A new BBC drama about the Battle of Hastings will feature a diverse cast, as historians question why “colour-blind” casting has been applied to a period “when Britain was least multicultural”.
King and Conqueror, an eight-part series, will tell the story of Harold and William’s fight for the English throne, culminating in the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Jason Forbes and Elander Moore are among a diverse group of actors who have been cast to play Anglo-Saxon characters, The Telegraph reports.
This is another period drama that follows the BBC’s strategy of casting non-white stars without regard to skin colour, something they also did for the return of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
King and Conqueror is a CBS Studios co-production acquired by the BBC. Last year, CBS Studios executive Lindsey Martin said the scripts would give a “bold, fresh take on a story that has endured for nearly 1,000 years.”
The BBC said the series would bring “Harold and William” to life, adding: “In the UK we learn about William the Conqueror, the Battle of Hastings and the gruesome death of King Harold in our school history lessons, but those headlines are all most of us can remember.”
Jason Forbes is to appear in a new BBC drama about the Battle of Hastings (pictured in royal attire from a previous production)
Forbes (left) and Elander Moore (right) are among a diverse group of actors who have been cast to play Anglo-Saxon characters.
The King and Conqueror will tell the story of the Battle of Hastings, depicted here on the Bayeux Tapestry.
The colour-blind distribution has drawn some criticism, with historian Dr Zareer Masani saying: Telegraph“Some of us, including people of color, grew up thinking that actors had to look like the characters they played.”
He said it could be “hugely confusing and absolutely misleading” and added that it was “absolutely crazy that they have applied this colour-blindness to a period when Britain was less multicultural, even before the Norman Conquest”.
The cast includes Norton as Harold Godwinson and Coster-Waldau as William, Duke of Normandy, alongside co-stars Juliet Stevenson and Clemence Poesy.
Forbes and Moore will play Anglo-Saxons, with the former playing the fictional character Thane Thomas.
Moore, who is of Trinidadian descent, will play Morcar, a real historical figure from Northumbria who fought against Viking and Norman invaders before being replaced by William after the Battle of Hastings. He later rebelled against William.
King and Conqueror follows in the footsteps of Netflix series Bridgerton, which cast Adjoa Andoh as Lady Agatha Danbury in Regency-era England, while Channel 5’s 2021 series Anne Boleyn starred Jodie Turner-Smith.
It follows news that Wolf Hall will return with a noticeably more diverse cast of actors playing the Tudor nobles (pictured, Kate Phillips as Henry’s third wife Jane Seymour and Cecilia Appiah, pictured right, as her sister-in-law Anne).
Jane Seymour’s sister-in-law Anne, whose character’s name was changed to Nan for the series, is played by mixed-race British actress Cecilia Appiah (left), while Sarah Priddy, of Bahamian descent, plays her mother, Lady Margery.
The shift to showcase more diverse talent follows in the footsteps of Netflix series Bridgerton, which cast Adjoa Andoh as Lady Agatha Danbury in Regency-era England (left), while Channel 5’s 2021 series Anne Boleyn starred Jodie Turner-Smith.
And in April, it emerged that Wold Hall would feature a diverse cast to portray Tudor courtiers in 16th-century England.
Jane Seymour’s sister-in-law Anne, whose character name has been changed to Nan for the series, is played by mixed-race British actress Cecilia Appiah, while Sarah Priddy, of Bahamian descent, plays her mother, Lady Margery.
Meanwhile, Thomas Wyatt, a Tudor courtier and poet who introduced the sonnet to England, will be played by Amir El-Masry, an Egyptian-British actor.
The role was played by Slow Horses star Jack Lowden in the 2015 series.
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