Remember how you felt when Game of Thrones ended? Remember that rush of disappointment when you realised that the show you had been obsessively watching for the best part of a decade had thoroughly botched the landing? Remember the baffling character development, rushed plotlines and that altogether too tidy conclusion? Remember when they forgot to remove that plastic water bottle from a shot? Bit of a disaster, wasn’t it.
Now, three years later, HBO are hoping that you’re willing to forget all that unpleasantness, and tune in to their much-ballyhooed GoT prequel series House of the Dragon, which airs on Sunday evening in the US and on Monday in the UK and Australia. Set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, it tells the story of a brutal civil war between various members of the Targaryen family as they position themselves to become the rightful heirs of King Viserys (a magnificently bewigged Paddy Considine, above right). There will, naturally, be dragons and platinum blond hair swishing all over the place. For a bit more plot detail than my whistlestop summary, check out Lucy Mangan’s four-star first-look review.
