Vikings, Sunday January 26, RTE 2, 9.30pm
WHILE much of Vikings' target audience will already have seen the first series by way of US Torrent sites or the Lovefilm streaming service (where the second series is due to air next month), this weekend RTE 2 is giving stragglers a chance to join the pillaging party. Created by Michael Hirst, the man behind
The Tudors Camelot), the show is an historically inspired action/adventure drama.
It plunders televisual territory somewhere between Hirst's previous high production value equipped efforts - though with less explicit violence, gratuitous nudity and profanity - and the all-conquering Game of Thrones, with the latter's science-fantasy trappings replaced by more familiar Norse lore.
The first series follows rebellious Viking farmer Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) who defies shady community leader, Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne) by striking out across the seas to conquer the uncharted west in an experimental longboat, aided only by previously untested navigational devices. Their first victims? The English.
There's plenty of duplicity, lust and crafty political manoeuvring on tap to fuel the drama between battles in Vikings.
Beautifully shot here in Ireland (in Co Wicklow) and Norway and boasting an appealing cast and decent writing, it's definitely worth a watch even for those not normally swayed by swords and sorcery shenanigans. * www.rte.ie