As always in the early Middle Ages, there was a power struggle for control of the English Crown. The death of Harthacanute, the last Viking born King of these isles, leaves a vacant throne. The strong-willed widow of the previous English-born King, Emma of Normandy, played deliciously by Juliet Stevenson, is determined to get her Son, Edward the Confessor (Eddie Marsan), to become the next monarch. The major noble families are generally happy with this choice - even if Edward does come across as weak and preoccupied with the voices in his head, that he insists are directly from God.
The most prominent of the nobles are the Godwin's, of which the middle Son is Harold (James Norton). His younger sister Gunhild (Bo Bragason), is Queen to Edward and although young, seems to be getting the measure of her dominating mother-in-law. Meanwhile, across the channel, Emma's great nephew, William (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), is in a fierce disagreement with King Henry of France about how much influence the French crown should have over Normandy.
This is a pretty lavish production that wouldn't look amiss on the big screen. Period costume and weapon technology look pretty authentic. The limited indoor locations seem fairly modest but enough in order to keep the story moving along during the frequent and longish expositions scenes. The main characters were accompanied well by a solid group of supporting performances, especially from Emily Beecham as Harold's beloved Wife and Clémence Poésy as William's Spouse, The Duchess of Normandy. Her ever-charming but constantly interfering Father, Baldwin of Flanders (Oliver Masucci), should get a special mention for his excellent low-level Machiavellian exploits to undermine her and William.
The multiple skirmishes, other battles and the monumental clash on the field at Hastings are definitely what stands out in this production - with authentic-looking combat sequences that were extremely bloody with many realistic wounding scenes. Not for the faint-hearted but after other recent popular sword-and-shield drama series' like The Vikings and Game of Thrones, that raw content would be conspicuous if absent.
The script is very expository but in spite of that, all the performances are situationally believable. The chemistry between the leads, who actually did historically meet a couple of times before the legendary 1066 clash, are strong and carry along the narrative well. I can even forgive that Harold never seemed to have a clean face, even during his own coronation - and the moustached William looked like a time travelled 1970's Dad! Thought this series feels about two episodes too long, the attrition builds quite steadily. Due to constant power struggles, the relationship between these once-amicable distant relatives slowly deteriorates to produce total mortal enemies.
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