The Winter King

Bernard Cornwall's Winter King trilogy are three great historical fiction novels centred around the legend of King Arthur. The books are full of characters, intrigue, action and compelling plot lines, all told with Cornwall's excellent skills that bring 4th century Britain to life.

So seeing a TV adaption with string source material filled me with excitement. Sadly, this series, while broadly following the books had inexplicably replaced strong characters with the cast from a day-time TV soap, with a similar dilution of any of the colour, depth and visceral action that make the books so compelling.

In truth I struggled through watching this with a constant sense of irritation and disappointment as the characters I so enjoyed in print were portrayed with all of their interesting flaws, eccentricities and depth of character removed. This felt like ordering for steak and red wine for dinner but being served tofu and water.