V good short blog this. I don’t really understand why it is even purportedly set in the past. Why not just set it in a fantasy land, it might as well be, and is the theoretical audience any larger?
Replies
“And this shall be the curse placed upon him: he shall see clearly the follies of others, and his eyes shall be drawn to UK politics and mid-tier TV shows in 2025, and truly he will know suffering.”
aug 25, 2025, 6:10 pm • 2 0 • view
Sounds like a dud - much like Napoleon..
aug 25, 2025, 1:45 pm • 0 0 • view
It is just visibly more influenced by ‘Game of Thrones’ than any work of popular history or scholarship, so, why not just set it in Medivalania and have done with it?
aug 25, 2025, 1:20 pm • 34 1 • view
Needed to complete the industry bingo card of historical events messed with
aug 25, 2025, 2:07 pm • 4 0 • view
Laughed out loud at this, provoking some v strange looks (I’m at the supermarket queuing)
aug 25, 2025, 2:09 pm • 2 0 • view
It's had such a bad reception that I will never bother to watch it, so I will never know.
aug 25, 2025, 1:26 pm • 0 0 • view
I'd pay money to hear Tom and Dominic from The Rest is History podcast review this show, having just finished their podcast series on this earlier this year.
aug 25, 2025, 2:25 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes, I’ve been thinking the same. Perhaps a bonus episode is on the cards
aug 25, 2025, 5:28 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh dear. Mrs Bear asked me to record it while she is away and now I’m going to have to listen to her correcting it constantly.
aug 25, 2025, 6:19 pm • 0 0 • view
Aren't TV networks actively searching for the next GoT? Seems like a missed opportunity
aug 25, 2025, 1:47 pm • 18 0 • view
I mean, the BBC already made the best "Honesly it's definitely real history, not a fantasy version of history, honest guv." The Last Kingdom. But they couldn't afford to make it and gave all the rights to Netflix.
aug 25, 2025, 10:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Most of the series that seem like obvious attempts to follow GoT are from streamers that were willing to throw money at such demanding productions. And they haven't come anywhere close to replicating that success.
aug 25, 2025, 4:57 pm • 4 0 • view
Which makes me wonder if, given the sheer scale and cost of GoT, if traditional networks are daunted by the sheer cost and risk involved.
aug 25, 2025, 4:57 pm • 2 0 • view
I think anything with a large cast or set pieces is going to be daunting for anyone's spreadsheet. But the real trick is to adapt entertaining books, of which there are many which look nothing like that, imo.
aug 25, 2025, 5:07 pm • 3 0 • view
Yeah, I mean, visibly King & Conqueror is trying to follow that model. It looks a lot more like Westeros than 1066!
aug 25, 2025, 5:08 pm • 3 0 • view
There are plenty of fantasy novels/series that are much shorter than GoT too!
aug 25, 2025, 5:10 pm • 4 0 • view
Also, to be blunt, plenty that are very long if your series is a hit and can run for a decade, but don't leave you with an unfinished story that nobody will want to revisit in your back catalogue if it isn't a big enough hit to justify the cost
aug 25, 2025, 5:18 pm • 3 0 • view
Indeed. And I think if one *really* feels a need to pander to the 'I don't like fantasy, other than a bunch of fantasy I am kidding myself is not fantasy', isn't that what King Arthur is for?
aug 25, 2025, 5:11 pm • 9 0 • view
Vikings sort of did that with mythical Ragnar inserted into historical events.
aug 25, 2025, 5:17 pm • 3 0 • view
Yeah, I think that was a v intelligent way around 'what do you do about the vikings' issue, in that basically, what we know to be true about them and what most of us collectively believe is in different galaxies.
aug 25, 2025, 5:20 pm • 3 0 • view
Bernard Cornwell's Last Kingdom was excellent and, I believe, successful...
aug 25, 2025, 5:50 pm • 0 0 • view
Jim, you’ve reminded me of what I loved most about the first series of “Vikings”: the sense that, through glimpses of mysticism and the presence of gods, we were experiencing an alien culture with a very different way of seeing the world. Not quite “Arrival” (the movie) but close. Great stuff.
aug 26, 2025, 11:47 am • 2 0 • view
Yeah, some fantastic stuff in there, and i think the Christian/Pagan process/struggle throughout all the series remains interesting.
aug 26, 2025, 12:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Robin Hood too!
aug 25, 2025, 5:14 pm • 5 0 • view
aug 25, 2025, 8:22 pm • 1 0 • view
I'm wondering how the "historical, not fantasy" crowd react to things like Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell, which is at once obviously a fantasy book/show and also sumptuously realised as a 19th century period piece.
aug 25, 2025, 5:22 pm • 8 0 • view
My hobby horse on this is that it wouldn't have won anywhere near as many TV awards had people clocked it was fantasy and part of why it didn't make it out of the group stage for the Booker was that people clued into the fact it was.
aug 25, 2025, 5:26 pm • 10 0 • view
I also think about shows like Bridgerton.
aug 25, 2025, 5:24 pm • 3 0 • view
There's lots of historical novels also. At least 2 Bernard Cornwall ones that haven't been turned into telly yet.
aug 25, 2025, 5:39 pm • 1 0 • view
I really enjoyed Shardlake, but it was criminally under-promoted and cancelled after one season.
aug 25, 2025, 5:40 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm up to episode 5. No dragons so far. Also minimal... fraternisation.
aug 25, 2025, 5:38 pm • 0 0 • view
And other stuff being adapted in Fantasy works is way more expensive per episode and GoT episodes if anything really cut down a lot of the cooler stuff for budget + filming schedules + Beinoff & Weiss wanting to go and direct Star Wars.
aug 25, 2025, 11:10 pm • 1 0 • view
I mean sure can be shorter but there's like Wheel of Time which is yeah (haven't read it tho) like obviously way more ambitious and expensive to do long run even if the cast is smaller to an extent?
aug 25, 2025, 11:15 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes - but Amazon chose Wheel of Time. An excellent, interesting world of lore with a big fandom and then played silly buggers with its plot and characters for reasons at best tangential to making it work for telly. 10/10 for thought, 0/10 for practice, despite throwing a load of money at it.
aug 25, 2025, 3:04 pm • 9 1 • view
It was definitely something of a pale imitation of the books. A shame; I’d hoped it might be amazing.
aug 25, 2025, 7:23 pm • 2 0 • view
i saw a bit of it, seemed fun but I didn't watch the rest
aug 25, 2025, 3:59 pm • 1 0 • view
They got a lot better with every following season, but it is really hard to justify continuing spending so much money after stumbling at the starting block.
aug 25, 2025, 4:11 pm • 4 0 • view
Unpopular opinion, but i was enjoying the TV series more than I ever did the books (I got up to book 8 or 9 I think) until they cancelled it. I thought they did good and it was a real shame they gave up on it.
aug 25, 2025, 7:58 pm • 1 0 • view
And I'm not someone who prefers screen to book. I'm an avid scifi & fantasy reader & nearly everything turned in to a screen version has disappointed me compared to the books.
aug 25, 2025, 7:59 pm • 1 0 • view
I really want a detailed account of everything they get wrong now.
aug 25, 2025, 7:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Voilà: bsky.app/profile/lvhi...
aug 25, 2025, 7:43 pm • 3 0 • view
Ah! Thank you.
aug 25, 2025, 7:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Leonie’s is a superb thread- thankyou!
aug 25, 2025, 8:17 pm • 2 0 • view
For the English these events exist chiefly in the imagination. & have done for centuries. From the Norman Yoke to Hereward the Wake. I can indulge that so far. As you observed of James I—these personalities & worldviews are radically different from ours, yet we crave an existential meeting point 🏴
aug 25, 2025, 8:41 pm • 0 0 • view
Pretending it's history means my other half will actually watch it, which means we get to watch it together when it's broadcast on a Sunday evening, there would be a point black refusal to watch it if advertised as fantasy. Shame it's not very good fantasy either though.
aug 25, 2025, 2:04 pm • 1 0 • view
It’s the opposite in our house. If it had been set in a fictional world based on real 11th century events then me and my wife would have watched it together (as we did with GoT) However I point blank refuse to watch historical drama (because the inaccuracies wind me up) so she has to watch it alone.
aug 25, 2025, 2:10 pm • 2 0 • view
There's also a space between the lowest fantasy and historical of "there's no magic, but I made all the countries up" that could be filled more often. (I think a lot of the things in here are still called fantasy)
aug 25, 2025, 4:05 pm • 0 0 • view
When things are set in the real past and everyone talks like they're just in from a coffee in Hampstead, it sets my teeth on edge. (Maybe it's my age.)
aug 25, 2025, 2:15 pm • 0 0 • view
Either way it’s terrible but I quite enjoyed it
aug 25, 2025, 5:19 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes it pants.. I actually enjoyed it a bit… watched it all.. battle of Hastings is quite well done ( no spoilers!)
aug 25, 2025, 11:51 pm • 1 0 • view
Gosh I wonder what the outcome will be? 😂
aug 28, 2025, 8:14 am • 1 0 • view
Not telling but I loved the bit with the Dutch fleet sailing up the Thames…..
aug 28, 2025, 8:15 am • 0 0 • view
😮
aug 28, 2025, 8:20 am • 0 0 • view
With due apprehension about crossing the streams with another thread of yours - the theoretical audience is larger *for the first episode* - after that... not so much.
aug 25, 2025, 1:22 pm • 6 0 • view
Ah, yes, fair point.
aug 25, 2025, 1:39 pm • 2 0 • view
It has James Norton in it. Which is the new version of something having Sean Bean in it. Folks watch. Though TBF with less predictability that he will be dead by the end of the first episode.
aug 25, 2025, 5:28 pm • 2 0 • view
Can I introduce you fellas to “Hostage”? God almighty … it’s TERRIBLE.
aug 25, 2025, 1:24 pm • 0 0 • view
Thing is just quick search through social media and its target audience isn't impressed. It feels the only appeal is to people who think Beinoff And Weiss are the apex of TV and Worldbuilding and came up with GoT on their own.
aug 25, 2025, 11:06 pm • 1 0 • view
I am enjoying the steps they've had to take to make sure everyone in it isn't called Edith though
aug 25, 2025, 9:15 pm • 16 0 • view
went to see pals at the Fringe in a play called The 3 Marias about genuine famous Portugese feminists in the dying days of Salazar where, unsurprisingly, everyone was called Maria
aug 25, 2025, 9:31 pm • 1 0 • view
Also all of Mary Queen of Scots' ladies in waiting/friends + her, of course.
aug 25, 2025, 9:50 pm • 1 0 • view
that of course was the joke I made, next year they should do The 4 Marys but the director @wendymcewan.bsky.social pointed put that were 2 Mary Queen of Scots musicals on at the Fringe this year ;-)
aug 25, 2025, 9:56 pm • 1 0 • view
One of them’s real name was Gytha.
aug 25, 2025, 9:29 pm • 0 0 • view
I really recommend @marcmorris.bsky.social’s book The Norman Conquest, if you want the real history. It is well written and entertaining as well as based on good scholarship. I will probably suspend disbelief and watch the TV Drama as well..
aug 25, 2025, 7:19 pm • 2 0 • view
My pitch ‘Fifties Dion fan misses bus from York and tries to walk home to Stamford Bridge. Falls asleep in field at Gate Helmsley and wakes up in 1066 singing “I’m the conqueror”, closes the eponymous gate (he’s a Rambler …) and the rest is history’
aug 25, 2025, 4:07 pm • 1 0 • view
CGI would add £££££££££ to the price.
aug 25, 2025, 1:55 pm • 0 0 • view
Fantasy doesn't have to involve CGI.
aug 25, 2025, 2:51 pm • 1 0 • view
It would to get people to watch it on BBC prime time.
aug 25, 2025, 3:05 pm • 0 0 • view
That's disappointing, I was looking forward to this. I understand that dramatisation is not a pure history, but you hope that it can still be truthful and leave you a little better informed.
aug 25, 2025, 1:24 pm • 0 0 • view
The moment I saw the stills I was like; yeah this is going to be generic GoT-pandering.
aug 25, 2025, 11:02 pm • 2 0 • view
I wish I had seen the stills rather than watching the first 20 minutes in growing irritation.
aug 25, 2025, 11:08 pm • 1 0 • view
It's just soooooooooooo generic looking and pretty much alienate the kind of audience it should be getting on board ala 2023's Napoleon film by Ridely Scott.
aug 25, 2025, 11:05 pm • 1 0 • view
And the advantage of fantasy is that you can fudge the distances between things so people zipping back and forth in no time at all doesn't seem so eyebrow raising.
aug 25, 2025, 3:40 pm • 1 0 • view
And here’s the thing: it is really great story, and needs no embellishment! The highlights as depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, and the details in the AS Chronicles etc, are a gift to a scriptwriter and their historical consultant.
aug 25, 2025, 1:40 pm • 3 0 • view
Because calling it “history” means the BBC can claim it’s part of the public service mandate ?
aug 25, 2025, 1:30 pm • 0 0 • view
My working theory is the script writer is desperate for a permanent academic position and wanted to create as many vacancies as possible through heart attacks, strokes and general fury.
aug 25, 2025, 1:37 pm • 42 2 • view
Showing he is deluded twice over (vacancies, ha). We medievalists, however, are made of sterner stuff.
aug 25, 2025, 2:19 pm • 8 0 • view
I'd have thought in the past "yes" because a lot of the audience would feel 'silly' watching a serious adult story set in Ruritania (compared to lighter SFF airing at teatime) but as you say, GoT came out and was really popular. What's the problem going low-fantasy Based On This Event?
aug 25, 2025, 1:32 pm • 4 1 • view
Can we rephrase it as Built-In Audience? GoT had a Built In Audience from the books. The kingdom of Middleland doesn't - and probably signals its duff. But rebadged as 1066 it now has Built In Audience. (And I still think there are people who won't watch fantasy who will watch history.)
aug 25, 2025, 2:03 pm • 0 0 • view
Clearly another case of Insufficient Dragons
aug 25, 2025, 2:18 pm • 1 0 • view
The problem I have with it is that it’s rubbish: plodding, incomprehensible, boring. It’s far less engaging than Guy Ritchie’s East End Londonium geezers version of the Arthurian legend.
aug 25, 2025, 2:09 pm • 1 0 • view