An all-star cast in the epic Troy: Fall of a City, Sharon Stone in the whodunit Mosaic, John Cleese in new comedy Hold the Sunset, plus the return of Homeland
The ancient battle for the city of TROY is retold in an epic big-budget BBC drama
THE ANCIENT LEGEND of Troy famously tells how an illicit love affair between the Trojan royal prince Paris and Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, led to a 10-year war between Greece and Troy.
Eventually, after brutal battles and a long siege, the walled city of Troy fell after Odysseus came up with his cunning deception to use a giant wooden horse as a ‘gift’ for the Trojans.
Now, a stunning eight-part drama, written by The Night
Manager’s David Farr, brings the whole saga to our screens, featuring a stellar cast.
BY ROYAL COMMAND
The production was filmed in South Africa where
Tv&satellite Week was invited on set to watch the filming and meet the stars, including David Threlfall, who plays King Priam, the ruler of Troy.
‘Priam is a fair and just king. He’s not a tyrant as he’s got a big heart,’ says the former Shameless actor in a break between scenes. ‘I’ve loved playing a royal king – it actually makes you stand taller!’
‘Hecuba and Priam kind of rule Troy side by side,’ adds Frances O’connor, who plays the Trojan queen. ‘Hecuba is very strong but fair, she loves being a mother too and is especially proud of her warrior son, Hector [Tom Weston-jones]. They’ve built this great kingdom together from very humble beginnings.’
However, the couple have a secret – they gave away their baby son Paris because of an omen that he’d bring about Troy’s destruction.
With Paris raised as a shepherd boy, all seems well – until Paris returns to Troy and the tragedy is duly played out after he falls in love with Helen (Bella Dayne), the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta.
When Paris and Helen steal away to Troy, Menelaus is completely taken over by revenge, and assembles a vast fleet to bring Helen back and punish the Trojans.
LET THERE BE WAR
‘He invited Paris to come to Sparta to set up a dynastic marriage with his daughter – only for his wife, Helen, to end up running away with him,’ says Robin Hood star Jonas Armstrong, who plays Menelaus.
‘He’s obsessed with getting her back at all costs. It’s about pride more than anything and he takes Sparta to war against Troy.’
The epic story has an epic scale too. The stunning mountainous region just north of Cape Town doubles as the ancient world, with the vast city of Troy built around a group of farm workers’ cottages.
It’s a busy day for filming when we show up. Horses are rehearsing a gallop through the gates of Troy, and there are costume trucks everywhere as all of the actors, plus up to 500 extras, are meticulously dressed to reflect the times.
With many battle scenes to film, the cast needed to get super fit and Armstrong reveals he had to spend lots of ‘boring’ hours in the gym.
‘There’s an idea of how a king should look and Menelaus has to be able to handle himself and inspire his men in battle, so it was necessary,’ he says. ‘But by the end I just wanted to smash up the gym!’
All the hard work paid off, however, when Armstrong took part in a pivotal sword-fight scene between Menelaus and Paris.
‘It took two and a half days to film,’ says the 37-year-old. ‘We both got a few little cuts during the fighting, but it was good fun – you don’t get to do that every day at work!’