King and Conquorer - from 24 August BBC and iPlayer

[IwantToRetire]

I had heard about this and sort of didn't listen as I thought it was Netflix.

But it isn't. Its the BBC!

"A clash that defined a country, and a continent, for a thousand years. The epic story of 1066 and the brutal battle for a kingdom. Starring James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024pyz

Supposedly based on verified historical facts.

I am imagining a mash up of Game of Throne and Vikings.

(Haven't seen another thread but am nominating this as a binge watch thread, rather than tv pace. If available on iPlayer.)

PS Christopher Nolan??

James ! Not Edward .. 😀🙄
What am I like ?

100% correct !!

Yeah, he drives me mad!

I thought the real William was thought to be stocky, bull-like even, rather than lanky and I thought Matilda was small, dark and quite dumpy.not a willowy blonde.

I may be getting that from Georgette Heyer's The Conqueror though, the book that got me interested in the Norman period. A highlight on a trip to Normandy a few years ago was visiting Falaise castle and seeing where William's father first spied the fair Arlette washing clothes in the river with her skirt above her knees..

I agree that the script and acting were awful. I won't bother with the rest.

I do agree about having to work hard to keep up with all the characters.

Its a bit like the tv series about The White Princess, whereyou need a little info box in the corner showing the family tree - basically they are all related!

And then the ability to pause and have a little bubble that you can click and it has useful info that they married their brother's wive's son and previously she was married to her mother's brother.

Nolan directed a Potter film ( or maybe two ?) and they are seen as not as good as the others. I feel he is a bit of a marmite director?

I know that the tapestry is being gifted for a while to the Uk , but not sure when. I would like to see that , but depends where it’s going to be put.

British Museum, from next September, until the following summer, but I don't think exact dates have been announced yet.

Meanwhile, there's a full-size Victorian replica at Reading museum.

https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/collections/britains-bayeux-tapestry

Oh, I have never been to the British museum, so good excuse to go there next year !

Ermm, don't think so 80s!

Christopher Columbus did the potter movies ! I think I need to leave this thread now ! Lol
.. 😆

I think Nolan directer Oppenheimer (spelling?) which I tried to watch on tv.

In fact I started a thread saying how really irritating it was not to be able to hear the dialogue, and it was all the fault of not adjusting the film to be shown on tv.

And someone posted that she had gone to watch it in the cinema and it was no better.

And what was meant to be the big speech between Oppenheimer and Einstien, was inaudible.

At least I got mine free on some summer offer or other.

Madness.

Another pet hate of mine is unnecessary music. As though we cant work out if something is dangerous, amusing or even amourous.

Particularly if it swamps out the dialogue.

You're having a good day !

Dunkirk was better , OP, but there's very little dialogue in it...

Sorry - but I do like a good moan!

Also thanks to everyone who has been too polite to point out my thread title has a terrible typo (or rather lack of a spell checker on mumsnet!).

The good day comment was actually for 80s

I quite like it, all dark and gritty. I do think it should've been released autumn or winter time it's the wrong time of the year for it.

The ponies all look funny with their frantic trotting like something from a Monty Python sketch, why didn't they have proper galloping horses?

All a bit tense but I liked ep 1 <except for the hand bit >.

Horses were much shorter then, I believe.

The ponies used in filming were Icelandic horses- they have their own special gait, the tolt. I’ve never personally ridden one, but apparently it’s very comfortable! I know of a few that do endurance, both with adults.

Henry viii (so admittedly a long while later!!) issued decrees about destroying horses/ponies that were too small, in a bid to improve the stock for military purposes. But they were still v small by today’s standards- I think it was new Forrest ponies had to be at least 14hh and otherwise stallions above 15hh (so just into horse territory by a few inches) and mares over 13hh. A hand is 4 inches. These days above 14.2 is considered a pony (altho Icelandics are called horses despite being pony sized). I think the laws were repealed at least in part by Elizabeth because bigger horses require more food etc and were less easy to sustain.

So overall I would guess that they would be riding pony sized mounts- small and hairy like many of our native ponies now! They are small, hardy, hairy enough to cope in the winter, and ‘good keepers’ that can manage on poor quality forage- likened to living on fresh air. We often have the opposite problem these days, that they are designed to live on very little and therefore can’t cope with modern ex dairy grazing that is too calorific/sugary for them and causes all sorts of health problems.

Often in early period dramas you see big 16.2 sporty type horses and you think nope, a whole army’s worth of those would not be sustainable.

I was looking forward to this and was so disappointed. It really was dire for all the reasons previous posters have mentioned. If I had written the script I would have been too embarrassed by its awfulness to submit it.

Oh dear it's not very good is it? As others have said the script is awful and the acting not much better!!

I'm in the minority I'm now up to ep 3! I keep having to Google to find out who everyone is though.

I'm a bit disappointed too. It seems to have been filmed on location in our wooden Early Learning Centre fort.

I liked episode 2 better. Have they merged Harold's 2 wives into one?

Well, they were both called Edith it seems!

I quite like Sweyn. He's a bit like an over confidentex public school boy who drinks real ale in a field and says 'fuck' loads and loudly so that he seems a 'lad'.