Merlin (Seasons 1–5)

Merlin (2008) is a BBC One fantasy adventure series — watch online on iFILM. Colin Morgan plays a young Merlin arriving in Camelot with a gift he must never show, while Bradley James is the arrogant Prince Arthur who has no idea the scrappy new servant is destined to shape his entire reign.

King Uther Pendragon, played by Anthony Stewart Head, has been executing sorcerers for two decades. Magic is a death sentence in Camelot — which makes Merlin's situation awkward from the first episode. Below the castle, a Great Dragon is chained in the dark and tells Merlin the same thing every time: protect Arthur, and wait. Gwen works in the household. Morgana lives under the king's roof with secrets of her own. What starts as a light adventure series slowly turns into something heavier, and by the fifth season the show earns its ending. Sixty-five episodes, five years, 2008 to 2012 on BBC One.

The series takes the Arthurian legend and rebuilds it from the beginning: no Excalibur pulled from stone in episode one, just two young men who can't stand each other learning, one crisis at a time, that neither can do this without the other. Stream every episode of Merlin online on iFILM.