King and Conqueror's James Norton addresses fierce backlash to BBC drama over one issue

James Norton has spoken out about the historically accuracy of BBC One's King and Conqueror after facing a backlash from viewers. The historical drama stars James as Harold Godwinson and Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William the Conqueror, with the series telling the story of the Battle of Hastings.

While some fans have been gripped by the new drama, others have complained about its historical inaccuracy. Viewers took to social media over the weekend to complain that the dialogue is unrealistic.

"Was looking forward to King And Conqueror but what a disappointment. What is this trend of using modern language and phrases that would never have been heard in the times portrayed. The BBC used to be the best at this kind of drama. Not anymore. #KingAndConqueror," one said.

READ MORE: BBC King & Conqueror viewers 'switch off' new James Norton drama after just minutes

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

Another wrote: "Vikings was a great example of how to create a realistic and engaging historical action drama. King & Conqueror is typical BBC nonsense and utterly unrealistic. Why do they always do this?"

Now, star James Norton has opened up about the show's historical accuracy, admitting that they had to "make things up" due to the lack of source material.

When asked by This Morning's Josie Gibson whether they had to "jazz" the history up, James - who was also an executive producer - said: "The majority of the history - the big story beats - are all true.

"Of course, you have to interpret between the lines because we don't have very much. We have the bear tapestry, we have often conflicting accounts of what actually happened.

"What you learn about in school is the Normans invaded England. What we've done is focused on the years leading up to the battle of Hastings and what was really interesting was finding out that these two men - William the Conqueror and Harold of Wessex - were friends and they fought alongside each other at Normandy."

Later in the show, he added that the writer Michael Robert Johnson told the story from both perspectives. "In terms of the history, we honour the history but we only have a limited amount of source material so we extrapolate from that and we have had to add things, make things up to make a great drama," he said.

"Hopefully people will come along and recognise what is part of the truth and that will educate them and they'll enjoy the drama."

Join The Mirror’s WhatsApp Community or follow us on Google News, Flipboard, Apple News, TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram, Twitter , Facebook , and Threads - or visit The Mirror homepage.