Camlann: Season 1, Episode 9
"Smoke on the Horizon"
Transcript created: 3rd May 2024
Last updated: 3rd May 2024
SHOW NOTES
Content Warnings can be found at the end of the show notes.
Keep the fires burning.
Follow us on social media @camlannpod to stay updated. Share your thoughts with us using #Camlann. If you’d like to support the future of the show, you can do so on Ko-Fi and Patreon.
This is the final episode of Camlann - for now. If you’d like to join us for our finale listen along with Ella, Amber and some of the cast and crew, you can do that on Tin Can Audio’s Twitch from 8-10pm GMT on Monday 6th May 2024. If you missed it, don’t worry - this and all of our livestreams are available to be watched back on Tin Can Audio’s YouTube channel.
The first season of Camlann was made possible with funding from Creative Scotland and the Inevitable Foundation. We’ll be applying for funding to make more. Funding applications do much better if shows have: high listener figures, public reviews, and if they can provide some of their own seed money to get started. So please consider leaving us a review, donating to our Ko-Fi or Patreon @camlannpod, or just telling a friend about the show. We really appreciate it.
The Welsh folk song Dai is humming in this episode is Lisa Lân, a lament for a dead lover.
This episode featured: Tobias Weatherburn as Dai, Angharad Phillips as Morgan, Robyn Holdaway as Perry, Nicole Miners as Gwen (or Shújūn), Paul Warren as Gwaine, Felix Trench as Kay and Pip Gladwin as Arthur. Additional voices were provided by Marc Sollinger, Amber Devereux and the cast. Special thanks to Hobbes the Lion for playing Gelert.
This episode was written and directed by Ella Watts, with original scoring and sound design from Amber Devereux at Tin Can Audio, and additional Music Direction from Alessa Catterall. Our Production Manager is Ross McFarlane.
Special thanks to: Angharad Gilbey, Holly Thwaites Bee, Samuel Thompson, Sara-Luise Edge-Smith, Elizabeth Campbell, Marc Sollinger, Sarah Shachat, David K. Barnes, Rosenkranz Vermilion and Max Degan. We wouldn’t have got here without you.
Diolch yn fawr iawn am wrando. Thank you so much for listening.
Content Warnings: Attempted Mind Control, Loss of Agency, Threatening Behaviour, Strong Language
SCENE 1
[The bonfire crackles. Muffled voices talk animated as if behind glass, swords clash, dogs growl and snap. Moving away from the bonfire, it's warmth fades]
ARTHUR: (shouting, muffled through the barrier) You cannot hide in there forever, witch! You and your magic are nothing to the might of Camelot.
[Moving through the barrier, Arthur's voice becomes clearer.]
[Arthur's voice is masculine with an English accent, speaking in the manner of a posh twenty-something imitating a medieval king.]
ARTHUR: We will rescue our brothers from your tainted clutches. We will cleanse them of the corruption you’ve sown into their minds. You will not steal my knights from me!
[Kay approaches, footsteps crunching through the snow.]
ARTHUR: Kay. What is it?
KAY: No luck, my lord. It seems as if no mortal weapon will breach whatever this is.
ARTHUR: Then you need to try harder. It will fall in time. There is no story in which Morgan Le Fay triumphs over King Arthur.
KAY: Yes, my lord.
[Kay scurries away. Arthur paces for a little longer in front of the shield.]
[With a roar, Arthur takes a swing at the shield with his sword. ]
[With a buzzing hum, The Shield rebuffs him, throwing him backwards through the snow.]
[The Knights react, shocked and confused.]
CONCERNED KNIGHT: My lord!
[Arthur strains as he lifts himself to his feet}
ARTHUR: I’m fine. Focus on the shield.
[Under his breath, Arthur speaks to himself.]
ARTHUR: Everything falls.
SCENE 2
[Inside the cottage, Gwen opens the wooden door to find Dai standing in front of her. Gerelt whines at Dai.]
DAI: Can I see her?
GWEN: Be gentle. Witch of legend or not, a stomach wound is a stomach wound. She’s not going to be able to stand for a while.
DAI: I promise I’ll be careful.
[Gwen leaves. Dai closes the door. Gel whines again.]
MORGAN: (very weak) Hey
[Dai gingerly sits down on the chair beside the bed.]
DAI: Hey...
[pause]
DAI: You scared the shit out of me, you know.
MORGAN: Guess it was my turn for a near-death experience
DAI: Is this what it feels like every time?
MORGAN: Depends. What does it feel like?
DAI: Like I was going to die. Like I couldn’t breathe. I saw you on the floor and it was like the world stopped moving. The universe isn’t supposed to exist without you. But then it did. Suddenly, time was moving again, and everything was happening so fast, and I was looking at a life where I was supposed to pretend to ever be ok with a world without you in it. And I just couldn’t.
MORGAN: Yeah. It always feels like that.
DAI: I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
MORGAN: Hey, it’s ok. You’re just you. Rushing into things headfirst is kind of your thing. You can’t help being who you are.
DAI: I can take responsibility for it, though.
MORGAN: Are you going to tell them?
DAI: I think I have to. After you - when it happened, I kind of blacked out for a minute. When I came to, I’d created this massive shield all around the cottage. It’s like a blue translucent dome. It’s still there. It’s keeping the Knights out for now. Not for lack of trying.
MORGAN: What do you mean ‘kind of blacked out’?
DAI: It was like I was drowning. Or burning up. Suddenly I was just being consumed. It felt like a hurricane. I’d lost control and whatever it was, it was going to use me up and spit me out. It was like riding some massive beast. At any moment it would shake me off.
And then suddenly it just clicked. I could feel the earth. Through the floorboards, through the walls, through the foundations of this cottage, I could feel all the way down to the mud underneath it, and the worms in the soil. And then I could feel everything - every inch of dirt from Land’s End to John O’Groats, every flower and tree and insect. All of it. A whole universe of life waiting to spring when summer comes. It was like muscle memory. I just pulled.
MORGAN: So the land gave you a shield?
DAI: I think so. I think maybe everything everywhere has always had a bit of magic in it, and the Cataclysm just made it easier to see.
MORGAN: That’s terrifying
DAI: It doesn’t have to be
[The Camlann theme plays.]
DAI: Camlann. Episode Nine, Smoke on the Horizon.
[The Camlann theme ends.]
SCENE 3
[Gwaine walking down the track through the snow towards the edge of the shield with Gelert.]
[The Shield is a continuous low buzzing hum, like a powerful generator. The fire is crackling and spitting. Gelert is growling.]
ARTHUR: (muffled through the shield) Sir Gwaine! Have you remembered your loyalty at last?
GWAINE: Not exactly
ARTHUR: You sure about that? Come here.
[Arthur's voice distorts. He is issuing a command.]
[The moment stretches. Birds sing. The trees blow in the breeze. On Arthur’s side of the shield, horses and hounds and men in armour bustle about, muffled a bit by the barrier between us and them.]
GWAINE: No
ARTHUR: Sir Gwaine I am ordering you to come here.
[Another magical command]
GWAINE: And I said no!
[Gwaine is grinning, overwhelmed with relief.]
ARTHUR: Come here right now!
[The strongest command yet.]
[The shield hums and ripples, like water or a drum skin that’s been hit.]
GWAINE: You don’t control me any more, Arthur. I bow to no man and there is nothing you can do to change that.
[Emboldened, Gwaine walks even closer, right up to the very edge of the shield.]
[This close, the shield is much louder, a powerful buzzing hum.]
GWAINE: (close) You made me feel like I was nothing. You made me turn on the only man I’ve ever loved. You treated us all like your toy soldiers. Well guess what? Play time’s over.
[Quiet again, for a moment, suddenly broken by Arthur shouting in wordless rage, trying again to strike the shield with his sword.]
[This time, Arthur won’t let the shield rebuff him. There’s a terrible, sizzling electrical distortion as he tries to force his sword through the shield and it crackles in response.]
[This crackling effect should build and build.]
GWAINE: Go on, break it! Come on Arthur! Let’s see what you’re really made of! You want to put me in my place so badly?
[Gwaine draws his sword.]
GWAINE: Try fighting me when I don’t have to let you win.
[Finally, the shield rebuffs Arthur, throwing him back again.]
KAY: (distant) My lord!
GWAINE: (victorious) Need a hand your highness?
[Perry approaches down the track, walking through the snow. They’re carrying Rhongomyniant. It has its own hum to it.]
PERRY: You ok?
GWAINE: He can’t get through it. He tried, he really tried, but whatever this thing is, Arthur can’t break it.
PERRY: Did he try to compel you?
Arthur starts walking back to the shield on the other side, this time joined by Kay.
GWAINE: Tried and failed! I don’t know if it was this or The Green Knight or whatever but he doesn’t control me any more. I’m free.
KAY: Free for now, traitor
GWAINE: Oh go fuck yourself Kay
ARTHUR: What is that?
GWAINE: You’re going to have to be more specific
ARTHUR: The spear! Where did you get that?
[Perry gestures with the spear. It hums as they hold it aloft.]
PERRY: This? Thought you might recognise it. It used to belong to you. It’s mine now.
ARTHUR: Give it to me
[A deep, disorted, rageful command.]
[Again, the shield ripples like a beaten drum.]
[Footsteps through snow as Perry steps closer to the shield, until they’re nose to nose with Arthur.]
PERRY: (close, soft, furious) No.
GWAINE: Woohoo! Ha! You’re powerless! You can’t do anything. You lose.
KAY: (a tinge of doubt) My lord?
[Moving through the barrier, Arthur's voice comes through clearly.]
ARTHUR: Enjoy your little victory. You’ll return to me eventually. When your Nameless boy is dead and the witch betrays you and you realise that you are alone in this wasteland, and the only family you have ever known still waits for you to the West. You will return to my side. And I will not have forgotten this.
[Arthur turns and marches away through the snow.]
[Gwaine and Perry's taunts ripple through the shield.]
GWAINE: Don’t hold your breath
PERRY: Starting to doubt yet, Kay? Or is all still well in Camelot? You know how this story ends. It isn’t happy.
KAY: You know nothing.
PERRY: And yet I’m standing here, free.
[After a long moment, Kay stamps away through the snow.]
[Back on the other side of the barrier.]
GWAINE: I can’t believe we actually did it.
PERRY: We didn’t. Not yet. Come on, we need to figure out what the hell is going on with this shield.
SCENE 4
[Gwaine, Perry and Gwen are in the kitchen with Gelert. They’re tense and quiet.]
[Mugs are sipped and placed down firmly on the table interupting the silence. In the distance, knights move around their encampment, talking and hollering at the cottage.]
[The kitchen remains in quiet for several moments.]
GWEN: Why won’t they just leave? They obviously can’t get through the shield. For all they know it’s some kind of trap from one of the Phenomena and we’ll all be dead by sunset.
PERRY: For all we know it’s some kind of trap from one of the Phenomena and we’ll all be dead by sunset.
GWAINE: Arthur needs Names. Me and Peredur, and anyone else he can find. With so few people left, it’s an arms race. He needs as many Named people as possible to maintain his defences. If he knew you were a Guinevere...
GWEN: I’m not an object.
GWAINE: He doesn’t care. You’re part of the story. You’re part of his story, specifically. Not to mention, Morgan’s a threat.
PERRY: He’s terrified she’ll make a Mordred. The fact that she has no interest in having children isn’t important. What matters to Arthur is what happens in the story.
GWEN: So they’re just going to stay here? Keep attacking the shield?
PERRY: It’s a siege.
GWAINE: Glad I brought supplies. Kind of thought we’d have more time for feasting, but at least we won’t starve for a few weeks.
[Softly in the background, someone walking slowly and quietly down the wooden staircase.]
PERRY: We really need a better understanding of what this shield is and how it works. Has anyone seen -
[Dai appears in the doorway.]
PERRY: (immediately gentle) Dai. Hey. How is she?
DAI: I think she’s going to be alright. Which makes two of us who would be dead if it wasn’t for Gwen. Thank you.
GWEN: Don’t mention it.
GWAINE: You look like you’re on death's door.
[Dai gingerly sits down. Careful pulling out of the chair, wooden legs moving softly on stone.]
DAI: I feel like it.
[Awkward silence stretches.]
DAI: There’s something I need to tell you
GWAINE: Does it have anything to do with the giant blue shield outside?
DAI: Yeah, actually. I -
[He falters.]
PERRY: It’s alright. Take your time.
DAI: My name isn’t actually Dai
GWAINE: What?
DAI: Well, no, I mean it is actually Dai, Dafydd, that’s my middle name. And people do call me Dai, especially English people, because they’ve spent two thousand years on our border and haven’t learned to pronounce the Welsh language but...it’s not my first name.
GWEN: What is your first name?
DAI: Myrddin. As in the Welsh spelling of -
PERRY: Merlin. (in realisation) Shit. You’re Merlin.
DAI: I’m Myrddin. There’s a difference-
[Gwaine gets explosively to his feet - clatter of wooden chairlegs on stone.]
GWAINE: This is a joke. This has to be a joke. What do you mean you’re Merlin?
PERRY: Myrddin
GWAINE: Whatever! You’ve been lying to us all this time? You’ve been using us? Using me!
DAI: No, no, I never -
GWAINE: Never what? Never wanted me to be here? Never asked me to do anything? Never drew me into your story because you wanted a world where everything worked out the way you wanted it to? I thought I was free!
DAI: I -
[Perry gets up too, more calmly but still forcefully.]
PERRY: Gwaine, calm down
GWAINE: Don’t tell me to calm down! You can’t tell me this doesn’t bother you. Everything you’ve done, everything you’ve been through, everything you feel. This whole time he’s been tricking you. We’re literally under his spell! Doesn’t that scare you? Doesn’t that piss you off?
GWEN: You are leaping to a lot of conclusions
GWAINE: Gareth. You were there. The day he died you were standing right next to him. His blood was on your face. Are you telling me this whole time you could have saved him?
[Gwaine draws his sword, humming and shimmering. Perry hurriedly gets between him and Dai.]
PERRY: Back off Gwaine, now.
GWAINE: Or what, Peredur? Think you’ll win?
GWEN: Sir Gwaine put the sword away now.
[Gwen's voice distorts with magic, compelling Gwaine.]
[Gwaine immediately sheaths his sword.]
GWAINE: You’re just as bad as they were.
[Gwaine storms out, slamming the door shut behind him.]
[Dai starts to cry - falling to pieces.]
DAI: Fuck... fuck fuck fuck...
GWEN: I’m going to go make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid
[Gwen leaves, calmly shutting the door behind her.]
DAI: I didn’t mean for any of this to happen
PERRY: Hey, it’s ok, I know
DAI: Do you think I’m a monster?
PERRY: What? No, of course not
DAI: I’m just as bad as Arthur. Worse.
PERRY: Also incorrect. Arthur actually wants to hurt people on purpose, because he’s a wanker. You were just scared, right?
DAI: It wasn’t supposed to go like this. I didn’t mean to hide it, not at first. But then everything with the Knights happened, and after what they did to Morgan...If I’d told them who I actually was -
PERRY: Then all three of us would be stuck in some kind of cell being playthings for powerful men. You made the right call.
DAI: Did I? You nearly died. Morgan nearly died.
PERRY: But we didn’t. We’re still here. Very likely because of you. (pause) Do you remember the day we met?
DAI: Of course
PERRY: I always thought it was like magic. I’d been trapped in that rubble for hours. Far enough off the high street that no one could even see me. I’d shouted myself hoarse. I thought that was it. I couldn’t feel my legs any more. My whole body was going numb.
And then there you were. Filthy, running for your life, hand in hand with Morgan. I thought you were twins at first. And you were going to run right past, like everyone else had. And I wouldn’t have blamed you.
[The Camlann theme begins to play.]
PERRY: But then you stopped. Skidded to a halt in the middle of the broken tarmac like you’d been struck by lightning. And you turned around and you saw me.
DAI: It was like I knew you
PERRY: Like we’d spent our whole lives looking for each other. The day we met you saved my life, Dai Thomas. And you’ve been saving it every day ever since.
So maybe your name is Myrddin and maybe I’m going to feel weird about that when the shock’s worn off and we don’t have a literal army at our doorstep. But you’re still you. Nothing is going to change that.
DAI: Love you, Per
PERRY: Love you too.
[Music fades.]
SCENE 5
[Gwaine is marching down the track, in the opposite direction to The Knights. They’re very quietly, distantly audible.]
[Gwen is jogging to catch up with him.]
GWEN: (running closer) Gwaine! Wait!
GWAINE: Fuck off
GWEN: (closer) Seriously, please wait
[Skid in the dirt as Gwaine turns to face her, furiously.]
GWAINE: Why should I listen to you? So you can play with me too? I’m not your doll. Just leave me alone.
GWEN: I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.
GWAINE: But you did.
GWEN: You drew a sword on my friend.
GWAINE: I wasn’t going to hurt him.
GWEN: So you just wanted to scare him, then? No, I didn’t think so. You did that anyway. Congratulations. I’m sure he’ll feel a lot more frightened when you’re around him now. Does that make you feel better?
GWAINE: You don’t know me.
GWEN: And you don’t know me, either. So let’s start again. Hi, I’m Shújūn, but you can call me Gwen.
GWAINE: This is stupid.
GWEN: No, it isn’t. It’s the end of the world. You have a right to feel confused and angry and scared. You’re owed more than a little grace after everything you’ve been through. I’m not going to hold this over you. So let’s start again.
GWAINE: Gwaine Turner.
GWEN: It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry this is happening to you.
GWAINE: I’m sorry too. You weren’t in Bristol, were you?
GWEN: Leicester. There were 25 of us to begin with.
GWAINE: And now?
GWEN: Just me.
GWAINE: Fuck.
GWEN: You know the power Guinevere has? Diplomacy. Do you know how useful that is when you’re trekking through the wilderness fighting monsters? When you’re trying to save your best friend’s life? When you would do anything, and I mean anything, to just once, finally win.
You spent weeks on your own out there. You have an idea of what it’s like. But it was months for me. Stumbling through the darkness, unsure if I was ever going to find anything or anyone.
You’re right to be angry. You’re right to feel scared. But I promise you, this is better than being alone.
GWAINE: So what? That’s it? Either suck it up and play pretend or throw myself at the darkness and hope it eats me? Those are my options?
GWEN: Learn. Communicate. Listen. Dai has no intention of compelling you to do anything you don’t want to do and we both know that. I am not interested in being your queen. Be a hero, or just be Gwaine. Take another name entirely! But talk to us. Stop running away.
[Gwaine is beginning to relent.]
GWAINE: He never told me. Even before the Cataclysm. I thought he trusted me.
GWEN: You barely knew him.
GWAINE: He was my friend! And I hate that he didn’t tell me before the apocalypse, but after? All that power in his hands. It must have been terrifying. I know what that feels like. I could have helped.
GWEN: Would you have?
[Gwaine doesn’t have an answer to this.]
GWEN: You’re right to be afraid. No one deserves to be controlled, and you are so much more than what other people make of you. But you cannot be the man you want to be if you keep running away from your problems, and you cannot love the way you want to love if you can’t learn to trust.
GWAINE: But he lied.
GWEN: So did you. We’re not fiction, Gwaine. We’re not stories. We don’t make sense and have neat moral endings. We’re messy and complicated and flawed. We are going to make mistakes. We are never going to stop making mistakes.
I don’t think being human is about avoiding imperfection. I think it’s about how you grow. I think it’s about what you do when you’re faced with the flaws of other people, and how you want them to deal with your own.
He’s already forgiven you. Will you forgive him?
GWAINE: I don’t know.
GWEN: That’s ok.
GWAINE: Thank you, Guinevere
GWEN: You’re welcome, Sir Gwaine.
SCENE 6
[The Knights are marching just outside the shield. Horses trod the grass. Swords are being sharpened.]
[In the middle distance, the low constant hum of the shield and the waving of the trees, the stream quietly beneath them.]
[Close up, the snap, hiss and crackle of the bonfire and Dai hums Lisa Lan to himself, blowing on his hands.]
DAI: (dawning surprise) Holy shit
[Dai bursts explosively to his feet and sprints back towards the cottage. A fast paced banjo theme begins.]
[Dai slams the door open to the kitchen. Gwaine, Gwen and Perry are in here.]
DAI: Smoke! Smoke on the horizon!
[Perry gets to their feet.]
GWAINE: Like a forest fire?
DAI: (giddy) No, like a bonfire! Like a signal that someone lit to let us know that they survived too
PERRY: The Knights
[Gwaine gets up quickly.]
GWEN: What are they going to do?
GWAINE: Recruit them if they can. Capture them if not.
PERRY: We need to get there first
GWEN: How do we get outside the shield?
PERRY: Dai?
DAI: We can pass through it. It knows we’re friends.
GWAINE: Don’t love the idea that it’s sentient
PERRY: Metaphysics later. The truck is probably faster than the horses
GWEN: But that’s a hell of a lot of noise
DAI: And they’re blocking the main track
GWAINE: There’s another way in. I saw it when I was on my way here. This might be a stupid idea but we could literally slip out the back
PERRY: It’s better than nothing. How do we stop them from seeing it?
GWEN: Create a distraction?
DAI: With what?
GWAINE: I’ve got an idea. They can’t pass through the shield, right?
DAI: Oh I hate that look
PERRY: What are you thinking Gwaine?
GWAINE: Play a bit of chicken. I can step through, start a fight, run back in again. Wash, rinse, repeat.
GWEN: Right up until you get stabbed
GWAINE: You’re a doctor, aren’t you?
GWEN: I’m a medical student
DAI: I hate this plan!
GWAINE: (to Dai, close) You said the shield will hold. Are you sure?
DAI: I - yes.
GWAINE: Then I trust you. It’ll be fine. (to the room) Dai and Perry get in the truck. Gwen, stay here with me. Morgan’s in no state to be going anywhere.
PERRY: And you?
GWAINE: I’ll handle the fireworks
SCENE 7
[Perry and Dai hurriedly getting inside the truck as quietly as possible.]
[Distantly we can hear Gwaine marching up to The Knights.]
GWAINE: (distant) Hey assholes? How many incels does it take to change a lightbulb?
[Fireworks. Cracks and pops and bangs follow Gwaine's taunt.]
[Dai clambers into the truck.]
DAI: I didn’t think there were literal fireworks!
PERRY: You know Gwaine. The man is full of surprises.
[Perry slams the door, turns the engine on and slams their foot down on the gas. They clatter into an overgrown track full of bushes smacking the windscreen and dragging alongside the doors.]
DAI: I think the bush is going to win this fight!
PERRY: O ye of little faith!
[The truck screeches around a corner and revs up a hill.]
DAI: There! Can you see it?
PERRY: Top of the hill, I’m on it
[Perry violently swerves the wheel into a nearby field, destroying a wooden gate]
DAI: What’s wrong with the road??
PERRY: Too slow. And -
[The Knights charge on horseback up the hill, armour clanks and hooves gallop and thud.]
PERRY: Horses
DAI: They must have left at the same time we did
PERRY: We’ve still got the advantage. Come on....
[[Rusty old truck trundles through the field while racing horses give chase.]
PERRY: FUCK!
[Perry punches the steering wheel.]
[Dai jumps out of the car and runs forward, dragging open the gate. Horses much louder and closer here, hunting horns being blown.]
GENERIC KNIGHT: Stay back! By order of the King!
DAI: GET FUCKED TIN MAN!
[Dai runs back to the truck and gets in.]
DAI: What are you doing? Move!
PERRY: It’s too late. We’re not going to win a fight with that many horses. It’ll ruin the truck well before we’ve done any real damage.
DAI: That can’t be it. Maybe we can drive around? We can’t just leave these people to them!
PERRY: I know. I’m sorry, I know it sucks.
DAI: Then don’t give up!
[Dai jams open the glovebox and rummages around.]
PERRY: What are you looking for?
DAI: Binoculars. I know they’re in here somewhere.
PERRY: I don’t think the local wildlife is going to give us the advantage
DAI: (sarcastic) Haha very funny
[The Knights are starting to get closer. Perry gets the engine running, idling for now.]
PERRY: Dai, I don’t think we can stay here much longer. Some of them are peeling away from the pack.
[Dai doesn’t answer. The Knights are getting closer.]
PERRY: Dai! What is it?
DAI: Look
PERRY: Oh my god
SCENE 8
[Through the CB radio, crashing waves roaring far below and a strong wind.]
DAI: Morgan, this is amazing, I can't believe it. This is incredible, there's fires everywhere. We've gone a bit further than we meant to but-
MORGAN: Dai, slow down, where are you?
[Dai is breathless and giddy with excitement.]
DAI: St David’s.
MORGAN: What the hell are you doing at St David’s?
DAI: It doesn’t matter, Morgan, listen! It’s incredible. It’s not just the farm on the hill, it’s not just us, it’s not just the Knights!
MORGAN: What isn’t?
DAI: The fires! Morgan, I lit the beacons and they answered! (gleeful) Gondor calls for aid and Rohan will answer!
There must be dozens, hundreds of them. For miles and miles and miles.
It might be as far as Aber! Even further. Like stars strung through the hills. Everywhere we look, all at once.
People have lit fires to tell us they survived. We’re not alone. There’s not dozens of survivors. There’s not hundreds. There are thousands of us. They’re alive. They lit the fires.
Morgan, they saw us. They’re alive. They’re alive!
[Dai lets out a laugh of utter relief and joy.]
CREDITS
Hi, it’s Ella! I can’t believe we’re actually here!! I feel very strange, and happy, and sad, and just full of love and pride and joy that we made it. We have got such an incredible team behind Camlann and we’ve found such a wonderful community of supporters in all of you. I really can’t thank you enough and honestly even trying would only cheapen the depth of that feeling so just know, from the bottom of my heart, to all of you. Thank you. I hope that wherever you are you keep your own fires burning. Be they queer joy, resistance against oppression, solidarity with your fellow human beings, your trans siblings, your Jewish friends and a free Palestine, or just the fire it takes to get up and try again every day. Keep going, I believe in you.
I’d also like to take a moment to thank my incredible collaborators on this project. Sarah Grant, who got the word out and has worked tirelessly to bring Camlann to even more people. Ross McFarlane, who made this the least stressful podcast I’ve ever worked on. Tobias, Angharad, Robyn, Nicole, Paul and all of our amazing cast - who breathed life into these characters I’ve loved for so long. And Amber Devereux, who made this story more beautiful than I could ever have imagined.
Season one of Camlann was generously funded by Creative Scotland and The Inevitable Foundation, but, as I’ve said many times by this point, we currently have no guarantee of future funding for more series. Practically speaking, if we want to make a season two we’ll probably have to do it with a combination of listener support and grant funding. But you can actually help us in our application for that grant funding by leaving us a review or telling a friend to listen to the show. Public reviews, listener figures and existing funds will all help make our application more competitive.
We can also spend any support we receive from listeners on things like merchandise and live shows, if you think you’d be into that kind of thing. If you’ve got the cash and would like to help us out, you can find us on Ko-Fi and Patreon @camlannpod. You can also support us by subscribing to the Tin Can Audio channel on Twitch.
Speaking of which! Our last live listen along - for now - will be happening on Monday 7th May 2024 to coincide with the release of our final episode. You can join us from 8-10pm GMT, that’s 3-5pm EST and 12-2pm PST, and come hang out with me, Amber, some of the cast and crew as well as other listeners to celebrate. Don’t worry if you’ve missed it - all of these streams are available to watch back on the Tin Can Audio YouTube channel, and we’re very likely to be doing more Camlann related things on the channel in future.
If you’d like to follow us on social media and stay up to date on the future of the show, the best way to do that is to follow us @camlannpod wherever the internet is found. We’ve loved seeing your responses, your reviews, your livetweets and liveblogs and your gorgeous fanart over the last five months, and we hope that people will keep finding and enjoying the show whilst we work out how and when to make a season two.
Finally, I’d like to give you a podcast recommendation! Specifically, two podcast recommendations. First, I’d like to recommend Petrified - it’s an Irish horror anthology written by Peter Dunne and produced by Liam Geraghty. It’s a truly chilling collection of haunting, stand-alone stories, which are often inspired by history and folklore, with a special focus on Irish culture. I personally love hearing so many Irish voices in this series and it has kept me up at night more than once.
Second, I’d like to recommend Breathing Space: A Sci-Fi Western Audio Anthology. It’s a solarpunk, hopepunk, queer, radical interconnected anthology series about a host of strangers in a wild, dangerous universe. It’s made by a huge team of writers and actors but as you listen more you’ll realise that a lot of characters and storylines return and intersect. I’ve recommended this show to a lot of people, but I’m recommending it now simply because it has never failed to give me hope.
That’s it for now. One more time, then - thank you so much again for your support. Diolch am wrando. Find each other, and keep the fires burning.
