Arya keeps her Ed as the carnage hots up

Ed Sheeran is making a superstar cameo. He reveals he sings a song to which Arya comments “Oh, that’s a nice song”. Forget House of Stark, she’s obviously a Lego House fan. Jim Broadbent also lends Hollywood kudos to the cast when he joins as Maester Ebrose.

Arya actress Maisie Williams, 19, has let slip that she survives the expected series bloodbath, revealing she’s back for season eight. She said: “We just finished seven, so I know marginally more than viewers at home. But in terms of the final season, they usually don’t release the scripts until a month before shooting, so I won’t know the end until the very end, really.”

The series features one of the biggest ever battles but all we know is it was filmed in an old Belfast quarry. It was flattened out with 11,000 square metres of concrete and it took six months just to prepare the set.

The show also has a world record for the most stuntmen on fire in one scene – thanks to a particularly toasty d ragon battle. Showrunner David Benioff said: “In one battle we set more stunt men on fire than have ever been simultaneously set on fire.” The total of 20 beat the 13 in Saving Private Ryan.

The dragons are set to be bigger than ever. Director Matt Shakman said: “The dragons this year are the size of 747s. Drogon is the biggest — his flame is 30ft in diameter!”

The broadcast was delayed by three months because producers needed to shoot during the real winter in Belfast and Iceland to ensure it looked as authentic as possible.

In worse news, HBO have hinted the final series might not air until 2019, rather than 2018.

Game of Thrones is being shown on Sky Atlantic and Now TV at 9pm tonight. It is also on both channels at 2am every Monday, when it airs in the US.