STEVEN Spielberg is being asked to film his major new TV series based on Arthurian legend in Caerleon - the place many people believe is the real Camelot.

The film maker, famed for epics such as ET, Saving Private Ryan and, more recently, Minority Report, plus the moving TV series Band of Brothers, is now planning a new television series recreating the life and battles of the legendary King Arthur.

And Newport West MP Paul Flynn has called on Mr Spielberg to bring his cameras to Gwent to find the real Camelot.

Mr Flynn's claims that Caerleon is the location of Camelot are supported by Dr Russell Rhys, (pictured) owner of the town's Ffwrrwm arts centre.

Mr Flynn spoke out after a row erupted in Westminster yesterday over just where Camelot was located, with MPs from Somerset and Cornwall claiming it was in their counties and that the filming of the new series, which follows epic movies based on the Arthurian legend, such as Excalibur and Sean Connery's First Knight, should be done there.

But Mr Flynn said not only would Mr Spielberg discover "perfectly authentic locations" for the series in Caerleon, but he would boost tourism and help Newport attract new employment.

He said: "The location is recorded in the Mabinogion, in the History Of Kings, by Jeffrey of Monmouth in 1140, and the Chronicler Mace in 1155.

"This was confirmed in modern times by the funding of the excavation of Arthur's Round Table in Caerleon in 1928 by the Loyal Knights of the Round Table of America." Dr Rhys said many people see Arthur as a knight in shining armour, flanked by his knights of the Round Table, who go out to do battle with dragons, and other unspecified evils.

"The facts are hardly less romantic. In fact, he was a Celtic warlord, living and fighting at about the time of the Roman retreat from Wales 400 years after the birth of Christ at the beginning of what we call the Dark Ages.

"That Arthur existed at the time is without doubt. The old Welsh poems of the sixth century, the Gogoddin, contain the line ... "The ravens of the castle were glutted with their blood, although he was not an Arthur". This clearly argues that there is an Arthur, but elsewhere."