I agree that it was a shambles, but don't think that was due to lack of care by the production team. On the contrary, I think there is a touch of "Manos: Hands of fate" style masterpiece making felt by the (what appears to be) inexperienced crew - was it made by students or something? The naive Direction is particularly awful, and the script is also toe curlingly bad. The acting is also pretty abysmal, but when you have evidence of poor production you have to give the actors the benefit of doubt; they probably did the best they could with what they were given.
I also thought the "Lord of the Rings" references were misguided and silly, and the battle scenes hilarious; Hastings looks like only a couple of dozen people turned up! And before someone complains that a TV production is hardly going to have a cast of thousands, let me say that a competent Director can make limited extras look like a believable army.
However, I did find it surprisingly engaging and watched it in it's entirety, I just would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been wincing all the way through.
(EDIT: I've just noticed that the Director, Justin Hardy was also responsible for the excellent and very professional "Trafalgar Battle Surgeon", so he is has come up with the goods in the past. Whatever, this was a poor effort.)
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jaf5557
14 years ago
The reason it had a lot of Lords of the Rings type references was the only way that Channel 4 would buy it.
The costume was ok but needed more research to make sure it was accurate as quite a bit wasn't. The huscarl's kit was totally wrong for his position and included items that were either too early too late for the period (where did that West Country accent come from if they were from Sussex).
It had been pointed out to the set design bods that certain items would not have been around - least of all the two black and white rabbits but they sneaked in anyway.
As regards the fighting the guys from Regia Anglorum worked really hard on that and running about in heavy rain wearing mail etc.. isn't easy (also their kit is authentic).
It's a shame that due to circumstances it wasn't better but I enjoyed it purely as entertainment.
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ContinentalOp
8 years ago
The costume was ok but needed more research to make sure it was accurate as quite a bit wasn't. The huscarl's kit was totally wrong for his position and included items that were either too early too late for the period (where did that West Country accent come from if they were from Sussex).
Indeed, of the costumes were more or less accurate, but many were not. The dueling leaders at Hastings had late 12th and early 13th century (my area of interest) helmets, like this if I recall:
http://www.globaleffects.com/C_pages/Rental/Wardrobe/Headgear/HelmetsPeriod/Medieval/normitalianh.JPG Formerly KingAngantyr
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