Mordrin becomes obsessed with the idea of destroying the leader of all the resistance to him, and when Gervase is identified as Owen's son, Mordrin threatens to execute Julia unless he denounces his father and joins the Knights of God. After he agrees, Mordrin uses mind-altering drugs to place the post-hypnotic suggestion
in Gervase's mind that he should seek out and destroy the Prior's "greatest enemy." He is then released, ostensibly to be allowed to find Julia, who has escaped from the camp. Unknown to Gervase, Mordrin needs Julia alive as well, as she is the daughter of Brigadier
Clarke, the senior officer in the Coldstream Guards
, the last remnant of the British Army
, which has been allowed to survive for ceremonial purposes. Meanwhile, Hugo plots to taken over from Mordrin, and sends his own agents to intercept and kill Gervase.
After Gervase finds Julia, they are ambushed and captured by English resistance fighters led by Colley (Henderson). Gervase is then put on trial for killing one of Colley's men during the ambush, and is found guilty and sentenced to death. Owen threatens to use his own men to free his son, but Arthur - who it is revealed is Mordrin's father (shades of King Arthur and Sir Mordred) - intercedes and publicly banishes Gervase to the Wasteland, while secretly tasking him with finding the one surviving member of the Royal Family - a King to unite the country against the Knights. Mordrin becomes increasingly paranoid, and secretly plans to declare himself King, and even has a new crown made.
Realising the threat Hugo represents, Mordrin has him arrested, but he escapes to London as dissident Knights flock to join him. Gervase and Julia travel to Canterbury
, an enclave where the Christian Church is allowed to survive. Mordrin issues orders for them to be intercepted, but they are "captured" and taken into the city by Brigadier Clarke and his men, disguised as Knights.
It is revealed that Gervase himself is the King, and it is only his love for Julia that prevents him from obeying Mordrin's command by killing himself. Hugo's faction attacks Mordrin's headquarters, and the resistance - bolstered by the defecting Coldstream Guards - prepares to finish off whoever is left. Owen slips away, having previously vowed to kill Mordrin for what he did to Gervase, but is shot and injured in the battle between the Knights. Hugo corners Mordrin, but is killed himself, and the Prior escapes with his crown into surrounding forest. As he prepared to place the crown on his own head, Mordrin is shot by the mortally-injured Owen, who then himself dies. When the battle is over, Arthur takes the crown from Mordrin's dead hand and presents it to Gervase, telling him to rule wisely.
Richard Cooper's novel based on the same storyline was published around the time of the UK television screenings. The narrative generally follows that of the TV serial, the major exception being that Nell is not shot during the firefight at the cottage. Instead Arthur leads her, Gervase and Julia to the Resistance HQ in the Wasteland. Since Gervase and Julia are not then tracked by Colley and his men, culminating in the death of Fenn in the ambush, Gervase is put on trial solely for having joined the Order and denounced Owen. At the climax of the story, Mordrin is shot by the mortally wounded Owen inside the Knights' chapel at the headquarters, rather than in the surrounding forest. These differences and other details - such as that the Knights wear black but otherwise conventional battledress
- suggest that the book was written before production and that the television script was therefore expanded to fit the desired length.
The novel also contains much additional detail about the world of 2020 and the Civil War, such as Ireland
as a whole having become an American state
, and the source of much of the rebels' supplies, despite an official arms embargo
.
The Civil war was caused by the breakdown of law and order caused by high unemployment of ten million. The Knights launched a coup but the Royal Family fled to the North which rose in revolt against the coup and the City of York
where the final battle of the war was fought. The infant Gervase was smuggled out of the burning city, while all the other members of the family were killed.
It is mentioned that whilst Hugo uses his position to secure personal luxuries, and especially alcohol, Mordin is a teetotal vegetarian, with hints that he suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder. It is also clarified that a reaction to the religious trappings of the Order has been in a unification of all Christian faiths, with many believing that Mordrin himself is actually the Antichrist
. Gervase is explicitly identified as King Edward IX, a name he finds acceptable for its similarity to his assumed surname of Edwards.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
children's television
Children's television series
Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...
serial
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
, produced by TVS
Television South
Television South was the ITV franchise holder in the south and south east of England between 1 January 1982 and 31 December 1992. The company operated under various names, initially as Television South plc and then following reorganisation in 1989 as TVS Entertainment plc, with its UK...
and first broadcast on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in 1987. It was written by Richard Cooper, a writer who had previously worked in both children's and adult television drama. Set in the year 2020, it showed a Britain ruled by the Knights of God, a fascist and anti-Christian religious order that came to power during a brutal civil war twenty years previously. It starred George Winter as Gervase Owen Edwards, the Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
son of a resistance
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
leader (Gareth Thomas
Gareth Thomas (actor)
Gareth Thomas is a Welsh actor.Thomas is best known for the part of Roj Blake in the dystopian science fiction television series Blake's 7, but has taken roles in many other films and television programmes, including Adam Brake in Children of the Stones.Thomas trained at RADA and is now an...
), and John Woodvine
John Woodvine
John Woodvine is an English stage and screen actor who has appeared in more than 70 theatre productions, as well as a similar number of television and film roles.-Early life:...
as the Prior
Prior
Prior is an ecclesiastical title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses.-Monastic superiors:A Prior is a monastic superior, usually lower in rank than an Abbot. In the Rule of St...
Mordrin, leader of the titular cult. Patrick Troughton
Patrick Troughton
Patrick George Troughton was an English actor most widely known for his roles in fantasy, science fiction and horror films, particularly in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 to 1969,...
played Arthur, the apparent leader of the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
resistance, and Julian Fellowes
Julian Fellowes
Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, DL , known as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, as well as a Conservative peer.-Early life:...
played Mordrin's ambitious and ruthless second-in-command, Brother
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
Hugo.
Production
The TV TimesTV Times
TVTimes is a television listings magazine published in the United Kingdom by IPC Media, a subsidiary of Time Warner. It is known for its access to television actors and their programmes. In 2006 it was refreshed for a more modern look, increasing its emphasis on big star interviews and soaps...
reported Don Henderson's appearance in the serial in its edition of 14–20 September 1985, accompanied by a photograph of the actor as his character in the programme, stating: "Filmed in Hampshire and North Wales, this vision of a bleak future is set in the year 2020 after Britain has been devastated by civil war." There were two directors credited to the serial, Andrew Morgan (episodes 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12 and 13) and Michael Kerrigan
Michael Kerrigan
Michael Kerrigan is a British television director noted for directing the The Famous Five TV series and No. 73. He directed the Doctor Who serial Battlefield in 1989...
(episodes 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11), and the executive producer was Anna Home. Music for the series was composed by Christopher Gunning
Christopher Gunning
Christopher Gunning is a British composer of concert works and music for films and television....
.
Broadcast history and availability
The serial received its only UK transmission in the Autumn of 1987, two years after it was made, by which time both Troughton and Nigel Stock – who plays an old ally of Mordrin's – had died. Troughton subsequently worked on other television productions, but they had all been broadcast by the time Knights of God was transmitted (i.e. it was his last transmitted role, not his last filmed or recorded role).The serial was shown in France by Canal Plus from 7 October to 30 December 1987, under the title Les Épées de feu ("The Swords of Fire"), and subsequently repeated on La Cinq and FR3. It appeared in Germany as 2019 - Die Gnadenlosen Knechte Gottes ("2019 – The Merciless Servants of God"), and a dubbed 210 minute compilation was released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
there. This compilation was also released in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
under its original title, although spread over two tapes. As of October 2010, there has been no domestic video release of the series on any format in the UK.
Plot summary
In 2020, Britain is ruled by the Knights of God, a fascist religious order - founded by the Prior Mordrin (Woodvine) - that came to power during a brutal civil war in the year 2000, during which the Royal FamilyBritish Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
were supposedly all slaughtered by Hugo (Fellowes). Mordrin has renamed the south of England "Anglia," while the north - which has only now been brought under control - he calls "Northumbria." In between is the "Wasteland", where the remaining resistance fighters - labelled "terrorists" by Mordrin - are still at large. Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
is the new capital, as London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
was largely destroyed in the war.
Gervase Owen Edwards (Winter) has grown up in Wales, which has finally succumbed to the rule of the Knights, although the resistance led by his father, Owen (Thomas), still operates. When most civilians are interned
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
, Gervase is sent to a "re-education and training camp," initially accompanied by Owen disguised as a Knight, who tells him that it is important that he lives. During the journey, Gervase meets an English girl, Julia Clarke (Parker).
Mordrin becomes obsessed with the idea of destroying the leader of all the resistance to him, and when Gervase is identified as Owen's son, Mordrin threatens to execute Julia unless he denounces his father and joins the Knights of God. After he agrees, Mordrin uses mind-altering drugs to place the post-hypnotic suggestion
Post-hypnotic suggestion
A Post-hypnotic suggestion is a behavior or thinking pattern that presumably will manifest after a subject has come out of the so-called "hypnotic state" .According to a psychologist at the University of New South Wales:...
in Gervase's mind that he should seek out and destroy the Prior's "greatest enemy." He is then released, ostensibly to be allowed to find Julia, who has escaped from the camp. Unknown to Gervase, Mordrin needs Julia alive as well, as she is the daughter of Brigadier
Brigadier
Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....
Clarke, the senior officer in the Coldstream Guards
Coldstream Guards
Her Majesty's Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, also known officially as the Coldstream Guards , is a regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division or Household Division....
, the last remnant of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, which has been allowed to survive for ceremonial purposes. Meanwhile, Hugo plots to taken over from Mordrin, and sends his own agents to intercept and kill Gervase.
After Gervase finds Julia, they are ambushed and captured by English resistance fighters led by Colley (Henderson). Gervase is then put on trial for killing one of Colley's men during the ambush, and is found guilty and sentenced to death. Owen threatens to use his own men to free his son, but Arthur - who it is revealed is Mordrin's father (shades of King Arthur and Sir Mordred) - intercedes and publicly banishes Gervase to the Wasteland, while secretly tasking him with finding the one surviving member of the Royal Family - a King to unite the country against the Knights. Mordrin becomes increasingly paranoid, and secretly plans to declare himself King, and even has a new crown made.
Realising the threat Hugo represents, Mordrin has him arrested, but he escapes to London as dissident Knights flock to join him. Gervase and Julia travel to Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, an enclave where the Christian Church is allowed to survive. Mordrin issues orders for them to be intercepted, but they are "captured" and taken into the city by Brigadier Clarke and his men, disguised as Knights.
It is revealed that Gervase himself is the King, and it is only his love for Julia that prevents him from obeying Mordrin's command by killing himself. Hugo's faction attacks Mordrin's headquarters, and the resistance - bolstered by the defecting Coldstream Guards - prepares to finish off whoever is left. Owen slips away, having previously vowed to kill Mordrin for what he did to Gervase, but is shot and injured in the battle between the Knights. Hugo corners Mordrin, but is killed himself, and the Prior escapes with his crown into surrounding forest. As he prepared to place the crown on his own head, Mordrin is shot by the mortally-injured Owen, who then himself dies. When the battle is over, Arthur takes the crown from Mordrin's dead hand and presents it to Gervase, telling him to rule wisely.
Novelisation
Battledress
Battledress, or fatigues in the general sense, is the type of uniform used as combat uniforms, as opposed to 'display' dress or formal uniform worn at parades and functions. It may be either monochrome or in a camouflage pattern...
- suggest that the book was written before production and that the television script was therefore expanded to fit the desired length.
The novel also contains much additional detail about the world of 2020 and the Civil War, such as Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
as a whole having become an American state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
, and the source of much of the rebels' supplies, despite an official arms embargo
Arms embargo
An arms embargo is an embargo that applies to weaponry. It may also include "dual use" items. An arms embargo may serve one or more purposes:# to signal disapproval of behavior by a certain actor,# to maintain neutral standing in an ongoing conflict, or...
.
The Civil war was caused by the breakdown of law and order caused by high unemployment of ten million. The Knights launched a coup but the Royal Family fled to the North which rose in revolt against the coup and the City of York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
where the final battle of the war was fought. The infant Gervase was smuggled out of the burning city, while all the other members of the family were killed.
It is mentioned that whilst Hugo uses his position to secure personal luxuries, and especially alcohol, Mordin is a teetotal vegetarian, with hints that he suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder. It is also clarified that a reaction to the religious trappings of the Order has been in a unification of all Christian faiths, with many believing that Mordrin himself is actually the Antichrist
Antichrist
The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
. Gervase is explicitly identified as King Edward IX, a name he finds acceptable for its similarity to his assumed surname of Edwards.