Katie McGrath

There’s one good reason why Arena is more interested in Excalibur than The X-Factor every Saturday night, and that reason is Katie McGrath.

The spellbinding beauty is the best thing about the BBC’s primetime reboot of Merlin (narrowly beating Richard Wilson’s dodgy wig and a CGI dragon with the voice of John Hurt), as the first lady of Camelot, Morgana.

It’s fitting that the 25-year-old Dubliner got the job of being squeezed into a succession of improbably tight medieval dresses, having served an apprenticeship as a wardrobe assistant on The Tudors. “I had an amazing time, lacing girls into corsets,” she recalls.

It led to a small role in the sex-and-ruffles melodrama. “A couple of the producers said I should give acting a try. I just thought, ‘Why not?’ It’s like running away to join the circus, everyone wants to do it when they’re young but then you grow up and get a proper job. But somebody’s got to do it or you wouldn’t have the circus.”

McGrath then landed parts in TV drama The Roaring Twenties (”I played a goth stripper who was into animal porn”) and the horror film Red Mist before getting her big break in Merlin.

But if you’ve been bewitched by the delightful Ms McGrath, be sure to do your homework before making your move. “I go for really smart guys, ones who are well-read and can banter and argue,” she says. “Men need to be able to take me out and have a few drinks, but by the end of the night we’ll be talking about Nietzsche.”

You can see more of Katie McGrath in the November issue of Arena, on sale now.