The Last Kingdom

The popular TV series has renewed for a fourth season

By Aurelie Denieul

Photo credit to sohu.com

The Last Kingdom is an original BBC series, first released in 2015 and bought by Netflix in 2018, based on the Saxon Stories saga written by Bernard Cromwell. The Last Kingdom is set at the end of the 9th century, during the kingdom of Alfred The Great, King of Wessex, while the Vikings were invading Anglo-Saxon Britain. The series, whose third season was released on 19 November 2018, follows the life of Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Saxon boy raised by the Vikings. Adrian Bouchet, who plays Steapa in the series, said at MCM London Comic Con last year that the filming of a fourth season would begin in March 2019.

There is still a lot of material that could be used to continue the series. In fact, out of the 11 books that Bernard Cromwell wrote, only six were used in the three past seasons.

The series has been described from the beginning as being a historical non-fictional Game of Thrones version, but screenwriter Stephen Butchard said he never watched Game of Thrones as he didn’t want to be influenced by it.

However he added that Game of Thrones was the stepping stone to the rise of historical TV series, and The Last Kingdom would have probably not had the same success hadn’t Game of Thrones paved the way for it.

The Last Kingdom is really addictive, from the first episode to the last one. The series is set in a historical time that a lot of people don’t know about, which makes it really interesting, even if the series is romanticised.

The series follows the life of important historical figures of the time, such as King Alfred, or his daughter Æthelflæd on the Saxon side, but also of important Viking figures, such as Guthrud.

The Last Kingdom doesn’t have the typical division between “good“ and “bad“ characters, as viewers like characters from both sides. The series allows a comparison between two opposite cultures, and it also manages to portray women’s status with a modern approach. In fact, if the series deals with the theme of rape, together with the daily violence that women suffered from at the time, the story features some very important female characters, too. Æthelflæd, with her very strong personality, is one of them; Hild, a nun and badass warrior, is another example.

Despite their strong personalities, these women are the victims of violence and abuse themselves, which makes it also really relevant to our time. The series broke away from the cliché that only weak women can face violence or rape, and it is so well written that it’s never boring. It is filled with so much action that it becomes almost addictive.

However, it is easy to lose the thread of the plot if one doesn’t pay close attention to the story, but this is also what makes this series so good, in a way.

The Last Kingdom’s scenarios and costumes are also worth of notice, as they have been curated in a very detailed way. The choice of a dark blue light to dramatise each shot, together with the chosen settings for filming make each episode emotion-inducing and realistic.

Special effects are also outstanding: it is surprising how fake blood and violence scenes can look so real. In fact, battles in The Last Kingdom are much more realistic than they are in Game of Thrones, which is also why the former is not recommended to a young audience.

In conclusion, The Last Kingdom is a successful series, with strong historical references and appropriate descriptions of cultures, which manages to avoid chauvinism, despite it being typical at the time. The series is well balanced between historical norms and modern expectations for a TV series.

This TV show is highly recommend to anyone who loves history and has enough free time to spare.

However, history lovers might find the Saxon Stories saga even more interesting, as the books provide an even wider portrayal of the history of the time. In fact, as Stephen Butchard said in a conference, he had to make a lot of cuts in season one, so a lot of Uhtred and Alfred’s childhood has been left out of the series’ plot. “Many of the books see Uhtred as a boy,” he says, “but for the series we needed him to become a man really quickly.”