on his back as he flies around the kingdom. Jane, in turn, helps Dragon, who is an orphan, in his efforts to uncover the secrets of his ancestry. In addition to her best friend, Dragon, Jane has several other friends among the castle staff. Jester the royal jester, Pepper the castle cook, and Rake the castle gardener are all about Jane's age. She is also friends with Smithy, the castle blacksmith and stable hand. Also residing in the castle are the King and Queen, their two children, Jane's parents, and the wizard. The only non-resident of the castle seen is Gunther's father, a merchant who has regular dealings with Jane's father and the king. No other characters are seen or heard in the series. The wizard is never seen but he lives in a tower, in the far corner of the Royal Gardens near the castle. He is seemingly knowledgeable in alchemy. The younger members of the castle staff appear to be afraid of him, for some reason. While hoping to preserve verisimilitude in its portrait of the earthy characters inhabiting a medieval castle Baynton engineered into his depiction substitute swear words to avoid controversy with parents. When frustrated or exasperated Jane is prone to exclaiming "Maggots!". In this manner the series taps into the imagination of children, encouraging them to find their own expressions that can be much more fun and creative and colourful than conventional profanity without being offensive. Characters The characters were voice acted (in English) by the Canadian actors credited below and physically performed and motion-captured by a team of 5 actors at Weta Productions in New Zealand. Jane Turnkey (voiced by Tajja Isen, motion-captured by Angela Green) – 12-year-old Jane is a young skinny girl (the TV series occurs 2 years after the novel where she was 10) and the daughter of The King's Chamberlain and the Queen's Lady-in-Waiting. She has green eyes and wavy light red hair. She found her life as a future lady-in-waiting to be boring, and wanted to become a knight and experience adventure. When she heard that the King's son Prince Cuthbert had been kidnapped by a dragon, she set out to rescue him and slay the dragon. However, upon meeting the dragon Jane befriended him instead. Her courage in rescuing the prince led the King to make Jane a knight's apprentice, and she has been training hard ever since.