The Last Kingdom BBC2, 9pm
Game of Thrones has been a runaway success across the globe, and now producers everywhere are trying to devise a format to rival it. ITV currently has a retelling of the poem Beowulf in production, while this is the BBC’s answer to it. The Last Kingdom is an adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s best-selling The Saxon Stories franchise and tells the story of the formation of England following battles with the Vikings in the ninth century. At the centre of it all is Uhtred, the son of a Saxon noble who was orphaned by the Vikings.