If ever he needed to prove he was tough enough to play 007, here’s the evidence for it… While making his new BBC drama series King and Conqueror, actor James Norton took more than a bruising.
“During filming I fell off a horse and broke my collarbone,” he reveals to the Daily Express. “It really hurt, but thankfully, the recovery process wasn’t too long and we managed to work around it.” In typical James Bond style, James reckons his equestrian misadventure may have even improved his performance in the eight-part historical epic in which he plays King Harold, who was famously felled by an arrow to the eye at the Battle of Hastings.
“Let’s just say when you see me grimacing with pain in certain scenes, it’s for real,” he says. “I had a great stunt double but I wanted to do as many of the stunts as I could.”
If I wasn’t already having a hot flush during my tête-à-tête with James at British Film Institute on London’s Southbank –where a press screening for King and Conqueror is being held – then I certainly am now.
The star of Grantchester and Happy Valley is arguably the best-looking – and certainly one of the most talented – actors in Britain.
A director’s dream, he has a granite jaw, sculptured cheekbones, laughing green blue eyes and a wide smile that women find irresistible; having split from actress fiancée Imogen Poots in 2023, the 40-year-old was recently spotted out with singer Lily Allen.
But back to King and Conqueror, which tells the story of Harold Godwinson and William, Duke of Normandy. The two foes famously came to blows after Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, died on January 5, 1066. His death sparked a bloody battle between rival claimants who each sought to take the throne, culminating in the Battle of Hastings on October 14 of the same year.
The production has been made by James’s company Rabbit Trap and he’s been working on the project for eight years.
He plays Harold – but what with him being the boss, so to speak, couldn’t he have swung it to play William the Conqueror? The victor’s role went to a Dane, Game of Thrones actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, instead. James laughs in response.
“It wasn’t really decided who would play which role when we started looking at casting but once we started the read-throughs, Harold turned out to be a better fit for me – as was William for Nikolaj,” he says.
“None of us could believe that this truly iconic and life-changing era of history hadn’t been made into a TV series before. It’s mad! I mean, why didn’t the French do it? They won! But I’m very glad they didn’t because it means we’ve been able to.”
James admits he knew very little about both Harold or William before becoming involved with the project.
“I didn’t know their story at all – at least not about their relationship before the Battle of Hastings. They were allies and friends for many years before that.
“But because of the mess their elders made in terms of wars and fighting, it was inevitable they would end up having to fight to the death.” The series doesn’t pull any punches. It was a very violent time and so is the show. However, the violence is never gratuitous. Rather, it gives a real flavour of how just bloody life could be.
He continues: “It’s the 11th century and life was extremely brutal. There’s a genius scene in the first episode where, mid-fight with some enemies – not William at this stage – you see Harold biting his opponent’s nose off.
“The director suggested it. It’s very effective but I did feel bad about the supporting actor I was doing it to. I broke the skin on his nose.”
Blimey, Harold sounds horrible! James smiles again.
“He was of his time and therefore could be extremely violent. Yet at heart he was also a man of honour and a family man. He genuinely loved his wife Edith Swan-Neck – a rarity in those days when marriages amongst the powerful were mostly about forming allegiances.
“We see this part of his life on screen – and it’s the same with William and his wife Matilda. This means the drama isn’t only about the men’s quest for power.
“But power is at the heart of it. While Harold means well, like many in the grip of power, the pursuit of that power becomes a compulsion, an obsession that takes hold. He pursues the crown no matter what the cost and puts his family and country at risk as a result. He could be bad.”
That’s something that surely can’t be said about James – a middle-class boy who grew up in North Yorkshire, and who, apart from having to endure some bullying at boarding school, says his childhood was “largely happy and privileged”. He even studied theology at Cambridge before going to drama school. Good egg-ness oozes from every pore.
Yet he has played some absolute horrors. His serial killer character Tommy Lee Royce in crime drama Happy Valley makes Harold look like Mother Teresa – well, kind of.
“One of the best things about being an actor is that you get to explore all these corners of yourself which you spend most of the time hiding away and repressing,” he says. “One of the best things for me about playing Harold in King and Conqueror is all the Boys’ Own stuff. I loved rolling around in mud, swinging a sword around, dressing up in leather layers and chain mail. It was a bit like a dream where I was a kid again.
“But it’s not a dream – there are hundreds of people surrounding you and all the smoke and the horses. I don’t think actors ever really grow up – we’re doing what we did as kids. We’re playing.”
For several months, from January to July 2024, the production was in Iceland for the entire length of the shoot – the location proving versatile enough to double for England, Normandy and Flanders, amongst others.
James says it was a great place to film, and a very happy set. “Iceland is the kind of place that once you’re there, you don’t want to leave,” he says. “So, we’d spend weekends hiking and seeking out thermal springs and rivers.” With Harold’s demise at the Battle of Hastings at the end of the series, there’s no way there can be a second. Not with James in it, anyway. Does he wish he’d opted to play William after all? No, he says… it’s the production of which he is most proud.
“It’s been an amazing journey for me to be involved in that aspect of things,” he says.
“I’ve been one of the grown-ups in addition to being one of the kids acting. It’s been with me for the best part of a decade and a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears have gone into it.
“We loved making it and hope that the viewers will love watching it. It’s an epic, incredible story and, what’s more, it’s all true. I think it’s the best history lesson ever.”
- King and Conqueror starts on BBC One this Sunday and will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer
