How Accurate are The Welsh in The Last Kingdom?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 พ.ค. 2020
- The Last Kingdom has been an absolute smash hit. It's a series supposedly set in Anglo-Saxon England, but in Season 4 we meet the medieval Welsh!
Join me for a look at the clothes, buildings, and accessories that the Welsh of The Last Kingdom are wearing, to see how historically accurate they really are.
Ok it's a TV rant. Let's not pretend here.
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Photos:
Picts courtesy of Zeno Watson: www.zenowatson.com
Long hall courtesy of Regia Anglorum: www.regia.org
Llys Llywelyn courtesy of National Museum of Wales: www.amgueddfa.cymru
Book of Kells courtesy of Trinity College Dublin: www.tcd.ie
Correspondence address:
Welsh Viking,
PO BOX 24200,
EDINBURGH,
EH3 1JL,
UK
A welshman discussing the depiction of medieval welsh in a high budget tv show? You bring me hope. Pob lwc am y dyfodol.
Diolch o'r galon :)
Quick question, what would the welsh nobility have worn in he 13th century, like what helmet would llywelyn have worn?
@@adamlewis6052
I visited the tombs of many 13-14c Welsh nobleman and knights at St Davids in Pembrokeshire and their carved stone effigies resemble that of their counterparts in Westminster and other cathedrals and churches.
Helmet, chainmail and knee length skirt whilst holding a kite shaped shield.
Obviously this is only battle adornment though.
@@RhysapGrug thank you so much for telling me. I spent a while trying to design a welsh princess from he 13h century. As she was nobility she would be able to take up arms
@The Welsh Viking I've watched a few videos on Uhtred. As far as I know there is very little on him. If the show/book were actually accurate I think Uhtred would have been killed by season 2.
I'm willing to bet that the reason they made that hall so badly lit is the NBC Hannibal technique of darkening scene to hide budget issues. Sort of "we only have so much in the budget for set design and lighting, so we'll darken all the scene's in post-production to hide any glaring modern inaccuracies and make cheaply made props harder to pinpoint." Which only goes so far when there is so much wrong with literally everything else.
Absolutely. It’s a classic technique for hiding wobbly scenery and cardboard sets.
I think a lot of the inaccuracies in this show can be attributed to this. Not including scabbards for the archers' swords reeks of "cost effective set design" aka cut corners wherever you can
100%
We need all the costubers to get together with a filmmaker and make a historically accurate movie. I would watch it!
Supposedly the swedish movie/mini tv series Arn is suppose to be historically decent in clothes, the latin they speak and cultural description. They worked with museums to get some of it right I believe.
@@avihendaThey also worked very closely with reenactors, most of the background characters are reenactors and larpers who had to show their kit to experts before filming. I've got a couple friends in that movie 🙂
Incidentally they're all wearing red for the same reason only the saxons wear mail, and vikings wear leather and furs - they think the audience is too stupid to know who is who without literally colour coding them.
EXACTLY - Colour Coded. See also 'Saxons have Square Shields with holes in them'
Just put the coat of arms on their shields
@@user-qi6tp1te1y Or give one side Vendel helms or something, yes.
The fact that even the baby is wearing red just pushes it over into the level of (unintentional) parody.
Which is fine if it's "Avatar the Last Airbender", but weird when it's supposed to be ACTUAL HISTORY...where it's pretty well established that people liked multiple colors...
I'm beginning to think the research for programs like The Vikings, Tudors, and Last Kingdom was done in Wagner operas and biker bars.
They clearly couldn’t afford to hire bikers, because that would actually be a really fun movie
The books this show is based on are actually written pretty good; unfortunately there is no money or time in television to make that matter
Wouldn't it be awesome if a band like Therion decided to mount a symphonic metal opera about the Great Heathen Army? Think Litzomania only METAL
Just look at Barbarians, for season 2 the consultants literally quit because the writers simply ignored them and the end result was a steaming pile of shit.
Gotta admit Wagnerian Biker is a pretty awesome aesthetic 👌 Not the most historically accurate but still fun...
I ain't gonna lie, if you're ever gonna feel like throwing a snapshot of your mate Tom wearing a chain mail in any of your future videos for any good reason or without one, I'm gonna be far more OK with it than I dare to admit.
Isn’t he just an absolute snack?
@@TheWelshViking oh... my... I just gonna sit here and fan myself for a moment...
@@TheWelshViking You acknowledging it is just going to make us swoon harder lol
@@TheWelshViking Any of him wearing less?
Crying with laughter. I love a good historical costume rant.
As a Welshman, getting to walk around in red 'wizard robs' sounds kinda cool!
I mean, if they actually could use magic, they'd probably be an upgrade from normal soldiers...
Strangely dressed D and D characters!
LOVE
OI! I grew up in Flintshire!
Bumfudge is a very nice little town, thankyouverymuch.
So sounds like they're depicting one of the more Anglophilic kings in Welsh history as some kind of arch-Anglophobe, because obviously all Welsh people always hate the English xD
Gruffydd ap Cynan Pretty much! >.
Hywel didnt like the saxons he just thought it would be in Wales's best interests to form an alliance with them to help incase the vikings decided to try an launch a full scale invasion of Wales
We still do
Well I don't hate the English but I Would like my own King or queen and having our country being completely independent from the British and then let us trade with other countries to boost our economy
And let's remove prince Charles title prince of Wales and let that title belong to our own noble family who were born and raised in Wales
I think these red coats were added, to make the welsh look like spartans.
It would be funny to see a movie called "the 300 Welshman" with Gerard Butler as the King of Wales who says:
"WELSHMAN, PREPARE FOR GLORY!!!"
-"AWU! AWU! AWU!"
☺️😂❤️
This was fantastic! I enjoy writing fantasy and while I take liberties with it, I also love watching videos about people who know about historical time periods and culture so I can try to add more authentic details
The TV shows miss a lot of Welsh involvement of this period. What about the battle of buttingdon ffs? how can that not make an appearance.
yes, ranty battle video!
Good job I just finished editing it! XD
Thanks for that little shout-out for Hinderland.
Hi, found you through cocovid and have been watching through all your content. It’s so lovely to see someone with a passion for their subject educating people with fun and enthusiasm.
I ordinarily wouldn’t bother but you seem like you care about accuracy and such so at the risk of being that irritating TH-cam commenter, have one thing I wanted to bring up from this video.
Please please take it with the love of knowledge and learning with which I mean it.
The Brough in Brough of Birsay is pronounced brock (with a soft throaty k so it sounds like broch/loch).
I live on orkney and have worked at the site so I love it, and if anyone can visit I could not recommend it highly enough.
We are surrounded by norse here so I am beginning my historical costuming journey and your content is invaluable, so thank you. Keep up the good work :-)
Ah, Gloriws Cymradd! An excellent title for a Welsh king!
This is hilarious! I think one of the reasons things like that happens is also because of the ways things are done in production - often, a team does the research, hands it to the designers and assistant designers - and the prop team as well. A design portion happens, then build starts. As we are really often struggling with budget, a good part of the designs will be shopped/pulled/rented in big costume shops... so often folks have to “settle” for something that is available and look “okayish” with the general visual theme.
After this posting I think I love you, I mean - yes, another rant is definitely in order (if you haven’t already)🤣
Definitely want a rant on battle tactics! Doesn't have to be about this show though. Thanks for including the fighting bunnies. 🖤 Critters from the manuscripts are the best.
Top work mate!
I've been hankering for the ranty battle video since you started these. I'm sure the new Assassin's Creed trailer would give you plenty of material to work with...
I’m so ready to jump on that. Shadiversity has a good one on it as well
Despite its faults I LOVE this show when I watch it I feel fully immersed as though im there I get that really familiar feeling like I've lived it beforeim at my most relaxed when in a heavily wooded area among mother nature
Oh man. I, too, could wax tiradical on historical inaccuracies in theatrical costume. I've mellowed in recent years, allowing that so many directors wouldn't know properly historical fashion if it slapped them in the face with medieval fish and thusly just go with what reads as accurate to them. But there are some shows [cough]Reign[cough] that make me want to punch everything.
Agreed! Reign was TERRIBLE!! The dresses were nice but terribly MODERN
Do the rants video! Do it!
I didn’t expect anything more in one of the seasons the Cornish look like for ancient Britons and then all of a sudden the Welsh which were also the native Britons were more up-to-date a few seasons later it’s all very strange
OK, had to look for it, but I knew it'd be here.
Here we go. (LOL as you said the same thing a few seconds later)
"Thin leather butcher's apron" made me snort loudly.
The picture of Francis holding his head with the caption "He said he'd be here" 🤣🤣🤣
"Disappointing..." (Insert picture of Outlander) 😂😂😂
I am also a Welsh Viking with my mothers family being from Scandinavia and my farther being Wales with a family grave site going back over 300 years. But I am blonde with blue/green eyes at 37 years old and so are my kids are also blonde along with some 12 other children of my family. my wife is Irish/Welsh by decent with black hair and blue eyes. it still strikes me as amazing that the genetics still come out after all this time. I live in Wales and always will, the woods fields and streams are my home..I cant be anywhere else.
The show bears near zero relation to the books, which I'm a fan of. I'm no expert, but Bernard Cornwell does his best to present fairly realistic slice of history, with a few changes to evens laid out in the Historical Note at the end.
Which made both the storytelling and the design choices incredibly frustrating. It also is a lot more... adventure-y, the books are a lot more thoughtful, grimmer and contain a lot of Uhtred's thoughts about the world and his situations.
From a plot perspective, they do a lot of puzzling things, like in adding a third person into one of Uhtred's most troubling times, where he makes a new friend and they help each other survive their situation. This means that instead of the focus being on Uhtred's trouble and meeting this exciting new character, the writers chose to focus instead on this random third dude. Bonkers.
I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on the book. When you have a chance, of course.
Interesting- I quite liked the changes in the show although there were things I wished they'd kept or changed in a different way. I also really appreciated Uhtred's accent in the first season (they seemed to forget it after that). I do wish we'd seen more of young (teenage even) uhtred- I don't really care about seeing the same face all the time and I find it distracting to see a full grown man (and woman) talking about marriage as if he's at the start of his life.
I found the books read like a historical textbook haha... I think I've only read the first 5 and got bored after that. It's a shame because the story is compelling but it literally just felt like homework after a while. I certainly think the welsh viking would enjoy the books more than the show though because it seems more like something he's interested in and yes, much, much more historically accurate.
@@alexwood3459 I'd agree the books do end up a bit dull, I kinda feel the series has dragged on a bit. The situations are interesting but Uhtred doesn't grow much after a while.
I actually really like the casting, Alexander Dreymon is a great Uhtred, manages to combine Uhtred's charm and smug arrogance nicely.
I think most of the changes are bad, or baffling, though I understand why they had to make some of them. Longboats are free to write about, but expensive to hire for example.
I agree, I wish we'd seen more of teenage Uhtred, but I guess they needed to get Alexander Dreymon's face in there as soon as possible.
Diolch am y fideo. Gobeithio y daw rhyw gwmni teledu yn i greu cyfres ar rhyw agwedd o hanes Cymru. Buasai cyfres am Owain glyndwr neu Llewelyn ein Llyw Olaf yn syniad da. Neu hyd in oed rhywbeth yn seiliedig ar ein chwedlau, fel y Mabinogi. Mae digonedd o ddeunydd hanesyddol yn bodoli i rhoi chwant i unrhyw awdur sgrin. Cymru am Byth
Brilliant critique & funny mate
And yes its ranty time.....
RANT! RANT! RANT! we want the rant!
I was delighted to see that great "Rabbit riding a snail while jousting" drawing again. I just found medieval rabbit pictures about a month ago, and they're wild.
Didn't know this was here! Nice!!
Yes to a ranty video about battle tactics.
I would learn something while bein amused by the shade.
Although it's glaringly unhistoric, I can at least see the dramaturgical logic behind putting everything Welsh in red fabric. That way the viewer always knows, when someone is meant to be Welsh.
Yay I love Hinterland. And how they filmed each scene twice for each language (sorry, off topic)
😱 they what??? I've never heard of Hinterlands before (though I will certainly look it up now) & that's incredible. I have friends in the film industry & the sheer amount of effort that would've gone into that.... WOWZA
Wut? I've seen it but in English
@@onerva0001 The BBC broadcast it in English with some Welsh and S4C had a Welsh only version. Also check out Craith/ Hidden which was very good (except for the use of an awful lot of South Welsh...) but took hilarious liberties with the geography of North Wales if you knew the locations...
TBH for Hinterland I preferred the bilingual version because if the boss figure is an outsider, not speaking Welsh makes that more pronounced and isn't an entirely unknown situation....
@@onerva0001 There's the English language version, Hinterland and then the Welsh language version Y Gwyll :)
Love how they butchered the word gwrach (witch) literally clicked what the monk was trying to say a few hours later in the 1st season
Arthur’s folks
I'm guessing the answer will be something to the effect of "not even close"
Because the Welsh dragon is red.
I know there's a lotta historically wrong shows out there but am glad there is, reason being your reactions are fantastic 😄 👏
I’ve not watched the show, the ‘pond’ the king goes to instead of Rome would be st winefrides well, the earliest mention of which i can find is 1138 a whole 190 years after hywel dda died.
When you get time I’d recommend checking the books out; from what I remember they’re vastly superior to the show.
The shield thing and everyone in red might also be the costume designers trying to make it easier for viewers to tell who’s who in battle scenes, similar to how in old cowboy films/shows the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys black. If they’d been equipped authentically then I imagine it’d have been difficult for laymen in the audience to tell the difference between a Welshman, a Saxon and a Dane.
I'm just gonna say this. You made my day when you talked about Antonio Banderas and said: Caliente. That killed me because I'm from Spain and I was like WTF hahahaha
Why are the Welsh so weird?!
Searched ‘Hywel Dda’ and you popped up... thank God for people like you... thank you, for people like you: you feed my hunger for knowledge and - added bonus - make me laugh (and confirm my conclusion: there is no place else on earth like Wales)
Tactics video? Heck to the "Heck Yeah!"
What would Vikings, Anglo Saxons and Welsh soldiers wear in battle? Would there be a unified look among the organized soldiers or would it be an individual look based on what the soldier could afford on their own terms? I other words, was there an “issued” look in organized armies?
1. In elite units/formations (guard, household, etc.), there was a sense of a desire for uniformity, but in general, it was not typical in warfare before the 18th century. The Romans were a typical example of a relatively high degree of standardization, but even they were not regular in the modern sense. Modern regular armies and uniforms appear in the 17th century and spread in the 18th century.
2. Viking, Anglo-Saxon and Welsh: elite and professional warriors/militants/soldiers basically wore mail armor and helmet, while non-professional people were usually unarmed and wearing only basic clothing. There's no evidence of leather armor from them, in fact, as far as I know, there's no evidence of any padded armor neither (but padded armor is speculative). In every contemporary representation, you can only see someone who either wears metal armour or nothing. And it was typical of the warriors/soldiers to carry their own equipment, yes. :)
An awful lot of equipment is acquired after it had one previous careless owner.. i.e. scavenged off the battlefield. So in a very short space of time, the armies would have started to look the same.
"Bumfudge Flintshire" never hath truer words been spoken lol
Paused it at 2:38 to run down to the comments and beg for that tactics rant!! (Experts ranting about terrible depictions of their specific niche in popular media is one of my very favorite methods of learning anything)
It's 8:55 and I'm here again
I've now finished the video & was faced with the impossible choice of leaving it at 420 likes (I'm baked af) or giving it the like it deserves (not funny weed number)
Does anyone know what manuscript the example for scabbards is from?
funnily enough i dont remember this in the books either, im not sure if uthred goes to wales at all
I really enjoy the show. Since watching it though I've done research based on the main characters and stories and it's so wrong but still entertaining.
Did none of these designers know about lime-wash? Castles look like that because all the lime and plaster fell off a long time ago.
your mate looks great in his gear btw
Mae'r llyfrau gan Bernard Cornwell yn wych, ond mae'r gyfres yn.... wahanol. Diddan, ie, ond yn bell iawn o fod yn hanesyddol gywir!
Rant video on Welsh not conquered by vikings pls
The books were sooo good! When you do have more time on your hands you should definitely give them a shot.
I've ordered them for once I've finished this chapter :)
@@TheWelshViking awesome! Enjoy
"confused Welsh noises" LOL
thank for for this!! As an educator, I appreciate both the truth, and your sense of humour! That poor pope....
Hywel dda was on my school bus nice chap he also started in harry potter good actor
Oh cool! Byd bach, de!
@@TheWelshViking byd Bach 😃
Byd bach
good ol' tettenhall, or as the locals say "tetnul"
I’m late to this I know, but I just found the channel, and I am a huge fan of the books this show is based on. I thought I’d share what is relevant to this video.
In the books, we meet Hywel only once I believe, in book 8. (Actually there are probably a few more, smaller scenes in which he is there, but not the main focus). Uhtred has been greatly weakened by a wound he took in the Battle of Tettenhall in book 7, in which some Welsh warriors did show up to aid the Saxons against Cnut Ranulfson (Longsword) and Sigurd Thorsson. I don’t remember right now if Cnut and Sigurd are real or inventions. Cnut gave him the wound before Uhtred killed him and he now believes someone used the sword to curse him, so he must find it, which is how he ends up in Wales.
The sword ends up in Dyfed (I believe in what is now St. David’s?) and then in the hands of some Norse led by Sigtryggr. While tracking the sword, Uhtred meets Hywel. Hywel takes him along and just mops the floor with the Norse, they flee and head to Chester, which we go to later in the book. In this limited interaction, Hywel is depicted as very powerful and religious, and he overall just leaves a really positive impression on Uhtred.
After this, we only hear about him in passing, actually there is probably a scene or two where he is present, maybe at one of several meetings to discuss treaties or surrenders, but his presence is not incredibly important to the scene. He makes peace with Æthelflaed and Edward and does not join in attacks against them later.
Also, the author, Bernard Cornwell, is really good at telling the audience what he made up, what he changed, and what he kept real, as well as what he guessed about or made a decision on.
I want a video teaching basic Welsh! And how to read those incomprehensible (to me) places names and people names! My background includes Welsh, Scottish, and Irish ancestry, purportedly, and I cannot speak a single one of those languages. Though I think Scottish had more than one to choose from, if I’ve read correctly. Still, at least a few words in one of them would be nice.
This was great, by the way. Not trying to should needy or whiny. Thanks for sharing!
Its Welsh not Welch. Welch is often used as a derogatory term
@@Stettafire sorry, it was a typo, or possibly an autocorrect mistake. I’ll edit it now.
I'm soooooooooooo tired of the over use of fire on battlefields as well as seige engines in battles, I'm talking about you Gladiator(2000 ad)
Cymru am byth!
From a Welsh American 😄
In case it makes you feel better... In the book they wear mail, have helmets and carry round shields. And there is one character who likes to dual wield a sword and an axe and the other characters call him out for it. He's a bit of an oddball though.
All the ranty videos please! *amused Hungarian noises*
Soooo agree... 👏🏻hopeful Dutch🇳🇱 squeals sounds.
The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell are fantastic books in my opinion he is a great writer. Much was changed for the show. If you ever get around to reading them or listening to them would love to hear what you think. I like the show too but am fully aware of the inaccuracies especially garb. I just pretend it's a fantasy show and not trying to represent history and it helps me get by that angle lol.
Oh I'm a big fan of Cornwell's books! Always enjoy them, and the suspension of disbelief is a lot less than for the show!
@@TheWelshViking Thank you, appreciate it :)
Ranty videos --- YES! Why for you ask, young man! GET ON WITH IT!!
Please DO get started on that! The 🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Why did they think that ALL Welshmen would wear red robes?Talk about the _Planet of Hats!_
Would love to get into the reenactment scene. I feel as tho I should have been born back then anyway lol.
do you not think the shields were based on celtic style shields, which were also elongated?
"Rhodry is immediately crap at being King. " 🤣
I would love to reenact an early medieval welshman. Anyone you could put me in contact with that could help, I'd be really grateful.
i know its been a year but...
ranty battle video please
Welsh in red tunics... are they suggesting the welsh are continuation of roman prescence in Britain?
Not mad, that would be bloody cool.
heh
I heard you say that you are currently working on a PhD.If you or anyone comes across my surname Pruett I would like more information.My research shows that Thomas and Sarah Pruett sailed from Carmarthen to the new world in 1623.A census worker labeled our family as French along the Mississippi River decades later I assume the reason is that isolated Welshman who crossbreed with Native Americans sounded French.History is fascinating.
0:29 why are the "Spartans" from 300 thrown in the line?
Err... reinforcements? XD
@@TheWelshViking well that's very kind of them, long way from Greece 😂🤷♂️
The first season blew my socks off, but it didn’t hold up :/
The Welsh. First people to hold a grudge against the British Empire
I can only assume the red thing is because of an association of the Welsh with the red dragon, maybe? Who knows.
My theory as to why they are wearing red is that they are actually part of the Red Ajah, and they are hunting Merlin to gentle him. So it makes sense they are wearing wizard clothing. So what if they are all men, let's not look too closely at this. Oh, did you ever finish your Ph.D.? Congratulations! It would be fun to take one of your classes on history. I did a D.Min. so know what you mean about 'what free time?'
The color red refers to the Roman - Trojan lineage to which the Welsh Kings were related.
And?
@@kristofantal8801 What ... and ?
@@MonikaEscobar1965 What is your point?
@@kristofantal8801 I asked you: And ...what ? Don´t play silly with me otherwise you become blocked.
@@MonikaEscobar1965 "The color red refers to the Roman - Trojan lineage to which the Welsh Kings were related." What do you mean by that? :D That the video maker is wrong when he criticizes that everything is in Welsh red?
❤❤❤❤❤
I would have liked the show to depict more of the Britons who lived among the Anglo-Saxons. I don't like the idea that they were all contained within Wales. They apparently coexisted and were gradually assimilated over several centuries.
I mean, Britons lived from Cornwall to John o’ Groats in the period, and to an extent still do!
these shows are for entertainment and are not historical documentaries, that's why i only read the books, for my taste there is too much leather and fur worn in the shows^^ regards from earthquake area keflavík--- great video from you!
am taking great offence to bumfudge flintshire, well not really but youknow ;)
This makes me sad. I am a HUGE TLK fan. The book is almost COMPLETELY different from the show. It almost makes you dizzy. I only have three more books to go before I've finished the series and I'm anxiously awaiting the release of season 5 to see how badly they muddy the story. However, I can say that I like how they changed some of the characters in the show. Some! Please do not stop making these videos. I have Danish blood and I really enjoy your immense knowledge on all things Viking. And how you analyze aspects on evidence recorded and call everyone out on their BS. 🤣🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Red go fasta. It is strange they did not paint horses red.
hywl dda is actually one of my ancestors
I think most of the weird, stylistic changes to historical artefacts, such as rectangular shields, is more to differentiate the factions. Because most armies of the period would be similarly equipped and dressed, when you have large scale meetings like a battle, it could get confusing for an audience to follow who is who. Because Vikings are associated with round shields more than the others (in modern media), they give them the round and everyone else rectangle. I believe I recall the saxons had the same shape, if not for the entire run of the programme, then at least at the start. Most modern media like this is meant for the mass market, so accuracy on something comparatively small (in a narrative sense) is secondary to the audience being able to see round shields and say right, them there are the baddies.
The result does tend to make historical "laymen" view historical artefacts differently to people who make a point to study a set period of history. It's unfortunate.
Does it about me that inaccuracies like this get into things like this? Yes. But it annoys me more when they blatantly get the history wrong. I don't recall learning of Vikings taking a certain settlement so late in the period as this is portrayed, so that, to me, is more irritating than what we see in this video. Correcting these mistakes in conversations is far easier than correcting what people incorrectly think actually happened
I figured it was to set them up as trying to copycat Rome by mimicking their shields and stuff.
Loved the first two seasons, the rest were a mixed bag.
Teulu is family in Welsh. Strange how words change or maybe it means the same, interesting
Yep! Meant family back then as well. Similar to Kompanion in Greek used in its modern sense and as a bodyguard
Red Welsh uniforms? Homage to Cunedda's grandfather Padarn Beisrudd of course ... founder of the Labor Party perhaps? ;-))
!!
Hey! My grandfather came from Flintshire, bumbfidge!?
As a 6”2 Welshman with 45%Scandinavian blood,50% Celtic,&5%Russian Im even more confused!Where did I come from if the Vikings never conquered Wales??🤷♂️
I mean, did they have to conquer somewhere to have been there?
Not only is this show completely historically inaccurate, but it’s so loosely based on the book that they should have given it another name. I’d bet Bernard Cornwell is PISSED!! Uhtred was a head taller than most men and had BLOND hair. Absolutely none of the characters in the show reflect the characters in the books. I couldn’t even get passed the second or third episode.