Merlin star Colin Morgan has revealed that most people assume he is English because of the accent he uses on the show.

The 23-year-old is originally from Northern Ireland and told SFX magazine:

“One of my mates told me that a work colleague was saying, ‘Is that your friend who does Merlin? His accent’s really changed’. Well, yeah, it’s called acting!

“Often when you meet people, they’re like, ‘Oh you’re not… What are you?’ Whenever I do go home, my accent becomes a lot stronger. When my brother was over here some people thought we were speaking a different language.”

Morgan admitted that when he first tried out for the show, he auditioned with his own Northern Ireland accent.

“I was using my own accent for all the auditions and at the last stage they were like, ‘Well, we want to try you with an English accent’.

“And I think it was a good decision in the end, because I think it’s quite a bold decision already to do a show about a young Merlin, and a young Arthur, so making Merlin from Northern Ireland as well was probably pushing the boat out a bit far.”