Grimy panto fails to make decent drama out of its historical liberties

Most people know something about 1066 and all that, the main players, at least - Harold and William - and about the Battle of Hastings. Even the fact that it probably didn't take place in Hastings.

- Philip Cunnington on King & Conqueror

Which should make the BBC's new epic drama King & Conqueror an appealing watch, being both primary school history lesson familiar and with enough scope to tell us something we don't know.

It gets off to a rocky start with our two protagonists, Harold (James Norton) and William (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) stumbling about the battlefield shouting at each other.

"William!" bellows Harold. "Harold!" yells William, channelling his inner Steptoe.

We're then plunged back into the historically nebulous period of 'Years Earlier', to a time when the English lords are busy choosing a new king and the French countryside is littered with arrow-pricked corpses.

The middle-aged William sports a neat little moustache and soul patch beard, telling us he knew the recently-appointed monarch Edward the Confessor when they were "just children".

Historical alarm bells may start a-clanging at this point, given that by most accounts William was 25 years younger than Edward.