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The Last Kingdom - BBC series of Saxons, Vikings and not Game of Thrones at all

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C

Crispy75

Member
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...dom-with-downton-abbey-producers-9594618.html

It promises to be an epic drama full of bloody battles over ancestral lands. The BBC is hoping for a Game of Thrones-style hit with a new series depicting the struggle between the Saxons and Viking warlords.

The Last Kingdom, coming to BBC2 next year, is a collaboration between BBC America and Carnival Films, the award-winning producers who turned Downton Abbey into a global blockbuster.

Based on Bernard Cornwell’s best-selling series of “Saxon stories”, the drama is set in England during the reign of King Alfred, when “the separate kingdoms of what we now know as England have fallen to the invading Vikings and the great kingdom of Wessex has been left standing alone and defiant.”

Merging historical fact and fiction, The Last Kingdom’s hero is Uhtred, born the son of a Saxon nobleman, who is orphaned by the Vikings and then kidnapped and raised as one of their own.

Forced to choose between the country of his birth and the people of his upbringing, Uhtred treads a dangerous path between Saxon and Viking as he seeks to recapture his ancestral lands.

Fans of Game of Thrones, the HBO fantasy hit, will be reassured that The Last Kingdom promises similar elements – there will be “heroic deeds and epic battles” as well as bone-crunching clashes involving warriors like Ivar the Boneless and his feared brother, Ubba.

But Carnival said the series would be quite different from Game of Thrones, which is pure “fantasy”, whereas The Last Kingdom is a franchise of historical novels about the birth of England.

The Last Kingdom promises a “thematic depth that embraces politics, religion, warfare, courage, love, loyalty and our universal search for identity.”

Gareth Neame, executive producer, who won Golden Globe and Emmy awards for Downton Abbey, said: “This is not Game of Thrones - brilliant though that show is, ours is a historical drama based on the real events around the time of King Alfred the Great and the foundation of England.

"How England was once a group of separate smaller Kingdoms and how its inhabitants the Anglo-Saxons forced out their Viking invaders and came together for the first time as a single entity called England.
Click to expand...

teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVC0HBlLMF8

casting: http://deadline.com/2014/11/the-las...on-matthew-macfadyen-rutger-hauer-1201294955/

Sounds like fun :)
 
choodi

choodi

Banned
Cool. So the time period will overlap at some point with Vikings?

Ivar is Ragnar Lothbrok's son, right?
 
Business

Business

Member
Read the first book and felt the characters lacked a lot of depth. Still entertaining I guess.

choodi said:
Cool. So the time period will overlap at some point with Vikings?

Ivar is Ragnar Lothbrok's son, right?
Click to expand...

It shares some historical characters with History Channel's Vikings yes.
 
S

Stereogatari

Banned
Turkey's equivalent of BBC (TRT) has a series similar to this about the battles between Turkish tribes and Byzantine Greeks which led to the formation of the Ottoman Empire.

Medieval themed stuff seems to be the vogue thing at the moment.
 
L

L1NETT

Member
Been intrigued by this one, looks alright.

Haven't read the books but read a bunch of Anglo-Saxon histories so cool for the Beeb to give this era some screentime.

Between this and Wolf Hall like the direction the BBC are taking some bigger budget shows. Would rather watch historical dramas than gritty grey troubled cop show number 356. Never really got into Game of Thrones but can appreciate the influence it clearly has had.
 
R

Rug Monkey

Member
Crispy75 said:
Only so far as you believe that Ragnar was a real person, yes :)
That puts Last Kingdom a little later than Vikings.
Click to expand...

Ivar the Boneless was, as was Björn Ironside, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye and Ubba. But Ragnar Hairy Pants is more legend than fact
 
C

Crispy75

Member
L1NETT said:
Been intrigued by this one, looks alright.

Haven't read the books but read a bunch of Anglo-Saxon histories so cool for the Beeb to give this era some screentime.

Between this and Wolf Hall like the direction the BBC are taking some bigger budget shows. Would rather watch historical dramas than gritty grey troubled cop show number 356. Never really got into Game of Thrones but can appreciate the influence it clearly has had.
Click to expand...

I like GoT, but if we can blame it for having Wolf Hall, then I like it even more :)

Rylance was incredible in that. So much meaning from such a still performance.
 
A

Asami208

Banned
I've to see a GOT/Vikings "epic" historical show about say, feudal-era Japan, or the Aztecs/Incas, or Saladin, or something. Those could be awesome if done well.
 
C

Crispy75

Member
Asami208 said:
I've to see a GOT/Vikings "epic" historical show about say, feudal-era Japan, or the Aztecs/Incas, or Saladin, or something. Those could be awesome if done well.
Click to expand...

Aztecs or Incas, in the few years running up to the Spanish invasion, would be gripping as hell
 
Hari Seldon

Hari Seldon

Member
Totally in if it is up to the quality of Vikings. Although this is going to spoil the shit out of Vikings if you didn't already know the history haha.
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Interesting. I actually have the first book of the series (The Last Kingdom, for which this series will be named after) but I haven't read it yet. I really enjoyed his Arthurian series though, Warlord Chronicles was great and Derfel, Nimue, Guinevere, Merlin etc. were really interesting characters. And boy was Lancelot and Mordred both amazing pieces of shit, hahahaha.
 
W

Walpurgis

Banned
Based on Bernard Cornwell’s best-selling series of “Saxon stories”, the drama is set in England during the reign of King Alfred, when “the separate kingdoms of what we now know as England have fallen to the invading Vikings and the great kingdom of Wessex has been left standing alone and defiant.”
Click to expand...
lol blatant Westeros ripoff
Merging historical fact and fiction, The Last Kingdom’s hero is Uhtred, born the son of a Saxon nobleman, who is orphaned by the Vikings and then kidnapped and raised as one of their own.

Forced to choose between the country of his birth and the people of his upbringing, Uhtred treads a dangerous path between Saxon and Viking as he seeks to recapture his ancestral lands.
Click to expand...
Theon ripoff
Fans of Game of Thrones, the HBO fantasy hit, will be reassured that The Last Kingdom promises similar elements – there will be “heroic deeds and epic battles” as well as bone-crunching clashes involving warriors like Ivar the Boneless and his feared brother, Ubba.
Click to expand...
Oh, don't worry, I'm reassured.

Gareth Neame, executive producer, who won Golden Globe and Emmy awards for Downton Abbey, said: “This is not Game of Thrones - brilliant though that show is, ours is a historical drama based on the real events around the time of King Alfred the Great and the foundation of England.
Click to expand...
Could've fooled me.
"How England was once a group of separate smaller Kingdoms and how its inhabitants the Anglo-Saxons forced out their Viking invaders and came together for the first time as a single entity called England.
Click to expand...
Sounds familiar.

Looking forward to HBO's DMCA takedown notice.
 
G

grandwizard

Member
Oh wow. I just started reading this series and am on the second book, had no idea they were making a tv series. It really doesn't seem as involved as ASOIAF and I think as a tv show it might get kind of one-note, as the story is following this one specific person all the time and so far he feels really one dimensional.

edit: Damnit, I shouldn't have watched the trailer. Now while reading I have new faces for all the characters instead of the ones I made up.
 
Lactose_Intolerant

Lactose_Intolerant

Member
That trailer did nothing for me though I don't know anything about the show or books.

Looks like a lot of armies standing around, main guy gets captured by vikings and has a duel to the death for some reason, naked women, etc.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
grandwizard said:
Oh wow. I just started reading this series and am on the second book, had no idea they were making a tv series. It really doesn't seem as involved as ASOIAF and I think as a tv show it might get kind of one-note, as the story is following this one specific person all the time and so far he feels really one dimensional.

edit: Damnit, I shouldn't have watched the trailer. Now while reading I have new faces for all the characters instead of the ones I made up.
Click to expand...

If you're looking for historical fiction similar to ASOIAF I'd suggest The Iron King by Michael Druon.
 
B

BigDes

Member
RPGCrazied said:
Awesome. Didn't know it would be this soon. Fantasy TV shows is killing it lately. This show, Vikings, Game of Thrones, The Shannara Chronicles. Am I missing anything? Oh yeah, The Bastard Executioner!
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Would this and Vikings be considered Fantasy tv?

I know I'm being a big old pedant here but I would awesome these would fit more under Historical/Period drama than fantasy
 
A

AngmarsKing701

Member
I think I'm just one book behind at this point. Uhtred can be a bit of an asshat, but he's got an edge to him. He's also dumb as rocks when it comes to anything other than chopping opponents into little bits. But some of that is just the reality of the time he lived in. Very superstitious.

That being said, the books are written in first person, from Uhtred's perspective. By the time the story rolls along to books 5/6, England is coming together but you as the reader aren't seeing a lot of it. This is one of those times where I wish the story had multiple perspectives, similar to GRRM's story-telling.

It will be interesting to see how the show handles that, whether they stick to following Uhtred around everything while historic things happen elsewhere, or if they branch out to tell the wider story.


Also, GoT is having an impact on TV these days, as we're seeing more of these period pieces come out of the woodwork. I find it interesting that BBC decided to tell this story given it's a sequel of sorts to History Channel's Vikings.
 
H

His Majesty

Banned
Haven't read Cornwell's Saxon books but his Arthur series is really good. Very interested to see where they will take this. Trailer looks promising.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Kate Arthur on The Last Kingdom for Buzzfeed's Fall TV preview:
This eight-episode series is fall television’s other offering set hundreds of years ago in what’s now the United Kingdom but was then only loosely held together. And The Last Kingdom is also muddy and violent, but unlike The Bastard Executioner, the main goal of that violence isn’t to appall you. The plot is based on Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories, which have a loyal following. Alexander Dreymon plays Uhtred, a highborn Saxon kid during the ninth century who is adopted by Danes, until — well, that doesn’t work out, and he has to figure out where his loyalties lie. Dreymon is a star to watch (he’s appeared in American Horror Story), and for once in a show like this, the character is not dour, and even looks like he’s having fun. (It helps that Emily Cox plays his friend and love interest, Brida, and they find time to mock each other even as they cross the countryside fearing for their lives.) The cinematography, by the way, is also beautiful, the battle scenes are impressive, and the series’ music is propulsive. One more thing I really like about the four episodes of The Last Kingdom that I watched? All the men don’t look alike. Someone actually made an effort in one of these settings to make sure that the faces and hair of the mostly male characters were distinct enough that I didn’t spend the first hour or two completely confused. Thank you!
Click to expand...
 
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