The Last Kingdom: 'This is the making of England' 

We no longer check to see whether Telegraph.co.uk displays properly in Internet Explorer version 6 or earlier.

To see our content at its best we recommend upgrading if you wish to continue using IE or using another browser such as Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome.

Patrick Smith speaks to Bernard Cornwell and the team behind the BBC\'s new Game of Thrones-esque historical drama

\'I\'ve always wanted to play a Viking\' - Rutger Hauer as Ravn in the BBC\'s The Last Kingdom Photo: BBC/Carnival Films/Kata Vermes

It was inevitable that the success of Game of Thrones would inspire sagas cut from the same bloody cloth. HBO\'s swords-and-sorcery epic, adapted from George RR Martin\'s novels, has been a phenomenon, its lurid mix of sex, death, skulduggery and Byzantine intrigue winning tens of millions of fans and numerous awards – including a record-breaking 12 at last month\'s Emmys. Now, the BBC has finally decided to tap into a similar vein of sword-wielding medieval strife with two new lavishly produced historical dramas.

Alexander Dreymon as Uhtred of Bebbanburg (Photo: BBC/Carnival Films/Kata Vermes)

Laying siege this winter will be Fall of a City, a 10-parter tackling the decade-long Trojan War. But before then comes The Last Kingdom, a battle-packed ninth-century story charting the Viking invasion of Anglo-Saxon Britain, told from both side\'s perspectives. "I\'ve always wanted to play a Viking," says Dutch actor Rutger Hauer, who\'s part of a cast that includes Matthew Macfadyen and Alexander Dreymon. "For me, [The Last Kingdom] was Alice in Wonderland with a dark side."

David Dawson as King Alfred the Great (Photo: BBC/Carnival Films/Kata Vermes)

Like Game of Thrones, it\'s viscerally violent and sprinkled with nudity. Sharpe creator Bernard Cornwell, whose best-selling novels, The Saxon Stories, this eight-part series is based on, bristles at the comparison. "If I was a commissioning editor at the BBC I’d say, \'We want Game of Thrones – boys, let’s have dragons and tits,\'" explains the 71-year-old, who admits he\'s "never seen" the HBO drama. "But as much as I love George\'s book, it doesn’t have that grounding in reality. Mine continually has to come back to this real story – the making of England."

Emily Cox as Brida (Photo: BBC/Carnival Films/Kata Vermes)

Produced by the makers of Downton Abbey, The Last Kingdom disinters this forgotten tale through the gaze of Uhtred of Bebbanburg (played by Dreymon), the son of a nobleman who is captured and raised by pagan Danes, before pledging his allegiance to King Alfred\'s West Saxons. "Most historical novels have a big story, little story," explains Cornwell. "And you flip them, putting the little story in the foreground."

That he plundered his own lineage for the "little story" adds a personal dimension to the plot. "I first met my real father when I was 58," says Cornwell, who was adopted as a baby. "His surname was Oughtred and they had a family tree tracing back to Eider the Flamebearer [one of the Saxon invaders of northern England who took Bebbanburg – now Bamburgh – Castle]. Somehow," he adds, "this family survived."

\'The Saxons are immigrants. The Danes are immigrants. We should take the story of England back to its beginning.\' (Photo: BBC/Carnival Films/Kata Vermes)

Trying to capture the speech of the time isn\'t worthwhile, however, says Cornwell. "No one would understand. In the end what you do is you write something which is proficient and not full of archaisms and manages to avoid words that are plainly out of place." Indeed the genre is often dogged by cod-portentous language and crude caricature – think 2010 flop Pillars of the Earth.

Nick Murphy, who directs two episodes of The Last Kingdom, admits he was nervous about the project. “My first response was, ‘Oh God, people are just going to be eating goose legs,’” he says, referring to the boorish banquets typical of TV depictions of Vikings. He worked together with Hauer on refining the script. “I have a tendency to cut lines and change them,” says Hauer, who altered and improvised his famous “tears in rain” soliloquy in Blade Runner. “The director said, ‘Whatever you come up with, let me know what it is and we’ll work it out.’” There were clashes, he admits, “but we always figured it out”.

The result is a multilayered drama full of potential. Cornwell would like to see its subject taught in schools. "No one sees past the fact that King Alfred was a bad baker," he says. "This period shows that we’re all immigrants. The Saxons are immigrants. The Danes are immigrants. We should take the story of England back to its beginning."

Martin Chilton picks the best of jazz and soul legend Ray Charles

Martin Chilton picks some of the comedian\'s finest lines

Paul Gascoigne? Kieron Dyer? Here are all the celebrities rumoured to be entering the Australian jungle later this month

Martin Chilton\'s pick of 100 great jokes by 100 great comedians

As Teletubbies return, take a trip down memory lane with 20 great British children’s programmes

Martin Chilton picks out some sparkling one-liners

We bring you the forthright worldview of the former Oasis firebrand

Will Downton Abbey end with a wedding? Here are the series\' greatest love stories so far

As the new series swings into action, we look at the couples who found time to tango off-screen

Jennifer Lawrence\'s Katniss and the rest of the Hunger Games cast. Includes images from Mockingjay

Alec Guinness, the Oscar-winning actor, died on August 5 2000. We pick some of his memorable film roles

Colourised photographs documenting Howard Carter\'s discovery

With the new series in full swing, we reveal what became of the winners and runners-up from the previous 11 series

Cheryl Fernandez-Versini (formerly Cole) in pictures: from Girls Aloud to The X Factor

Raining? Again? Here are some of the best songs ever written about our most reliable companion

Martin Chilton selects 30 great one-liners from the comedian and film star Woody Allen

As SPECTRE tops the UK box office, we look back at five decades of women who\'ve fallen for 007

As Jenna Coleman steps down, Doctor Who expert Gavin Fuller lists the Doctor\'s best sidekicks

As the candidates running for the 2016 presidency start appearing, we look at the great quotes from White House incumbents

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Latest and breaking stories from the United States