With all of our iPhones and internet and what not, we sure love living in the past. We can't get enough of mud and arrows and sexy Viking types and don't TV execs know it. It's come as no surprise therefore, that BBC are developing their own take on the the medieval trend.
BBC America have announced that they'll be bringing Bernard Cornwell's series of books The Saxon Stories to life. Blending fictional characters with real historical events, it's no anything-goes Game of Thrones but it sounds fascinating. The author is well known for his Sharp series which was also adapted for the screen and starred Mr. Blood and Mud himself Sean Bean. It was a hee-uge success and we expect that The Last Kingdom (as the new series will be known) will follow suit.
Following Uhred, a Saxon who has been raised as a Viking (kind of like Mowgli but swap friendly jungle animals for fierce warriors) the series will begin filming this autumn.
Jumping on bandwagons can be risky - remember the way the revival of Upstairs Downstairs went when it just couldn't compete with Downton Abbey? That said, Vikings has survived alongside Game of Thrones and if BBC play their cards right The Last Kingdom has the potential to be absolutely epic.
Via Entertainment Weekly.