RCSThe LAST KINGDOM
A Season Two
The second series of The Last Kingdom premiered at 9.00pm on BBC2 on Thursday March 16 in the UK.
Netflix, who co-produce the series, will begin streaming episodes later this year to various countries outside the UK, including the US.
‘I had been given a perfect childhood, perfect, at least, to the ideas of a boy. I was raised among men, I was free, I ran wild, was encumbered by no laws, was troubled by no priests and was encouraged to violence.’ Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of 9th Century Northumbria, but orphaned at ten, 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 last English kingdom when the Danes have overrun Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia.
That war, with its massacres, defeats and betrayals, is the background to Uhtred’s childhood, a childhood which leaves him 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 to the West Saxon cause, but when his wife and child vanish in the chaos of a Danish invasion, Uhtred is driven to face the greatest of the Viking chieftains in a battle beside the sea, and there, in the horror of a shield-wall, he discovers his true allegiance.
"Bernard Cornwell is the master at many things...and historical military fiction is his wheelhouse." - RCS
Set in the late ninth century AD, when England was divided into seven separate kingdoms. The Anglo-Saxon lands are attacked and, in many instances, ruled by Danes. The Kingdom of Wessex has been left standing alone. The protagonist Uhtred, the orphaned son of a Saxon nobleman, is captured by Viking Danes and reared as one of them. Forced to choose between a kingdom that shares his ancestry and the people of his upbringing, his loyalties are constantly tested. The first series' story-line roughly covers the plots of the original two novels, The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman, although condensed for the purposes of television. The second series' story-line will roughly cover the plots of the third and fourth of Cornwell's novels, The Lords of the North and Sword Song. – Wikipedia
Season One Review
"The tale of Alfred the Great’s burnt cakes on a medieval windowsill occupies its own cosy corner of English consciousness. But Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories novels tell an altogether darker tale about Alfred and pre-Norman England, a time when nationhood was up for debate and Saxons were in constant conflict with Viking settlers. The BBC has adapted Cornwell’s books into an eight-part drama series, The Last Kingdom (BBC Two). The hope may be that it’ll follow in the footsteps not just of Game of Thrones, HBO’s medieval fantasy epic, but of the classic Sharpe, which was based on another set of Cornwell’s books.
There was no sign of King Alfred in the first episode. It was 866 AD in Northumbria, and a young Saxon boy, Uhtred, lost his father to a Viking raid before himself being kidnapped by a band of marauding Danes and kept as a slave. During this first hour, as horrific battles and Dark Ages religious politics raged, Uhtred won the trust and love of his captor and new Danish father figure Ragnar, while Uhtred’s self-interested Saxon uncle became a puppet king for the ruling Danes.
Having grown into a strapping young warrior, Uhtred escaped when a rival family of Danes murdered his adopted Danish family, and found himself having to survive alone with his fellow Saxon captive and love interest, Brida.
At first, the echoes of Game of Thrones were plentiful: battles, gore, abuse of women, people claiming to be kings, and famous actors meeting grisly ends. Matthew Macfadyen had barely got his chainmail on before a sword was thrust into his windpipe and his body nailed to a post.
The similarities mostly end there, however, and there wasn’t a dragon in sight. The Last Kingdom was less flashy than Game of Thrones, more serious and more grey in visual tone, with a fraction of the swearing or nudity.
There were a few fantasy clichés in the script that should have been cut – people yelling “Boy!” to get the attention of nearby children, for instance, or referring to money as “coin” – but overall this was a fresh and enticing introduction to an atmospheric world. There were satisfyingly high production values, a bloodthirsty appetite for violence and a proper cliffhanger. Sign me up." By Charlotte Runcie - The UK Telegraph - October 2015
