THE most dangerous, debauched and dragon-filled show is back on TV.
Such is the hype as Game Of Thrones fans wait to see the fate of characters,
including newly blinded Arya, Sky Atlantic will simulcast the series six
opener with America at 2am on Monday before repeating it at the usual slot
of 9pm.
But with a plot more twisting than a snake, here’s all you need to know to be
up to speed for the big day.
Who needs catch-up TV.
Story so far
SET in a fictional world that feels like the Middle Ages, Game of Thrones
features dragons, fantastical creatures, mythical beings, dark sorcery and,
most of all, the eternal theme of man’s inhumanity to man.
On the continent of Westeros, the Starks of northern Winterfell and the
Lannisters of southerly Casterly Rock – including Jaime and Cersei – and the
Baratheons of Dragonstone are in constant contention to sit on the Iron
Throne and rule the Seven Kingdoms.
However, over the water on the continent of Essos, Daenerys Targaryen, the
exiled daughter and heir of the House of Targaryen, is building her army,
raising dragons and preparing to cross the Narrow Sea that separates the
continents and take back the Iron Throne.
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But while the various factions fight over the kingdom, winter is coming from
beyond The Wall in North Westeros.
There in Castle Black, The Wall’s hard-bitten guardians, the beleaguered
Night’s Watch are struggling to deal with the wildings from the other side
of the divide and hold back the supernatural White Walkers – who have
magical powers, are near-impossible to kill and want to slay everyone in
their path.
And back in King’s Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, there is a
rising power in the form of the High Sparrow and his puritanical religious
sect, who have their work cut out in the sordid city.
Cliffhangers
SERIES five’s finale left viewers on a knife edge after mutinous Ser Alliser
Thorne stabbed Jon Snow.
Since then fans have been furiously speculating over whether the character
would be brought back to life by witchy Red Priestess Melisandre.
And their conspiracy theories were boosted by sightings of Jon Snow actor Kit
Harington during filming.
The first episode of the new series has been named The Red
Woman, giving viewers further hope that it isn’t the last we’ve seen of him.
Fans are also waiting to see if the nomadic Dothraki are capturing or saving
Daenerys – and to find out why she dropped her pearl ring as she was
surrounded by her former people.
Meanwhile, will dwarf Tyrion be able to keep the peace in Meereen and stop the
Sons of the Harpy causing trouble?
And in the North, just what is it the eerie White Walkers want?
Locations
TO create George RR Martin’s fictional lands, the Game of Thrones cast has
filmed in Belfast, Croatia, Iceland and Morocco.
The Starks’ ancestral castle Winterfell is set at Castle Ward in County Down,
Northern Ireland.
The Kingsroad, the grandest highway in the Seven Kingdoms, is actually The
Dark Hedges, Bregagh Road – minus the white lines, naturally, – in Armoy,
Northern Ireland.
King’s Landing is filmed in Dubrovnik in Croatia.
The sandy desert lands that Daenerys conquers are mainly filmed in Morocco.
Iceland has provided most of the locations for the Wildlings and the
glaciers beyond The Wall.
Bed ‘n’ bawd
FROM the “twincest” of brother and sister Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and
Cersei (Lena Headey) to the lust of brothel-loving imp Tyrion (Peter
Dinklage), the show is not short of sex scenes.
There’s plenty of orgies, seduction by men, women and even black magic and
nudity, often involving Emilia Clarke as Daenerys.
Even while characters are discussing important issues of state, a sex scene is
rarely far away.
These “sexplanations”, as they are known on set, are thought to play an
important role in holding our attention while complex plot twists are
developed.
Deathwatch
FROM the moment lead actor Sean Bean was beheaded in series one, fans have
known that no character is safe.
But the deaths aren’t just shocking, they are imaginatively gory too.
The Tarantino-esque ambush of The Red Wedding left fans shell-shocked when
King of the North Robb Stark, his pregnant wife, mother and their kinsmen
were massacred in an ambush during the marriage feast.
Lower-key deaths are equally gripping. Heartbroken Tyrion had viewers cheering
as he slotted his father Tywin with a crossbow – while the latter was on the
lavatory. And a character nicknamed The Mountain crushed his victim’s skull
with his bare hands
But some violence can be worse than death, as Alfie Allen’s character Theon
Greyjoy knows only too well.
He was strung up on a cross, aroused by two beautiful women – and then
deprived of his manhood in a single slice.
Map
WITH complex battle plans and epic journeys, fans often have to refer to a map
to make sense of the action.
The map above shows the two continents of Westeros and Essos – divided by the
Narrow Sea – and the lands fought over and conquered by different clans.
Comic relief
MOST of the laughs come from Tyrion Lannister, who has kept fans grinning with
lines such as, “It’s not easy being drunk all the time. Everyone would do it
if it were easy.”
He famously criticised the vicious gods, asking: “Where’s the god of t**s and
wine?”
He bested his own sister with the words: “You love your children. It’s your
one redeeming quality – that, and your cheekbones.”
He’s no fan of kings either, saying: “It’s hard to put a leash on a dog once
you’ve put a crown on its head.”
Acting up
WITH its mainly British cast, the show has launched the careers of young stars
including Emilia Clarke, Kit Harrington, Rose Leslie, Maisie Williams,
Sophie Turner and Natalie Dormer.
Since starring as the Mother of Dragons, Emilia has been cast opposite Arnold
Schwarzenegger as Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys and as Louisa Clark in
this year’s big rom com Me Before You.
Kit has filmed a string of movies including Pompeii with Kiefer Sutherland and
Spooks: The Greater Good.
He also has the show to thank for a real-life romance with Rose Leslie, who
played his onscreen lover Ygritte. Rose, who left in series four, has
appeared in horror movie Honeymoon and The Last Witch Hunter.
Maisie was just 14 when she played Arya Stark in the first series. Now 19,
she’s already been in Doctor Who and British movie The Falling. She has two
films coming up called The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea and A Storm In The
Stars.
Flame-haired Sophie who plays the much put upon Sansa Stark, will appear in
Marvel movie X-Men: Apocalypse as Jean Grey and will play Frankenstein
writer Mary Shelley in Mary Shelley’s Monster.
But the show has also featured some true acting legends.
Series one’s most famous faces Sean Bean as Ned Stark and Mark Addy as Robert
Baratheon were killed off early on. And others to meet a sticky end have
included Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister, Stephen Dillane as Stannis
Baratheon and Tara Fitzgerald as his wife Selyse.
But Dame Diana Rigg will come into her own this year as Olenna Tyrell, Queen
of Thorns.
And Wolf Hall star Jonathan Pryce’s part as the High Sparrow will be stepped
up as he tries Queen Cersei for her crimes.
Big names joining the new series include Richard E Grant and Ian McShane,
whose roles have yet to be revealed.
Novel ideas
GEORGE RR Martin is still working on A Song Of Ice And Fire, the epic series
of novels he began in 1991 on which the show is based.
He is thought to be giving skeleton plots to the TV writers, who have now
overtaken the books.