Skip to content
The Winter King opens with the climax to a battle, after Arthur (Iain De Caestecker – The Control Room) has to break the news to Dad, Uther (Eddie Marsan – The Thief His Wife and the Canoe), that his brother – hence, Uther’s other son – Mordred, is dead.
Naturally, Arthur gets the blame and is banished to live on Gaul, where they only have a beach, and not even a Tesco… just a Co-op. As such, Uther won’t rest until he can sire a new heir to the throne, because he’s pig-headed like that.
Before he’s sent to Coventry, not even saving a Saxon boy from a death pit – who was impaled on a spike – can help his case, but then again, they’re against the Saxons, so that’s a fly in the ointment. In the meantime, nerdy Nimue (Lucy Allix, then Ellie James) can looks after the lad, who they name Derfel (Jordan Dark, then Stuart Campbell)
As for Merlin, who can see the future by touching someone’s hand with all the dexterity of a character from The Exorcist, in 15 years, we’ve gone from a young white lad in the 2008 BBC1 series (Colin Morgan), to a middle-aged black man in Nathaniel Martello-White. I wish they’d make their minds up.
So far, I’ve only had chance to watch the first episode of The Winter King so far, but I’m not grabbed by it, partly because the dialogue is like something from a soap opera, and that’s what you mostly get inbetween mere snippets of action.
The Winter King is on ITVX now, at ITVX, but is not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Series Directors: Otto Bathurst, Farren Blackburn, Anu Menon
Producer: Catrin Lewis Defis
Screenplay: Kate Brooke, Amy Roberts, Loren Mclaughlan, Nessah Muthy, Ed Whitmore
Novel: Bernard Cornwell
Music: Rob Lane, Enrica Sciandrone
Cast:
Arthur: Iain De Caestecker
Uther: Eddie Marsan
Nimue: Ellie James
Derfel: Stuart Campbell
Hywel: Sifiso Mazibuko
Merlin: Nathaniel Martello-White
Lady Morgan: Valene Kane
Young Derfel: Jordan Dark
Young Nimue: Lucy Allix
Bishop Bedwin: Steven Elder
Gundleus: Simon Merrells
Lanval: Matt Mella
Sagramor: Ken Nwosu
Ladwys: Tatjana Nardone
Sansum: Andrew Gower
Owain: Daniel Ings
Cadwys: Billy Postlethwaite
Gorfydd: Aneirin Hughes
Lunete: Olumide Olorunfemi
Ralla: Charlie Duncan
Tewdric: Sagar Arya
Guinevere: Jordan Alexandra
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.