King & Conqueror is the latest medieval drama to fall short of The Last Kingdom – but why?

Currently, King & Conqueror is depicting the twilight years of Saxon rule, when Harold Godwinson attempted to prevent William of Normandy's takeover of the lands that Alfred the Great worked hard to unite (as seen in The Last Kingdom).

These shows are not officially connected – they come from three entirely separate creative teams – nor does a single one claim to be a work of documentary-level historical accuracy; heck, The Winter King features Arthur and Merlin.

But in concert, the three of them paint a vivid picture of life at an especially merciless time in our country, with their fictitious elements balanced out by the considerable research undertaken to produce authentic props, sets and battles.

Watching all three certainly won't make you an esteemed scholar of medieval history, but I do believe that they can give you an outline of the key events, figures and cultures of the day, as well as a window into the struggles of day-to-day life.

It's a shame, then, that one of them stands head and shoulders above the rest.

In terms of sheer enjoyability, The Last Kingdom remains unmatched among its peers, with subsequent offerings The Winter King and King & Conqueror failing to capture the magic that characterised its early seasons.

(Yes, The Last Kingdom ultimately fell off, with its fifth season and feature-length finale Seven Kings Must Die representing a marked decline in quality, but we're leaving that to one side for the purpose of this article.)

Given that all three shows deal in a similar time period, populated by similar archetypes and featuring similar set-pieces, why is it that their success rate is so wildly variable? I propose that it comes down to three things.

First, the central performance. Alexander Dreymon's post-The Last Kingdom career is still yet to materialise – let's see if his upcoming Scorpions biopic changes that – but there's no denying that he was born to play Uhtred of Bebbanburg.

He dedicated himself to the no-nonsense warrior for the better part of a decade, bringing empathy, nuance and heart to the character as he endured loss, enslavement, exploitation and more than a few battle scars.

In comparison, both The Winter King and King & Conqueror lack a truly captivating leading man; in the case of the former, casting the slender 5' 7" actor Iain De Caestecker as the legendary Arthur was an admirable pivot away from the hulking Dreymon.

Focusing on Arthur as a politician, rather than merely a fighter, and accurately reflecting the lack of protein powder-fuelled workout regimens in the fifth century, are both understandable creative choices.

But De Caestecker's stern and stoic Arthur just didn't endear himself to viewers in the same way as Dreymon's Uhtred, who wore his emotions unashamedly on his sleeve and never hesitated to say precisely what he thought.

In general, The Winter King was a show lacking in joy or light relief, and the same can be said of King & Conqueror; co-leads James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau are fairly renowned, but neither is lighting up the screen in this dour affair.

Of course, the blame can't be laid entirely at their feet – which brings me on to my second point.

The Last Kingdom was truly blessed to have Stephen Butchard on scripting duties across its first three seasons; whatever teething pains the first chapter may have suffered were entirely forgotten amid the giddy heights of the second and third.

Butchard proved here as well as in his subsequent works – historical mystery Shardlake and BBC crime drama This City Is Ours – that he's a master at establishing finely crafted, memorable characters.

These are sorely lacking from The Winter King and King & Conqueror.

The latter may be a more strictly historical piece, centring the real-life figures of Harold Godwinson (Norton) and William of Normandy (Coster-Waldau), but that's no excuse for the boredom we feel towards both of them.

The Last Kingdom prominently featured Alfred the Great (as played by David Dawson) in its first three seasons, who enjoyed a spectacular arc that saw him loved, loathed, feared and pitied at different points.

Clearly, it is possible to humanise figures from the distant past, whom we'll never be able to fully understand due to a lack of contemporary sources. But doing so requires a bolder vision than King & Conqueror's confusing scripts can provide.

As per Bernard Cornwell's novels, The Winter King focuses instead on legendary figures like Arthur (De Caestecker), Merlin (Nathaniel Martello-White) and Nimue (Ellie James), placing them against a backdrop reflecting aspects of real British history.

You might think that would be an easier route, yet the insistence on a grave and grounded tone leaves them all feeling muted; in particular, Merlin's change from the babbling eccentric in Cornwell's book to a relentlessly gloomy harbinger is baffling.

When dealing with a period so far removed from our own, 100 per cent historical accuracy is never going to be possible, so there's a greater argument for artistic licence than in a drama set in, say, the late 1800s.

Why then, is stoicism and severeness deemed a shortcut to a more believable interpretation? Who's to say what people's demeanours or personal relationships were like at that time?

Surely, they must have indulged in a few laughs to tide them over before their inevitably grim and premature deaths.

It's something that The Winter King and King & Conqueror attempt to show in a handful of stilted moments, but The Last Kingdom excelled at through its deep, convincing bonds between Uhtred and Brida, Beocca, Hild, Sihtric and Finan, among others.

My third and final piece of advice, then, is by all means aim to respect history wherever possible, but don't be so beholden to it that you forget to make an entertaining drama.

True purists might hate me for saying this, but considered fictional inclusions can be vital for stimulating viewers when delving into distant, near-unknowable time periods – and can benefit historical awareness in the long run.

For example, by investing in the non-existent Uhtred (including his compelling romances and exhilarating feuds), The Last Kingdom was able to impart some fascinating information about the reign, beliefs and legacy of Alfred the Great.

But through an unexplainable devotion to realism (in The Winter King's case) and a focus on matters of record (in King & Conqueror's), both shows lack the strong narratives and unforgettable moments that made their precursor such a strong hit.

Alas, King & Conqueror seems destined to fall by the wayside as critics and audiences alike shrug it off, just as The Winter King went largely unnoticed when it dropped on ITVX and MGM+ in late 2023.

And so, the wait for our next medieval icon continues.

King & Conqueror is available on BBC iPlayer.

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