King & Conqueror [BBC]

The Black Oil

Lots of soldiers and ships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anS9xQEPTsU

Clareman

They are going big after the Game of Thrones vibe there 😁

odyssey06

According to wiki release date on BBC is 24th August.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123669292#Comment_123669292

Or Game of Thrones went after big William the Bastid vibes.
Seriously, hopefully this is good. Fascinating part of English history, especially after Harold just beat a Norwegian army two weeks earlier (Harald Hardrada deserves a show of his own).

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123669850#Comment_123669850

The march back from Stamford Bridge to Hastings to face William was in and of itself an incredible feat. Nevermind that he walloped the Vikings there and ended the Viking influence in Britain too.

expectationlost

I dont know how your supposed to know what is going on?

daheff

seems to be on randomly on the BBC. Sunday and monday night at slightly different times. No idea when ep 3/4 is on? next sunday?

story is a bit garbled too. a little difficult to figure out who is who and what exactly is going on

ednwireland

i found it good nice change from the tudors, but I do know who most of the characters are. and the usual historical liberties taken !

Charlo30

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123755451#Comment_123755451

If you're not well up on the period you're going to find yourself confused at times as there were a lot of players. In terms of historical liberties, so far there no worst they other similar shows

brian_t

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123755433#Comment_123755433

It continues next Sunday and the following Sunday.

Hodors Appletart

There IS a Hardrada show, it's Vikings Valhalla, and it was cancelled just as William was introduced as a character, a child, at the end of the final season. I think they wanted to do one more season ending with the Battle of Hastings.

I love the whole lot of TLK, Vikings, and VV and I see this as a spiritual continuation of those shows. I know TLK is a fictionalised story with the main character being a fictional person, but he interacts with real historical figures throughout, and there is some time overlap with the early Vikings series. Both TLK, Vikings and now K&C have the same throughline, leading to the BOH and the end of the Viking Age.

silliussoddius

I read The Last Kingdom series of books and would recommend them. As you say there is a solid basis of real history there, at the end of each book the author states things he may have made up or exaggerated.
There is one book that is based in a battle mentioned in historical sources, it is basically referred to in one sentence but he built a fictional story around it.
The Rest is History podcast had a good episode in April that gives a lot of background and context to the Norman invasion.

Hippodrome Song Owl

Watched the first episode of this last night. I'm reasonably familiar with the historical facts, but I found it very difficult to follow it at first in terms of who exactly everyone was outside the two leads, particularly the women. I spent half the episode on pause consulting the imdb cast list to confirm who was who, and then Wikipedia articles for the different figures.

I did enjoy it though, and now I've figured out the details I'm really looking forward to episode two when I get a chance.

brian_t

If you watch this on BBC1 Northern Ireland, it switches to BBC2 this coming Sunday.

Romario11

Finished this last night and it really did finish well and build up a great crescendo in the end.

The problem was it was confusing as hell for a lot of it trying to figure out all these different parties. I don't think they handled it well in the early episodes. And then they throw in a Moorish ethnicity guy from Murcia. So I thought what's this lad from Spain doing here? But if you look up the Map it's Mercia which is north of Wessex where Birmingham is now. Unfortunately I didn't do that until episode 7. Nothing like a bit of DEI to confuse a viewer and scupper history!

I would recommend whipping up that old map from that period, its gives you a better insight into everything and how all the regions interplayed.

odyssey06

I'm still getting through the episodes, but finding it confusing, having to refer to the wiki page a lot. And I've seen previous documentaries on Hastings and the Normans. I can see a lot of people being totally lost. Maybe if shown in America they'll do a bookend intro either from a historian or textual - some sort of exposition as an intro to the episode on the state of play about the English 'earldoms', French duchies etc.
I remember PBS America used to have someone doing a short intro for their British series to fill in some gaps for American viewers. Maybe these days they are just expecting people to google it.

If they were going to do the focus on William and Harold, then focus on that and drop some of the sibling stuff.
Or maybe only bring in the Normandy stuff after a few episodes.
I think the acting is doing a bit of the heavy lifting in terms of keeping me watching through the 'middling' episodes.

Charlo30

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123824014#Comment_123824014

Completely agree on the sibling stuff. Thought they focused a bit to heavily on Sweyn. In reality he was minor player in the events and dead by 1052.

Romario11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123824014#Comment_123824014

Don't think this would fly in America, people would have no idea what's going on! I didnt even mention the wives and their interests which gets more complex in the latter episodes.

But stick with it, it's rewarding in the end, and the reasoning behind the sibling stuff becomes clear, it's a vital part of Harolds arc. The acting is indeed fantastic. Eddie Marsan, what an actor, he pulls off Edward's simpleness just brilliantly.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123825549#Comment_123825549

I plan to stick with it alright but I can see a drop off in BBC audience figures.

I agree re: America so I was surprised to see it was co-produced with CBS studios. I wonder if they filmed extra exposition scenes for US version.

+1 on Eddie Marsan, the intensity.

Hodors Appletart

I watched episode 4 last night, and it eventually all fell into place, all the pieces are set for the actual story to move into the battles. I'm not sure they needed to change the historical context (the reason Tostig reneged on his brother, the mad death of Lady Emma)

Hippodrome Song Owl

I have watched to episode 6 so far and I have enjoyed it overall once I figured out who they all were. One key issue for me when I thought I was clear on who the women were, is the changing of the women's names since three of them should actually be Edith - that threw me off. Agreed also that the portrayal of Lady Emma's death was silly and that Edward Marsan was excellent as Edward. I think Clemence Poesy is also very good.

Dial Hard

If you've an interest in that period, David Mitchell's (very funny) book Unruly has quite a long section on it.

Charlo30

What's irking me the most is the facial hair. In reality Harold had the mustache and William was clean shaven. Trivial, I know.

Hodors Appletart

Yeah TRIH mentioned that on a recent podcast