Camelot Burns!

The fiery finale of Merlin is at 5.45pm on BBC1 today as The Great Dragon, freed from years of imprisonment under the city-state, exacts revenge on King Uther and his subjects.

I can't believe how this programme has turned me around in this season. Having found the first very weak and unengaging, this year's stories (starting around week five, with the two-parter Beauty And The Beast) have been in a different league.

At last an overarching story is developing and it doesn't feel as though elements of Arthurian myth are simply being cherrypicked as "gimmick-of-the-week" to be forgotten about at the end of the episode.

Not only is the story growing, but the characters are being allowed to develop as well - particularly Uther (Anthony Head), Arthur (Bradley James) and Gwen (Angel Coulby). The latter has totally won me over, having dismissed her in the first season as a very wet and insubstantial Guinevere.

Now that the love between Gwen and Arthur is blooming, it has allowed Angel Coulby to come out of herself and show us what the programme's showrunners obviously saw in her when they cast her.