Posted on 09/01/2025 6:49:18 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Anglo-Saxons will be played by a diverse cast in a new BBC historical drama about the Battle of Hastings.
The eight-part series King and Conqueror will tell the story of Harold and William’s epoch-defining struggle for the throne of England in 1066.
Some Anglo-Saxon characters, including a real 11th-century leader, will be played by a diverse set of actors.
Jason Forbes and Elander Moore have joined the cast of the drama which boasts James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in starring roles.
Adding diversity to a high medieval period setting follows the BBC’s “colour-blind” casting of non-white stars as Tudor courtiers in another upcoming historical drama, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
King and Conqueror is a CBS Studios co-production series acquired by the BBC.
When announced in 2023, CBS Studios executive Lindsey Martin said the scripts would offer “a bold and fresh take on a story that has endured for nearly 1,000 years”.
The BBC said at the time that the series would bring “Harold and William to life” with details of their personal lives, adding: “In the UK we learn about William the Conqueror, the Battle of Hastings and King Harold’s gruesome death in our school history lessons – but those headlines are all most of us can remember.”
The cast includes Norton as Harold Godwinson and Game of Thrones star Coster-Waldau as William, Duke of Normandy, alongside co-stars Juliet Stevenson and Clemence Poesy.
Without any official announcement, further details have emerged of greater diversity in the cast, with up-and-coming talents Forbes and Moore chosen for the roles of Anglo-Saxons.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Someone mentioned Cleopatra. Elizabeth Taylor will always be Cleopatra.
Durn Normans!
What's worse is they had Helen of Troy and Cleopatra as contemporaries.
So who knew the brit kings of today were part black.
Wasn’t Xena a fantasy? In some mythic fantasy you can do stuff that could be jarring and dishonest in something intended to be historical.
True. At least it wasn't too crazy. Unlike Bridgerton. But apparently that show is popular today. I don't get it.
** Who should play Shaka Zulu? **
How about IittIe Gary CoIeman or his brother Todd “WiIIis” Bridges from that
pandering sitcom of the 80’s?
Or are they both dead?
Todd Bridges is the only former child star from “Different Strokes” still alive.
** Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) playing Geronimo. *
And MichaeI Ansara Syrian heritage pIayed Chief Cochise on Broken Arrow
Was married to Barbara Eden
Just plain ridiculous.
That Catholic lady did it first with the Bible
I was called bigoted here for objecting
"I have ... a dream that ... my ... four little children ... will one ... day live... in ... a nation where they ... will ... not be judged... by the color of their ... skin but ... by the content of their ... character"
I thought he was Klingon !
Are they gonna be in “white face”?
I was sent on a multi-country software delivery in the early 90s. I had a full beard at the time. Blending in with the locals was easy. Apart from my official delivery duties, I took a weekend to drive to Aberystwyth, Wales. Pretty much like any of the other native Welsh men. Most of the men I encountered on the streets of Izmir, Turkey were also bearded, so it was a good fit for the trip. Being able to speak English, German and Turkish (traveler level proficiency) was good in the market alleys.
The oldest headstones with my family name in the Llanfihangel-y-Creuddyn cemetery date to the mid 1400s. I only had a couple hours to walk through the area. It really needs some serious cleaning of overgrowth. My great great grandfather's house still stands in Ysbty Ystwyth. It was last inhabited in the 1940s.
When can we start shouting Cultural Appropriation?
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