Trojan War drama a shock to system

What is it with the BBC and violent drama these days? First we had gruesome torture scenes in Guy Fawkes-inspired series Gunpowder. Now TV chiefs are giving advance warnings about Troy: The Fall of a City. The new swords-and-sandals drama about the Trojan War and the illicit love affair between Paris and Helen is, by all accounts, a gory affair. With Louis Hunter in the lead role opposite Bella Dayne as Helen, both pictured, it includes scenes of a soldier being speared straight through the neck, a man slicing a girl’s throat and blood-lust animal sacrifices to the gods. Director Owen Harris admits the show is violent but says the producers toned things down compared to the original edit. He said: “At some point we thought, ‘One act of violence can be just as shocking as 50 crammed into two minutes’.”