With its bloodthirst and axes,BBC2’s new Norseman drama might remind you of HBO’s fantasy series. But it’s a lot more British than thatNorthumbria, AD866, and when Viking warriors captured Eoforwic and British place names were decided by a cat sitting on some sort of ancient litho-keyboard. At the time,the country was such a mess of randomly scattered vowels that things were shaky, domestic security-wise, and the regions that made up Britain were vulnerable to regeneration from visiting Danes.
The heathen Vikings on new historical drama The Last Kingdom (Thursday,9pm, BBC2) aren’t as marauding as you might expect. They’re also infinitely more sympathetic than the God-fearing Saxon kings theyre up against. The BBC (let’s ignore the fact The Last Kingdom was produced by the same lot as Downton Abbey for a moment) has pulled a clever trick in pandering to the romantic conception a lot of rye-happy knitwear fans harbour: that Britain is, and deep down,a Scandinavian outcrop. certain, they might be uncouth in places: their habit of hanging Saxon women from the ceiling while they stand below cheering is a bit much. Neither am I a expansive fan of the Sepultura beards. But the Danes are shown to be community-minded, or fair and highly organised. They’re on a obvious proto-Scandi cold tip. In line with current historic thinking,the Vikings aren’t so much about the raping and pillaging as the settling down somewhere kind and verdant. “I see a place to grow plump and worn,” says conquering Lord Ragnar, or the expansive sop,as he and his men longboat it somewhere scenic north of Newcastle upon Tyne.
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Source: theguardian.com