James Norton says King and Conqueror made big decision to not just 'focus on two men, but two couples'

Speaking about the role of women in the series, James Norton told RadioTimes.com and other press at a screening for the show: "Credit must be given to [executive producer] Kitty [Kaletsky] and [series creator/executive producer] Mike [Robert Johnson], obviously, because one of the really key pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, where this show really got going, was the discovery and the decision to not just make this about two men butting heads, but also about two couples.

"It is modern, but these two were more modern relationships. Lots of marriages were political, cynical, set up and organised. Whereas we know Matilda was literate and William wasn’t, she was a real powerhouse."

He went on: "Similarly, with Edith and Harold – it’s hard to not talk in spoilers because all of this is in the history books. But I can say this – spoiler alert, we lose and Harold unfortunately doesn’t make it.

"Edith is the one who comes and identifies his body, so she’s there from the very beginning, all the way through, by his side. They clearly loved each other.

"Yeah, that was rare but it was modern, and it’s also where all their journeys come from. The challenge in this story, as Mike says, was to find out not what happened but why it happened. We had these two men obsessed with power and this crown. The why comes from their relationships and family, Harold’s relationship with his fathers, brothers etc."

Norton leads the cast as Harold alongside Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William, Duke of Normandy, with the pair's feud taking centre stage in what is expected to be an epic retelling of one of the most influential times in British history.

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Norton also serves as executive producer on the series, having worked on King and Conqueror for seven years in order to bring the story to life for the screen.

In an interview with The Guardian, Norton previously admitted: "I put my hands up and admit I didn’t know the story at all. I just had a vague gloss of it from school.

"I wasn’t aware of the relationship Harold and William had before the battle, that they were friends and allies for many years before they realised that, because of the way Europe was being carved up, they would both inevitably end up on a battlefield – and one of them would have to die."

The official synopsis for the series reads: "King and 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 next year.

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