Three episodes in, and the cracks are starting to show in this Saturday night “flagship” show for me. As I’ve mentioned before, you have to be prepared to suspend any preconceptions of the Arthurian legend to enjoy this series, but that doesn’t mean you should suspend all critical faculties. When you’re faced with dialogue that doesn’t even match the action seen moments before, you have to wonder whether the scripts have enjoyed the same level of investment as the sets and the CGI. To take a tour through all our Camelot coverage, point your clickers here.

Merlin and Gaius are confounded by the sudden plague of white death, a direct result of the poisoning of Camelot’s water supply by arch-witch Nimueh. Gaius has seen two cases when King Uther confronts him and asks him what’s going on.

“This is the second case,” he says, “victims are dying in 24 hours and it’s spreading fast.”

Hang on. You’ve found two corpses. How can you work out from that, that it’s taken 24 hours for them to die? And how can you know it’s “spreading fast”?

Sorry, but it’s gaffes like that which really spoil a show that is already teetering on the brink of dramatic licence.

Not to mention the perpetual idiocy of Uther. How did this man ever get to be king? He’s a complete dunderhead, with no interpersonal skills whatever. He accuses Gwen of witchcraft on the flimsiest evidence and then comes out with the gobsmacking line “if you won’t undo the curse, I have no choice but to find you guilty!”

As opposed to undoing the curse and PROVING she’s guilty, presumably? It’s the old “the witch floats – burn her/the witch drowns – oh she wasn’t a witch” thing all over again. And Monty Python took the piss out of that thirty years ago.

So Nimueh’s Afanc kills a few people, Arthur is tricked into fighting it and wins with Merlin’s help (he calls up the necessary wind), and all is well. Except Uther is left distraught at the news of Nimueh’s return. “Will I ever be rid of her?” he wonders aloud, thus explaining his pathological distrust of magic.

Another week, another story-by-numbers. The initial gloss of Merlin is tarnishing rapidly before my eyes, and a story that looked so good in the trailers once again proved to have little substance. Rapid improvement required if this show is to retain the interest of an adult audience.