“King and Conqueror”

Several friends have discussed with me the new television historical drama “King and Conqueror”. I have no wish to view what is manifestly inaccurate in terms of narrative, setting, costuming…you mention it  - everyone with any knowledge of the eleventh century can see glaring faults in it.

Earlier this year I noted some of these shortcomings in two posts in March and April, which can be seen, with the appropriate links, at How not to represent the Norman Conquest and Life in the Middle Ages - as it was and as it was n’t

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The Daily Telegraph review is hardly favourable as can be seen here:

 

KING AND CONQUEROR REVIEW

The BBC's new Sunday night epic is more Monty Python than Game of Thrones

King & Conqueror, review by Ed Power:

The BBC’s new Sunday night epic is more Monty Python than Game of Thrones

King & Conqueror is a historical epic that, despite its starry cast, doesn’t feel particularly historical or epic

James Norton as Harold Godwinson and Indy Lewis as Margaret in King and Conqueror, a historical drama let down by atrocious dialogue 

King & Conqueror (BBC One) kicks off with the most fateful meet-cute in British history – the 1066 clash of kings between Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror. But these two mortal foes have crossed paths already – as the series spells out when they hail each other mid-battle. “William!”, shouts Harold. “Harooold!”, responds William. It’s an unintentionally hilarious moment – rather than duelling monarchs, they sound like mates who know each other from five-a-side football. It isn’t the only time the viewer will be tempted to laugh out loud during this historical drama.

If Game of Thrones is the standard reference point for this sort of fare nowadays, the comparison that springs to mind watching King & Conquerer – which, after that opening, rewinds to the years leading up to Harold’s last stand in modern east Sussex – is Monty Python and the Holy Grail. All that is missing are peasants digging for dirt and John Cleese wearing a funny helmet.

It does at least have a duo of stellar leads. Sir Hunkalot James Norton commands the spotlight as a dashing Harold Godwinson. So dashing that it’s hard to work out how he’s going to lose England to the ghastly Normans. In the baddie corner, meanwhile, William is played with tremendous earnestness by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, aka Jaime Lannister from, yes, Game of Thrones.

So dashing is James Norton as Harold Godwinson it’s hard to work out how he could lose control of EnglandCredit: BBC/CBS Studios/Lilja Jons

Jaime was a villain with a heart of gold. But initially, Coster-Waldau’s William comes over as a good bloke who wants the best for his underdog kingdom perched preciously on the French coast. A heroic halo similarly hangs over Norton’s Harold, busy prowling the borders of his father’s kingdom of Wessex, convinced the dastardly Mercians are up to no good.

King & Conquerer is written by Michael Robert Johnson, whose credits include Guy Ritchie’s fun Sherlock Holmes adaptation, and who has been upfront about prioritising drama over biographical fidelity in his latest project. As he told the BBC: “You can’t just dramatise the facts because the peaks and troughs of the emotions are never in the right place.”

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s William the Conqueror initially comes across as a well-intentioned underdog.

Historical accuracy indeed flies out the arrow-slit early on as a young William, in England for the coronation of Eddie Marsan’s Edward the Confessor in 1042, rescues Harold from bandits. The foes share an undeniable sizzle in their limited screen time together. Alas, they are cruelly betrayed by atrocious dialogue that swaps out the usual cod-Shakespeare for a disastrous attempt to bring 1066 bang up to date.

“Pull your head out of your arse, Harold!” declares the future King’s bad-boy brother, Sweyn (Elliot Cowan), early on. The various female characters, meanwhile, converse like 21st-century girl bosses parachuted into the Middle Ages. “I’m leaving England – I’m taking the children with me,” says Harold’s wife, Edith (Emily Beecham), as England’s Green and Pleasant Land is about to be washed in Saxon blood.

Elsewhere, there are groan-out-loud concessions to viewers who think Hastings is the aphorism-spouting cop from Line of Duty. “The Mercians crossed our border in violation of the peace agreement,” yells Harold in the first of eight episodes. He all but whips out a map and outlines the various kingdoms with a pointer.

Another misstep was surely the decision to film in Iceland, which is distractingly grim, dark and lacking in trees – and surely bears little resemblance to Harold’s England. Additionally, the budget doesn’t seem to have been the most massive either: 11th-century London is depicted as a single castle with a few cottages scattered about, while every other fortress looks identically lacklustre.

King & Conquerer’s best asset is its cast. Beecham and Clémence Poésy are convincingly gritty as Harold and William’s love interests. It’s got a great villainess, too, in Juliet Stevenson as Emma of Normandy, who plots to drive Harold and his dynasty out of Wessex and install her family from across the Channel as the protector of her son (fantastically hapless Marsan).

But the show never surmounts its massive spoiler problem – we all know how the tale finishes, and there aren’t enough surprises along the way to make the journey worthwhile. In the end, and despite a starry ensemble, King & Conqueror is a historical epic that doesn’t feel particularly historical and isn’t nearly as epic as the subject matter demands.

I have seen not a few online articles which to a greater or lesser extent slate the series for its inaccuracies and complete fabrications.

So on Sunday evenings find something better to do than watch this historical nonsense - sit and watch some paint dry. 

Better still read a decent history of the events of 1066.

My next post will reproduce an article from the Daily Telegraph, and written by an Oxford academic, which sets out the incredible number of inaccurate features in the series.