King and Conqueror star James Norton makes odd promise to Emmanuel Macron

Happy Valley star James Norton and Game Of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau let their characters’ rivalry turn into off-screen competitiveness while filming the BBC period drama King And Conqueror.

In the eight-part series, James plays Harold of Wessex, while Nikolaj is William of Normandy, aka William the Conqueror. They are two former friends destined to be on opposing sides in the 1066 battle for the English crown. James reveals that while Nikolaj is “a brilliant actor and a wonderful man”, life began to imitate art as he felt the need to challenge his on-screen enemy when the cameras stopped rolling.

“We had Team Harold and Team William – we would jokingly spar about which storyline was more interesting,” says James, 40. “We leant into the head-butting that Harold and William do in the script, and as a result, there was a gentle, boyish competitiveness between the two of us. We hung out a lot and went jet skiing – I remember racing him across the water and thinking ‘this is very Harold of me’!”

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The pair also spent time training together for the intense battle sequences, with both actors wanting them to be as authentic as possible. “We didn’t want it to feel like a pristine, precious period drama. We wanted it to feel gritty,” explains James.

“The slow, sluggish movements of fighting in those costumes was real. We worked really hard at making everything feel messy and of the period, and not sensationalist or overly choreographed. We trained hard, Nikolaj and I both did a lot of sessions. And a lot of horse riding!”

While British schoolchildren have always been taught that Harold was the hero and William the villain of the Battle of Hastings, both James, who is an executive producer on the series, and Nikolaj were keen to tell both sides of the story that leads up to their meeting on the battlefield.

“I met President Emmanuel Macron at the British Museum, where the Bayeux Tapestry is moving to, and I was very quick to reassure him that we had told the French story, the Norman story, with as little bias as possible,” says James. “There are a lot of stories about William post Battle of Hastings, and how he acted pretty monstrously, but he also had his own domestic space, his relationship with his wife Matilda [Harry Potter actress Clémence Poésy] and his son.”

“Nikolaj brought so much complexity to that role and, as a result, I think the show feels balanced. We didn’t want one hero or one villain, we wanted the audience to be split and we wanted people to sit on the sofa and have someone on Team Harold and someone on Team William.

"I said to Macron, ‘I promise you that we have been fair in depicting both sides of the story,’ and a lot of that was to do with Nikolaj’s brilliant, sensitive performance.”

Danish actor Nikolaj thinks viewers will find William’s early life as fascinating as he did. “At the start, he’s in a very good place. He had a pretty rough childhood; his father died young, and by the age of 16, eight assassins had tried to kill him.

"He is first and foremost a warrior, a man who, from an early age, learned that power is taken not given. But at this point, he’s the Duke of Normandy. He’s secure. He has a very strong bond with King Henry of France. He’s married to the love of his life and she’s pregnant. Life is good.”

He believes William’s pursuit of power was due to his desire to protect his son. “I think he doesn’t want his child to go through what he went through – a childhood where people tried to kill him. When he has his son, the fear of the unknown is overwhelming to him.

"Once the idea of pursuing the English crown comes into play, it becomes all-consuming. It’s all linked to his son. It’s about protection and safety, believing ‘the more power I have, the safer my family will be’."

Nikolaj, 55, who also directed an episode, is keen to stress that King And Conqueror isn’t just about Harold and William’s battle for power, it is also about the men’s personal lives – William with Matilda, and Harold with his wife Edith (The Pursuit Of Love’s Emily Beecham).

“We wanted that balance. On the surface, it’s a very macho world with men trying to claim what’s theirs and reach their objectives through violence and war. It’s important that you don’t get caught up in that too much,” he explains.

“The emotional stakes have to be real. Mike [lead writer Michael Robert Johnson] did a great job of finding moments where you get behind what might be a very one-dimensional portrait of people at war. It’s more about the characters’ relationships.

“And, as we know, at the end, there might just be a battle in some place called Hastings…”

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