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"Dry your eyes, Merlin fans - yes, the BBC has confirmed that its hit fantasy drama is to draw to a close at the end of the current fifth series, but let&amp;#039;s celebrate the show&amp;#039;s life, not mourn its demise! Digital Spy is thinking positive - we&amp;#039;re getting nostalgic and taking a look back at the past five series of Merlin to pick out the show&amp;#039;s finest hours. Check out our picks below... &amp;gt; Merlin Julian Murphy Q&amp;amp;A: &amp;#039;Any movie would be a reboot&amp;#039; &amp;gt; Merlin final series: Colin Morgan, Anthony Head on show end Series One Highlight - &amp;#039;To Kill the King&amp;#039; The creators of Merlin might look back on the show&amp;#039;s early episodes with more than a few reservations, but the show&amp;#039;s first series had some very strong episodes indeed... There&amp;#039;s the introduction of Santiago Cabrera&amp;#039;s dashing knight-to-be in the aptly-titled &amp;#039;Lancelot&amp;#039; and finale &amp;#039;Le Morte d&amp;#039;Arthur&amp;#039;, but for our money, the best instalment of Merlin&amp;#039;s freshman run was penultimate episode &amp;#039;To Kill the King&amp;#039; - the shock death of Gwen&amp;#039;s father (David Durham) proved that this show meant business!      Series Two Highlight - &amp;#039;The Lady of the Lake&amp;#039; This was a tough one. Series two finale &amp;#039;The Last Dragonlord&amp;#039; was a real contender - an action epic that saw the Great Dragon (John Hurt) reign destruction down on Camelot and Merlin (Colin Morgan) reunited with his father Balinor (John Lynch). But we&amp;#039;re big softies here at DS so we&amp;#039;re going to plump for the episode that introduced Freya (Laura Donnelly), the druid girl who fell in love with Merlin, but tragically lost her life. *sniff* Is there something in our eye?      Series Three Highlight - &amp;#039;The Tears of Uther Pendragon&amp;#039; Again, the series finale was a good &amp;#039;un here - Uther (Anthony Head) finally learning the extent of his folly as Morgana seized the throne in &amp;#039;The Coming of Arthur&amp;#039; made for great telly... But ultimately series three&amp;#039;s premiere &amp;#039;The Tears of Uther Pendragon&amp;#039; wins out - it had epic battles, an undead army, smirking Katie McGrath and Anthony Head with a sword... what more do you need on a Saturday night?!      Series Four Highlight - &amp;#039;Sword in the Stone&amp;#039; This time, the finale wins out - formidable two-parter &amp;#039;Sword in the Stone&amp;#039; is the clear highlight in what is - to date - Merlin&amp;#039;s strongest series. Morgana&amp;#039;s latest scheme is defeated with the help of Tristan and Isolde - top-notch guest stars Ben Daniels and Miranda Raison - and Arthur finally wields a legendary blade... An honourable mention though to ep 4.9 &amp;#039;Lancelot du Lac&amp;#039; which saw the slain knight return, under the thrall of Morgana, and seduce Gwen (Angel Coulby), breaking poor Arthur&amp;#039;s heart.      Series Five Highlight - &amp;#039;The Dark Tower&amp;#039; We realise that Merlin&amp;#039;s fifth and final series hasn&amp;#039;t yet completed its run and that the two-part finale - which will presumably see Arthur (Bradley James) finally learn the truth about his faithful servant - will likely be the clear highlight, but &amp;#039;The Dark Tower&amp;#039; has easily been the strongest episode thus far... As dark as the show&amp;#039;s ever been and is ever likely to be, this ground-breaking instalment saw Gwen suffer a psychological breakdown as she&amp;#039;s first haunted by spooks and spectres and then suffers a devastating loss, with her brother Elyan (Adetomiwa Edun) sacrificing his life to save her - a fantastic 42 minutes.      Do you agree with our picks? Name your own favourite Merlin episodes below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/merlin/news/a440823/merlin-the-five-best-episodes-from-five-series/>