Rule Britannia! Britannia

An utterly bonkers and very sweary romp through the Roman invasion of Britain in which the veil between the mundane and the magical is thin and the theme tunes are provided by Donovan

Created by Jez Butterworth, UK / USA, 2018-2019

Acorn Media International, £34.99

Is Britannia – an everyday story of the Roman invasion of Britain – a travesty of history, or completely bonkers, or one of the very best TV dramas of the last few years? Yes, yes and yes. If you don’t have Sky Atlantic (or, for the first series, Amazon Prime) you’ll have missed it; now the first two series are available in a DVD box set – and it’s wonderful.

In 55 and 54 BC Julius Caesar invaded Britain briefly, then headed back to Rome. Now, in AD 45, the Romans are back, led by General Aulus Plautius (David Morrissey), supported by his old friend, Prefectus Lucius (Hugo Speer) – and this time they’re planning to stay. Aulus negotiates with two British tribes, the Regnii led by Queen Antedia (Zoë Wanamaker) and the Cantii led by King Pellenor (Ian McDiarmid), who hate each other even more than they hate the invading Romans. Both plot with Aulus against the other tribe. Brutality, literal backstabbing and double-crossing are standard from everyone. But Aulus has his own way of gaining control of Rome’s troublesome new outpost.

Lucius complains to him: “The men are spooked enough as it is. They think we’re at war with ghosts. We’ve got mutiny and rebellion up the arse. We are on the brink, and you’re out there playing ghouls and fucking goblins!” Aulus’s reply sets the tone for both series: “You don’t defeat these people by fighting their warriors. You defeat them by fighting their gods.”

This is the concept at the heart of Britannia. Both tribes, though fiercely independent, believe in the teachings of the Druids and follow their instructions. Led by Veran (Mackenzie Crook), the Druids are out of their skulls on interesting substances much of the time; more startlingly, Druid magic actually works.

The interplay between the natural and the supernatural is the clearest since John James’s Romano-British novels half a century ago: the veil between man and the gods, between the earthy and the spiritual, between mundanity and magic, is very thin. You don’t just have visions of gods, you get possessed by them. They are a real presence in the world of Britannia –somuchso that it’s a genuine shock in series two when a Roman soldier starts questioning their existence.

The acting throughout is superb, but two characters stand out. David Morrissey’s Aulus is amoral, cruel, yet utterly charming; you can’t help loving him, even as he chops the fingers off a female Druid. But the outstanding performance is teenager Eleanor Worthington Cox as Cait, a girl from the Cantii tribe (she played Janet in The Enfield Haunting) who has been in training since the age of two. Her initiation into womanhood is interrupted by a bloody Roman attack; she escapes, and becomes the focus of a Druid prophecy: “Sent by the gods, a child. Only through her shall this land be saved… she will grow stronger than kings, wiser than Druids, and she will lead us into the light.” Cait is taken on for harsh training by an outcast Druid, Divis (Nicolaj Lie Kaas), shunned because he had been possessed by the evil demon Pwykka.

Britannia has the power to shock viewers in every episode: don’t expect every major character to survive into series two. Without too many spoilers: two years later, Cait’s training continues, and she develops into a strong and powerful young person. The Romans have settled in, and Aulus is as brutal and charming as ever; look out for how he deals with Emperor Claudius (Steve Pemberton) in the baths. But the most crucial change in series two is the return of the Druid leader Veran’s brother Harka, aka The Dead Man – also played by Mackenzie Crook – causing a split in loyalties for the Druids as the two compete in their dark magic.

With its down-to-earth writing (and much swearing) Britannia comes over as utterly real; and despite the huge amounts of blood and treachery – in Aulus’s case with a smile on his face as he slits yet another throat – there’s also plenty of humour, whether it’s the fraught relationship between Cait and her half-mad mentor Divis, or the wonderfully silly romp when a couple of AWOL Roman soldiers spike the water supply in a Roman encampment with magic mushrooms.

One of the most bonkers things about Britannia is its theme music: Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” in series one and “Season of the Witch” in series two. But a couple of episodes in and you couldn’t imagine it with anything else. Which Donovan classic will they use for series three? “Mellow Yellow”, perhaps? The atmospheric incidental music by Neil Davidge is supplemented by a wonderful variety of mainly Sixties sounds: Fairport Convention, Cream, Blind Faith, Humble Pie and Jackson C Frank’s “Blues Run the Game” – and it all, somehow, madly, works.

Grubby, sexy, violent, sweary, fun – Britannia is utterly addictive.

David V Barrett

★★★★★

The Druids are out of their skull on interesting substances