Jack Donnelly plays swashbuckling hero Jason in BBC1’s new family drama Atlantis, but it wasn't an easy introduction to TV for the newcomer: he wound up in A&E after one stunt!
“I did a lot of training for the role – horse riding, wire work, sword fighting and gymnastics. It’s been great to get to do all the fun stuff, including stunts and fight sequences, running up walls and flying on wires. I’ve loved that!” Jack told What’s on TV, who visited him on set during filming earlier this year.
“It was all fine until the third week of filming when, through my own fault, I managed to stab myself in the arm with a bamboo knife during a stunt. I’m now scarred, but it adds to the character! I got some weird looks when I turned up in A&E in costume saying ‘I’ve stabbed myself’!”
Jack plays Jason, a modern British lad, who washes up in the fabled city of Atlantis in this birthday suit (pictured) after a deep-sea search for his missing father goes wrong. At first he thinks he’s dead or dreaming, but soon the boy with a mysterious destiny finds himself hanging out with Hercules (Mark Addy) and Pythagoras (War Horse star Robert Emms).
The 13-part series from the makers of Merlin co-stars Sarah Parish and Juliet Stephenson, with Jemima Rooper joining the cast in the second episode as Medusa, before she becomes a snake-haired monster.
