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[Edmond Dantès]

BBC’s new Game of Thrones slayer 'The Last Kingdom' relies on Saxon appeal, creators say

An epic television drama featuring bloody battles and a feud over ancestral lands might sound familiar to fans of the hit series Game of Thrones. But The Last Kingdom, a new big budget BBC spectacular, is not a spin-off of the hugely popular US show, say its creators.

The series is instead a historically rooted drama about the ninth-century wars between the Anglo-Saxons and Viking invaders.

Based on Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling 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 figures 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.

Coming to BBC Two next year, the series is a collaboration between BBC America and Carnival Films, the award winning producers who turned ITV’s Downton Abbey into a global blockbuster. It will inevitably prompt comparisons with Game of Thrones, the HBO fantasy phenomenon.

The Last Kingdom promises “heroic deeds and epic battles” as well as 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 series promises a “thematic depth that embraces politics, religion, warfare, courage, love, loyalty and our universal search for identity”. No Viking drama can be complete without its share of rape and pillage. But the BBC series is unlikely to match the explicit sex scenes found in Game of Thrones.

Gareth Neame, the award-winning executive producer, said: “Cornwell’s Saxon novels combine historical figures and events with fiction in an utterly compelling way. In the hands of screenwriter Stephen Butchard, we believe it will make original and engrossing television drama.”

Neame added: “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.”

Shooting begins in the autumn for the series, which will run for eight hour-long episodes. With eight Saxon stories novels published, the BBC hopes The Last Kingdom will become a long-running show, like Game of Thrones, which has been renewed for a fifth and sixth season after its fourth run amassed record viewing figures.

Cornwell was also responsible for the “Sharpe” novels about a soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. These became a long-running television series of the same name starring Sean Bean, who coincidentally also appeared in the first series of Game of Thrones.

Link

Press release

BBC Two, BBC America and Carnival Films, the Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning producers, today announced that production would begin in the autumn on The Last Kingdom, a new historical 8x60' drama series.

BAFTA nominated and RTS award-winning writer Stephen Butchard (Good Cop, Five Daughters, House Of Saddam) will adapt Bernard Cornwell’s best-selling franchise 'The Saxon Stories' for the screen. Cornwell is also known for his much-loved 'Sharpe' novels that became the long-running TV series of the same name starring Sean Bean.

Set in the year 872, when many of the separate kingdoms of what we now know as England have fallen to the invading Vikings, the great kingdom of Wessex has been left standing alone and defiant under the command of King Alfred the Great.

Against this turbulent backdrop lives our hero, Uhtred. Born the son of a Saxon nobleman, he 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, his loyalties are ever tested. What is he - Saxon or Viking? On a quest to claim his birthright, Uhtred must tread a dangerous path between both sides if he is to play his part in the birth of a new nation and, ultimately, seek to recapture his ancestral lands.

The Last Kingdom, made by Carnival Films (Downton Abbey), is a show full of heroic deeds and epic battles but with a thematic depth that embraces politics, religion, warfare, courage, love, loyalty and our universal search for identity. Combining real historical figures and events with fictional characters, it is the story of how a people combined their strength under one of the most iconic kings of history in order to reclaim their land for themselves and build a place they call home.

Gareth Neame, Nigel Marchant and Stephen Butchard will serve as executive producers with Nick Murphy (Prey, Occupation) co-executive producing and directing multiple episodes and Chrissy Skinns (Mr Selfridge, Marchlands) producing the show. The Commissioning Editor is Polly Hill for the BBC and Ben Stephenson, Controller of BBC Drama Commissioning, ordered the show. Perry Simon, General Manager, Channels, and Richard De Croce, SVP Programming, will oversee the series for BBC America.

“Cornwell's Saxon novels combine historical figures and events with fiction in an utterly compelling way,” said Gareth Neame.

“In the hands of Stephen Butchard we believe it will make original and engrossing television drama. In part the epic quest of our hero Uhtred, it is also a fascinating re-telling of the tale of King Alfred the Great and how he united the many separate kingdoms on this island into what would become England.”

Kim Shillinglaw, Controller, BBC Two, adds: "BBC Two has a great reputation for distinctive, surprising drama - I'm delighted we are doing The Last Kingdom, an epic piece from a highly regarded creative team."

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning, says: “I hope The Last Kingdom will expand BBC Two’s distinctive portfolio of drama. It’s an epic narrative with an extraordinary creative team. It will feel like nothing else on television, with all of the scale and intrigue of the best fantasy stories but the reality of fact.”

What is The Last Kingdom?

The first book in a brand new series, The Last Kingdom is set in England during the reign of King Alfred.

Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria. Orphaned at ten, he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred's fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault.

The struggle between the English and the Danes and the strife between christianity and paganism is the background to Uhtred's growing up. He is left uncertain of his loyalties but a slaughter in a winter dawn propels him to the English side and he will become a man just as the Danes launch their fiercest attack yet on Alfred's kingdom. Marriage ties him further still to the West Saxon cause but when his wife and child vanish in the chaos of the Danish invasion, Uhtred is driven to face the greatest of the Viking chieftains in a battle beside the sea. There, in the horror of the shield-wall, he discovers his true allegiance.

The Last Kingdom, like most of Bernard Cornwell's books, is firmly based on true history. It is the first novel of a series that will tell the tale of Alfred the Great and his descendants and of the enemies they faced, Viking warriors like Ivar the Boneless and his feared brother, Ubba. Against their lives Bernard Cornwell has woven a story of divided loyalties, reluctant love and desperate heroism. In Uhtred, he has created one of his most interesting and heroic characters and in The Last Kingdom one of his most powerful and passionate novels.


Characters in The Last Kingdom

Fictional:

• Uhtred - the Protagonist, narrator, dispossessed Ealdorman of Bebbanburg originally called Osbert
• Earl Ragnar the Fearless - Danish warlord who adopts Uhtred
• Ragnar Ragnarsson (Ragnar the Younger) - Ragnar's son, Uhtred's foster brother and close friend
• Rorik Ragnarsson - Ragnar's younger son and Uhtred's childhood friend
• Thyra Ragnarsdottir - Ragnar's daughter kidnapped by Kjartan
• Brida - East Anglian Saxon girl, Uhtred's lover and friend
• Sigrid - Earl Ragnar's wife and mother to Ragnar the Younger, Rorik and Thyra
• Ravn - blind skald and Earl Ragnar's father
• Sven Kjartansson - Uhtred's sworn enemy and Kjartan's son
• Kjartan - Danish shipmaster who destroys Uhtred's future
• Father Beocca - Alfred's priest and Uhtred's family friend
• Mildrith - Uhtred's pious West Saxon wife
• Leofric - Uhtred's friend, warrior and shipmaster
• Odda the Younger - Ealdorman Odda's son and Uhtred's enemy
• Ælfric - Uhtred's uncle and usurper of the throne of Bebbanburg
• Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg - Uhtred's father
• Gytha - Uhtred's stepmother

Historical:

• King Alfred of Wessex (Alfred the Great) - the King of Wessex
• Æthelflæd - Alfred's eldest daughter, Lady of the Mercians.
• Guthrum the Unlucky - Danish warlord called the unlucky
• Ubba Lothbroksson - Danish warlord feared by many, older brother to Ivar and Halfdan
• Ivar Lothbroksson (Ivar the Boneless) - Danish warlord feared by many, brother to Ubba and Halfdan
• Halfdan Lothbroksson - Danish warlord and younger brother of Ubba and Ivar
• Ælswith - Alfred's wife who dislikes Uhtred
• Æthelwold - Alfred's nephew and friend of Uhtred
• Ealdorman Odda - Earldorman of Wessex
• King Edmund of East Anglia
• King Osbert of Northumbria

Good source material, an accomplished writer, and Carnival Films producing; it may well turn out to be quite good.

 

[Walshicus]

Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria.

Hmm, I hardly think you can call a C9 Northumbrian "English". Also, I hope they don't turn this isn't some masturbatory Danes = Bad Guys, Saxons = Good Guys nonsense.


I'll give the show a whirl. I'm not convinced the BBC can do justice to the genre though.

 

[RyanDG]

I really enjoy this book series. It ended up getting me into table top war gaming with De Bellis Antiquitatis, when I decided that I wanted to paint a bunch of shield wall miniature vikings. The novels are already fairly well suited for adaptation to television too... The scope is kept pretty close to the narrator at all times, and though there are definitely a lot of "epic setpieces", there is a lot more of character driven drama. It has the potential to be better than the History Channel's Vikings show (which I love), but regardless - the more viking fiction out there, the better.

 

[Sickboy007]

King Alfred was a badass, I'm interested.

 

[harSon]

Is there room for two Vikings television shows? The one on History is quite good

 

[Rei_Toei]

Is there room for two Vikings television shows? The one on History is quite good

There's no such thing as too much Vikings on tv, silly.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

King Alfred was a badass, I'm interested.

Not so much in these books

Hmm, I hardly think you can call a C9 Northumbrian "English". Also, I hope they don't turn this isn't some masturbatory Danes = Bad Guys, Saxons = Good Guys nonsense.

If they follow the books, not even close.

 

[H.Cornerstone]

Yeah, the books are great, and they don't really turn the Danes into the bad guys and English are the good guys.

Very excited to see how they pull this off.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

If justice is done to Bernard Cornwell's story, if may inspire some confidence in the future literary executive of the Tolkien Estate, which may result in a deal involving The Silmarillion. Live action? Doubtful. A radio drama akin to Brian Sibley; more probable.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Alexander Dreymon Lands Lead In BBC America Series ‘The Last Kingdom’

Alexander Dreymon (American Horror Story: Coven) has been tapped for the role of Uhtred in the eight-hour Game Of Thrones-esque epic series for BBC America and BBC2.

 

[Discotheque]

Is there room for two Vikings television shows? The one on History is quite good

Good luck topping Ragnar Lothbrok bbc

 

[H.Cornerstone]

Is there room for two Vikings television shows? The one on History is quite good

They're different enough I think so

Not sure about that casting for Uthred. In the books he is described as being quite a large fellow and this dude is only 5 10.

 

[tanooki27]

oh man this stuff is right up my alley. sweet.