The series title refers, of course, to Arthur's fortress, Camelot; the peculiar spelling may come from the Old French Kamaalot, a form found in the 13th-century French
Lancelot-Grail cyclical romances. The double A forms the monogram of the show's creator, and the title generates puns based on the French word
camelote ("cheap junk").
Genre The short format of the first four seasons demanded a comic structure, with each episode ending on an ironic note that would twist the situation presented into a memorable whole. Thus, the series was perceived as pure comedy—parody, satire, sitcom, or "so British," meaning a straight-faced historical send-up in the style of Rowan Atkinson's
Blackadder or
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Astier had a lot of explaining to do when season 5 turned out to be very dark, full of terrible obsessions and passions. Season 5 also featured a move to a different format; it was broadcast in both short and longer segments, and the DVD cut resembled a dramatic miniseries. Season 6 was conceived and edited solely as a miniseries, with long episodes telling a primarily dramatic story and incidental comic elements. Fantasy elements have been limited, undoubtedly to some extent by the budget. However, a few episodes suggest the possibility of an intersection of the traditional Arthurian world of fairies and wizards with science fiction (see the description of Perceval's character below).
Historical and traditional content Although the show was initially perceived as pure comedy, in many ways it follows the medieval Arthurian legends, including such traditional characters as
Lancelot,
Guenièvre, Bohort (
Bors),
Perceval,
Merlin, and the
Lady of the Lake, as well as the
Holy Grail and the sword
Excalibur. The early seasons often include twists on traditional Arthurian or medieval themes, which might delight scholars; historians Eric Le Nabour and Martin Aurell have published two books based on the series, and a number of distinguished medievalists are interviewed in the 5-part documentary "Aux sources de
Kaamelott" by Christophe Chabert, which accompanies the DVD sets. Like other 21st-century Arthurian versions such as
King Arthur and
The Last Legion, this one emphasizes Arthur's ties with Rome and its empire. In season 1 of
Kaamelott, several characters speak of adventures in Rome, but Arthur does not seem to like Roman art, food, etc.; however, in subsequent seasons, his Roman connections become important to his character and history. Season 6 tells the story of how Arthur, a Roman policeman, comes to understand his destiny and takes the crown of Britain. Traditionally, Arthurian romance includes fantasy elements, but Astier may eventually intend to connect them to science fiction. He includes references to
Stargate (Perceval travels through one in episodes in Livres 2 and 3) and
Star Wars (in the Livre 3 Stargate episode, Perceval visits Tatooine and brings back a light-saber, which Arthur perceives as much like Excalibur; also, in Livre 1, Bohort, the minister of protocol, sometimes seems very much like
C-3PO!). The first episode, entitled "Silbury Hill," suggests the presence of spiritual beings everywhere in Britain, but "Silbury Hill II" implies they are extraterrestrials and that Arthur and Léodagan know this. In Livre VI, we learn that Perceval was found as a baby in a crop circle, which, if these are made by space travellers from other planets, explains his affinity for stargates. Supernatural beings encountered by Arthur include
Morgan Le Fay (not his sister, but involved with his eventual fate), Méléagant, the emissary of gods who seem to want to destroy human rulers, and his guide, the
Lady of the Lake; at the beginning of Livre VI.2, a meeting of the gods whom the Lady of the Lake represents is depicted on
Alpha Centauri, which implies that they at least are beings whose home is "the stars" rather than on earth. Thus, rather than recording relationships between humans and fairies, Kaamelott seems to posit relationships between Arthur and superior beings from other parts of the universe. Like all Arthurian stories,
Kaamelott twists history as well and adds its own view of where Arthur came from and what his reign means.
Roman Britain had contributed armies, generals, and maybe an emperor to the Roman empire, but in
Kaamelott, Britain is an aggregate of kingdoms that perceives Rome as an occupying force and Arthur perhaps as a
Pétain for having made peace with the Romans. The enemies of the historical Britons in the 5th century were the
Picts to the north, the Irish (aka the
Scots), and the north Germanic tribes (
Angles,
Saxons, and
Jutes) who had originally been brought in as mercenaries to fight the Picts. Arthur enters history as the victor of 12 battles between the British and the Saxons and is also often depicted fighting the Picts and the Scots in the north. Astier's Arthur, by contrast, apparently stays close to his fortress Kaamelott, where he is attacked by Angles and Saxons but also by
Attila and his Hun,
Burgundians,
Ostrogoths,
Vandals,
Vikings,
Visigoths—just about every "barbarian" people that was on the move in Europe then (though Attila was active earlier and the Vikings later), except for the
Franks, ancestors of the French (though a historically Frankish leader,
Chlodoric, does lead "barbarians" against Arthur). The Picts, however, represented by Arthur's mother-in-law, Séli, and the Irish, represented by a federated king, are Arthur's allies in
Kaamelott. The geopolitics of
Kaamelott resembles that of the comic book world of
Asterix—a small, primitive "Celtic" society with its druid, warrior, and secret weapon, persisting on the edges of the Roman Empire—more than traditional English or American versions of the Arthur story.
Comic devices The main comical device of the series is to explore the distance between conventional "epic" presentations of Arthurian legend and the actual day-to-day operations of Arthur and his knights as they seek the Holy Grail. Arthur is surrounded by incompetent, lazy knights, easily frightened or distracted, who fail most of their missions or find but then discard invaluable artifacts, not understanding the nature of their quest. They speak an everyday language, full of slang and not very articulate; when someone does try to express a complex idea in a complex and exact way, he (usually Arthur, sometimes Bohort) is usually not understood and comes off as rather silly. Moreover, the characters all use the
formal second person to address each other—a grammatical feature not present in English, but which produces a hilarious contrast between rude or slangy comments and the formality of expression: “Scram, sir,” or “Get in the tub with me, sir—you're filthy,” or “Madam, you are a fish-faced trollop.” Such a feature, as well as the use of many colloquialisms (sometimes very obscure or simply invented by the writer), makes it close to impossible to translate and thus convey the humorous dialogue in other languages than French. Verbal comedy can also be heightened by having the characters speak with their mouths full. The series also uses slapstick for humor (e.g. a cream-cheese fight in season 3 "La Grande Bataille"), and running gags, which may be verbal ("La Botte Secrète," the use of the phrase “You're not wrong” to keep up one end of a conversation one does not understand), physical ("Unagi," the completely absurd martial arts developed by Karadoc and Perceval; the silly caps the characters wear to bed), musical (the song "À la volette" which recurs through the first season), or character-specific (Merlin's conflict between his role as healer-scientist and the court's idea of a magician, Karadoc's truly Gargantuan need for food, Arthur interrupted in his bath by various incursions). There is little sexual romance; none of the knights seems genuinely interested in women (or other men), and Arthur's relations with his various mistresses are more a comic device than a matter of emotion. Guenièvre, for a reason left mysterious in the first 5 seasons, remains a virgin, and this too is a source of comedy as she tries to figure out, for example, why she can't get pregnant. As the characters become familiar, dramatic or emotional situations can arise from this kind of comedy. The series occasionally gives humorous (but always possible) explanations for historical facts. For instance,
Kaamelott explains the creation of Scotland's national attire, the kilt, as a misfortune of the king of Caledonia (modern Scotland). His armor's legs rusted when he fell into some water. It turns out to be a rule that a knight of the Round Table must wear either full-body armor or his national attire, so the king of Caledonia wraps a cloth around his waist and declares it his country's official attire.
Social and psychological problems The comic skits sometimes include serious reflections on themes such as
war,
capital punishment, and
bureaucracy, among others. The lead character, King Arthur of Britain (or Logres), has very progressive ideas and tries to abolish the slave trade, torture, and capital punishment. His ideas usually clash with those of his father-in-law and minister of war and justice, Léodagan "Le Sanguinaire" ("the Bloodthirsty"). Arthur also clashes with Lancelot, his prime minister and chief of staff, who believes that the Round Table and the Grail Quest should be for an elite, not for the self-selected group of rather ordinary men who have answered Arthur's call. Both Léodagan and Lancelot are exasperated by the shenanigans of the so-called knights, and Arthur is torn between admitting they are pretty useless and insisting that they are worthy of the Grail. Even the idiotic characters, however, are given qualities that explain Arthur's patience with them and make them more likable and interesting to the viewer. For instance, Perceval of Wales first appears in medieval literature in the work of
Chretien de Troyes as both the destined Grail Knight and a clumsy, foolish boy. In
Kaamelott, he is the only character besides Arthur for whom Excalibur glows when it is picked up. But he is the least confident of the knights, and for good reason. He is not sure of his own name. He fails almost every mission he is entrusted with. He is illiterate, cannot understand the concept of a map, and insists that North and South are relative concepts. On the other hand, he loves and is extremely faithful to Arthur. In Book 5, Arthur puts Excalibur back into the stone to show challengers to the throne, from all over the country, who come to try to take the magical sword back out again, that only he is the rightful king. Some of Arthur's knights and allies do try their luck with the sword, but Perceval refuses and convinces his fellow knight Karadoc to do the same. Astier has described Perceval as "naïve but lucid" and (provocatively) as "the most intelligent" of the knights in his analysis of the sword in the stone situation. Perceval dreams of space travel and, at one point, tries to explain the theory of special relativity to Arthur. He can also count people or objects at a glance (such as the stones in the fortress of Kaamelott) and grasp the "values" of cards or objects in complicated games. In Livre 6, we learn one possible explanation for Perceval's peculiarities: his parents found him in a
crop circle; in Livre III.i.22, it is strongly implied that crop circles are made by visiting extraterrestrials. So he may not be human at all.
Plot The plot of the series, up through season 5, centers on a conflict between King Arthur and his best knight, Lancelot. This begins with a few episodes in Season 1 in which we see that Lancelot is in love with Arthur's queen, Guenièvre. In season 2, Lancelot begins to challenge Arthur; he feels that if Arthur were an effective king, justice would have been established and the knights of the Round Table would be great warriors instead of the clowns ("pantins") they actually are. In season 3, Lancelot decides to go live in the woods as a "chevalier errant" or wandering knight, and in season 4, his hermitage becomes a fortress, and he begins recruiting men. In season 4, Guenièvre joins Lancelot, and Arthur breaks various "laws" by trying to remarry with Mevanwi, Karadoc's wife; however, at the end, he retrieves his wife, who has had enough of camping out, and Lancelot despairs. Season 5's main plots show Lancelot and Arthur separately voyaging into their own pasts and futures as their conflict builds to a real cliffhanger in the final episode. We learn that these two men have been in competition for the throne of Britain since they were born. In season 5, Arthur also resigns his kingship, and Leodagan and Karadoc attempt to rule in his place. Season 6 consists of a flashback to a period 15 years earlier, showing how Arthur came to power in Britain as a representative of the Roman Empire but also as the chosen of the gods, the only man who can wield Excalibur. We also see how he ended up with such an odd group of "knights" and with a wife with whom he cannot be intimate. The final episode of season 6 brings us back to the season 5 cliffhanger, with Arthur still alive but very ill. Lancelot, given power by Arthur based on the latter's enduring trust in him, ravages the island and destroys the Round Table, both physically and spiritually. The final words of the episode, projected over a recovering Arthur, leading into the projected movie trilogy, are "Soon Arthur will once again be a hero." ==Casting==