Knights of God

John Woodvine (the doctor out of American Werewolf) is great as the Cromwellian dictator of a dystopian future Britain. Julian Fellowes (yes, that Julian Fellowes, writer of Downton) is excellent as his scheming second-in-command, one of the snidiest connivers in TV history. He manipulates, sneers, looks great in kinky leather, and does action-adventure things I won't spoiler but which will make me look at him in a new light the next time I see him in a chintzy sitting-room talking about 1920s country houses. Gareth Thomas and Patrick Troughton are resistance leaders. For a kids' show and for its era it was ambitious in scope and production values and presumably budget (the look is medieval knights with motorbikes, helicopters, computers and machine-guns). I never saw it as a kid, which is a shame as I would have thought it the greatest thing ever, but even as a grown-up I had fun. It meanders at times, after a brisk opening getting mired down in certain sub-plots for slightly too long, but it all builds to a climax of jaw-dropping mayhem. Points of interest include that despite his scariness the dictator Prior Mordrin isn't a 2-dimensional villain but believes he's doing the best for the country; and that despite their name and crusader-monk aesthetic his organisation the Knights of God are pretty frankly Nietzschean and contemptuous of real religion.

I can only agree with the other comment.

It was a long time ago now but I still fondly remember this series. Made by HTV and shown I think on Sunday afternoons it was much more edgy than the usual sci-fi fare and involved religious zealots taking over britain in a modern civil war. Featuring an excellent cast and played with a serious tone it deserves to find a new audience. It also seemed to have a higher budget that the average at the time even stretching to the involvement of helicopters.

Someone please release this on DVD!

Bought part 2 of the video yesterday in a "used videos and stuff" shop for about 1.5$... I was lured by the action packed cover to spend time and money on this piece of incredibly boring garbage... maybe as a tv-series in 10000 episodes this could work, but as a 120 min film, 240 if you bought part 1, and dread the existence of part 3, then it falls through... all the way to the bottom.

Recently watched this again from a copy made at the time from TV in 1987 and was pleasantly surprised how gripping the story is. If you enjoy spotting the durable British character actors who seem to appear in everything made back in the 70's & 80's,Knights of God will keep you watching.

Would love to see it released on DVD,I don't know whether TVS still exists or was swallowed up by ITV at some point. However I fear it had limited appeal when first broadcast ,over looked on Sunday afternoons,which is a shame, because its definetely worth a second sight as they say!

I remember this on TV, is it available on Video or DVD? John Woodvine is an impressive actor. I'm also interested in finding a film version of Arturo Ui, Le Petomane, Mr Axelford's Angel, and many other great films / TV from this era. Remember Diana Dors in Queenie's Castle? Anyone recall the Space Adventures of Don Quick? How about White Rock, commentary by James Coburn, music by Rick Wakeman? Back to Knights of God, not only was John a good actor, the storyline was impressive, one of those that sticks in my memory, like Fatherland, Bedford Incident, A Very British Coup, Defence of the Realm and more recently the Day Britain Stood still, there was also a sci-fi about a post apocalyptic England, No Blade of Grass or something like that.