King & Conqueror: BBC period epic starts filming, expands cast for 2025 premiere

Two TV heavyweights are stepping into 1066. The BBC’s new eight-part historical drama King & Conqueror has started filming, pairing James Norton as Harold Godwinson with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William, Duke of Normandy, in a high-stakes retelling of the run-up to the Norman Conquest. Created by Michael Robert Johnson (Sherlock, The Devil’s Whore) and produced by New Pictures, the series is set to land in BBC One’s flagship Sunday slot in 2025.

The pitch is simple and sharp: two former allies, bound by oath and ambition, collide in a succession crisis that rewires England. The show promises to walk past the familiar classroom bullet points and into the rooms where alliances were struck, promises were bent, and fear and faith pulled powerful people in opposite directions. Expect court intrigue, sibling rivalries, and battlefield strategy from a story that ends at Hastings but begins years earlier, when cracks first appeared in the Anglo-Saxon order.

The BBC has fleshed out an already starry lineup. Emily Beecham plays Edith, Harold’s wife, while Cle9mence Poe9sy portrays Matilda of Flanders, William’s shrewd and politically savvy partner. Eddie Marsan takes on ailing King Edward, the monarch whose wavering succession plans lit the fuse. Juliet Stevenson appears as Lady Emma, while Geoff Bell and Clare Holman play Godwin and Gytha, heads of the formidable Godwin clan. Around them stand power-brokers, raiders, and kings who smelled opportunity—and blood.

Behind the camera, the series leans into scale and texture. The production touts tactile 11th-century sets, heavy timber and stone, and the churn of cavalry against shield walls. The battle sequences aim to feel thunderous without losing sight of the faces inside the helms. That balance—epic scope with human focus—is what the creative team says will set this apart from straight historical reenactment.

The story and the stakes

At the center sits Harold, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king, who rose on ability, family networks, and timing. On the opposite shore, William, Duke of Normandy, gathered claims, ships, and allies. The two men weren’t just rivals; they were once bound by mutual need. The drama explores where trust frayed and why each man believed he had the stronger right—by blood, by oath, or by the mandate of the church.

The timeline points to a frantic year. With King Edward’s health failing, England’s succession became a tug-of-war. In the north, the specter of a Viking-backed intervention loomed. The show brings in Harold’s brother Tostig—volatile, ambitious—who switches from family friction to outright threat. Harald Hardrada appears on the chessboard too, signaling the route to Stamford Bridge and the exhausting double grind that defined Harold’s final weeks. When William lands, it’s not just a clash of armies but a clash of legitimacy, staged with banners, bishops, and the sharp end of a spear.

Expect a keen look at power’s softer levers too: marriage, oaths, hostage-taking, and the church’s blessing. Figures like William’s half-brother Odo and the formidable Fitzosbern were crucial to Normandy’s military and political machine. In England, earls and thanes weighed survival against loyalty. The series leans into those council scenes where kingship is argued over bread and wine, and where a careless word can become a death sentence.

This is also a story of women with agency. Matilda of Flanders wasn’t a bystander—she managed alliances, commanded respect, and is said to have rallied Norman nobles. Edith stands at the center of Harold’s domestic and political world, navigating family fault lines and the fallout of decisions taken in smoky halls far from her control. Their perspectives keep the plot tethered to households as much as to battlefields.

Visually, the production aims for immediacy. The armor looks used, not polished; ships creak; the countryside feels lived in. The creative goal is to keep viewers close to decisions as they’re made—whether it’s a hurried council at dawn or the moment a commander commits the reserve and gambles a kingdom.

Cast, creators and rollout

Here’s how the ensemble lines up:

• James Norton as Harold Godwinson, England’s final Anglo-Saxon king.
• Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William, Duke of Normandy—disciplined, relentless, and politically ruthless.
• Emily Beecham as Edith, Harold’s wife.
• Cle9mence Poe9sy as Matilda of Flanders, William’s wife and partner in power.
• Geoff Bell as Godwin, head of the Godwin family.
• Clare Holman as Gytha, matriarch of the Godwinsons.
• Ingvar Sigurdsson as Fitzosbern, Norman power-broker and battlefield ally.
• Elliot Cowan as Sweyn.
• Luther Ford as Tostig, Harold’s brother turned adversary.
• Bo Bragason as Queen Gunhild.
• Bjarne Henriksen as Earl Siward.
• Jean-Marc Barr as Henry I of France.
• Le9o Legrand as Odo.
• Juliet Stevenson as Lady Emma.
• Eddie Marsan as King Edward.
• Oliver Masucci as Baldwin.

Additional cast deepens the court and battlefield:

• Elander Moore as Morcar.
• Calum Sivyer as Tallifer.
• Vigdeds Hrefna Pe1lsdf3ttir as Ce9cile.
• Jason Forbes as Thane Thomas.
• Joakim Ne4tterqvist as Thorolf.
• Indy Lewis as Margaret.
• Sveinn Geirsson as Baron Montgomery.
• Valdimar d6rn Flygenring as Baron George.
• Bjf6rgvin Franz Gedslasson as Baron Richard.
• Ines Asserson as Judith.
• Sveinn d3lafur Gunnarsson as Hardrada.
• Stormur Jf3n Korme1kur Baltasarsson as Alain of Brittany.
• degorsteinn Bachmann as Baron of Brittany.

Michael Robert Johnson leads the writing and executive producing. New Pictures, the outfit behind other acclaimed dramas, is on production duty, aiming for a grounded feel and large-scale set pieces that evoke pre-Conquest England and ducal Normandy. The brief is character-first: let ambition, faith, and family obligations set the plot’s pace, then meet those choices on the field when words fail.

Piers Wenger, Director of BBC Drama, put it this way: “King & Conqueror promises to be a gripping drama that reimagines one of the most pivotal moments in British history. With two powerhouse leads in James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and a stellar supporting cast, we’re set to deliver a fresh perspective on the human drama behind the Battle of Hastings.”

The rollout is locked. Episode one premieres on BBC One on Sunday, August 24, 2025 at 9:10pm, with episode two following on Monday, August 25. The series then settles into weekly Sunday nights, wrapping on October 5, 2025. Every episode will stream on BBC iPlayer the day it airs. It’s the kind of schedule that suggests confidence: a big opener, a next-night follow-up, then the steady drumbeat of a Sunday-night habit.

What should viewers expect? Big-canvas battles, yes, but also the quiet rooms where power changes hands. The show leans on the gray areas—oaths sworn under duress, claims massaged by clerics, and brothers who turn into rivals when crowns are at stake. By the time banners rise at Hastings, the audience should know exactly what each side stands to win—or lose.

If your mental picture of 1066 is a single tapestry panel and a falling king, this series wants to widen the frame. It promises to follow the people who carried those banners, counted the ships, and made the calls that still echo nearly a thousand years later. And with Norton and Coster-Waldau fronting the story, the drama has its duel at the center: two men convinced history belongs to them, hurtling toward a hill where only one rides away with a crown.