James Norton reveals he suffered "painful" injury doing his own King & Conqueror stunts

Norton also serves as executive producer alongside Kitty Kaletsky as part of their co-owned production company, Rabbit Track Pictures, for King & Conqueror.

Well, revealing more about the challenges they faced in bringing this expansive story to life for the screen, Kaletsky revealed to RadioTimes.com and other press in a screening for the series that there "were a ton" that they faced.

She went on: "From a practical perspective, shooting in Iceland was such a blessing. But we were doing non-block shooting because in Iceland, we were there from January all the way through to July.

"That challenge ended up being an incredible blessing because you get the magic hour for many hours on end. The more immediate, painful – and I really mean that word literally – challenge was when Harold Godwinson fell off a horse and broke his collarbone."

Of course, for those who may not immediately be aware, it is Happy Valley star Norton who plays Harold Godwinson in the series.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau – who stars as William, Duke of Normandy – joked whilst on the panel: "I didn’t know I could talk about that! I’ve been doing press the whole day, I’ve been so desperately wanting to say, ‘Did you know his collarbone was broken whilst we did that?’ but I thought it was a big secret."

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Kitty then revealed: "Listen, it ended up being great because James had a break scheduled. We pushed the Battle of Hastings, we pushed Stamford Bridge until the very end of the shoot. And so, actually, all the stuff that’s to come is James."

Revealing more about the injury he sustained while filming, Norton admitted: "It was painful but, luckily, it goes to show how incredibly collaborative this crew was. We dealt with it. It was during a rehearsal and I fell off a horse and landed on my shoulder.

"Actually, it was a remarkably quick recovery and it didn’t affect the shooting, it just was quite painful."

He went on: "For the latter half of the shoot and some of those battle scenes, I’m yelping very loudly, and the yelps are pretty authentic. That was a challenge but it really was remarkable how quickly and efficiently the crew took it on and we got through it perfectly, it didn’t affect the shoot at all.

"The collarbone heals very quickly. I did all my own stunts – I had an amazing stunt double, but generally."

The official synopsis for the series reads: "King & Conqueror is the story of a clash that defined the future of a country – and a continent – for a thousand years, the roots of which stretch back decades and extend out through a pair of interconnected family dynasties, struggling for power across two countries and a raging sea.

"Harold of Wessex and William of Normandy were two men destined to meet at the Battle of Hastings in 1066; two allies with no design on the English throne, who found themselves forced by circumstance and personal obsession into a war for possession of its crown."

King and Conqueror will premiere on BBC iPlayer and BBC One on Sunday 24th August 2025.

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