Troy: Fall of a City
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Nancy Harris
Mika Watkins
Joe Barton
Mark Brozel
| Troy: Fall of a City | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Drama Historical fiction Fantasy |
| Created by | David Farr |
| Written by | David Farr Nancy Harris Mika Watkins Joe Barton |
| Directed by | Owen Harris Mark Brozel |
| Starring | |
| Composer | Robin Coudert |
| Countries of origin | United Kingdom United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Derek Wax David Farr |
| Producer | Barney Reisz |
| Production location | South Africa |
| Running time | 56 minutes |
| Production companies | Kudos Wild Mercury Netflix |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC One (UK) Netflix (international) |
| Release | 17 February – 7 April 2018 |
Troy: Fall of a City is a historical drama television miniseries based on the Trojan War and the love affair between Paris and Helen. The show tells the story of the 10-year siege of Troy, set in the 13th century BC. It is not an adaptation of Homer's Iliad or Odyssey, but rather an original take on the Greek myths, and covers some ground only alluded to in those works.[1][2] The series was commissioned by BBC One and is a co-production between BBC One and Netflix, with BBC One airing the show on 17 February 2018 in the United Kingdom, and Netflix streaming the show internationally outside the UK.[3][4]
The story of the 10-year siege of Troy by the Greeks is told after Paris, the young prince of Troy, and Helen of Sparta, wife of the Greek king Menelaus, fall in love and leave Sparta together for Troy.
Cast
- Louis Hunter as Paris/Alexander[5]
- Bella Dayne as Helen of Troy[5]
- David Threlfall as Priam[5]
- Frances O'Connor as Hecuba[5]
- Tom Weston-Jones as Hector[5]
- Joseph Mawle as Odysseus[5]
- Chloe Pirrie as Andromache[5]
- Johnny Harris as Agamemnon[5]
- David Gyasi as Achilles[5]
- Jonas Armstrong as Menelaus[5]
- Alfred Enoch as Aeneas[5]
- Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Cassandra[5]
- Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Zeus[6]
- Chris Fisher as Deiphobus[7]
- Christiaan Schoombie as Troilus[7]
- Alex Lanipekun as Pandarus[7]
- Jonathan Pienaar as Litos[7]
- David Avery as Xanthias
- Lex King as Aphrodite
- Amy Louise Wilson as Briseis
- Inge Beckmann as Hera
- Shamilla Miller as Athena
- Diarmaid Murtagh as Hermes
- Thando Hopa as Artemis
- Nina Milner as Penthesilea[8]
- Grace Hogg-Robinson as Hermione
- Jovan Muthray as Kaidas
- Lemogang Tsipa as Patroclus
Production
The series was filmed near Cape Town and consists of eight episodes.[9] It was written by David Farr, Nancy Harris, Mika Watkins, and Joe Barton, and directed by Owen Harris and Mark Brozel.[5]
Episodes
| No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | UK viewers (millions) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Black Blood" | Owen Harris | David Farr | 17 February 2018 | 3.2 Million[10] | |
|
Zeus has picked Paris to serve as a judge of a beauty pageant of three Greek goddesses: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Paris awards the Apple of Discord to Aphrodite. In Troy, Priam who has over 50 sons, recognizes Paris as another one of his sons. Priam dispatches Pandarus and Paris as royal envoys on a diplomatic mission to Sparta. Priam's plan is to arrange the marriage of Paris to Hermione. Paris returns instead with Helen, the unhappily married wife of the Spartan leader Menelaus. | ||||||
| 2 | "Conditions" | Owen Harris | David Farr | 24 February 2018 | N/A | |
|
The Mycenaean League headed by Agamemnon hope to win the favor of the gods. They sacrifice a white dove to the goddess Artemis; to their dismay, Artemis rejects their sacrifice. The two sides parley in Troy; Agamemnon demands the customs authority over the Strait of Dardanelles in addition to the return of Helen to her husband Menelaus. Aeneas, the mythological founder of Rome, joins the Trojan side. | ||||||
| 3 | "Siege" | Owen Harris | Nancy Harris | 3 March 2018 | N/A | |
| 4 | "Spoils of War" | Mark Brozel | Mika Watkins | 10 March 2018 | 1.6 Million | |
| 5 | "Hunted" | Mark Brozel | David Farr | 17 March 2018 | N/A | |
|
Paris, now a disgraced fugitive, pays a visit to his former wife Oenone, but he is not welcome. He blames his plight on the goddess Aphrodite. | ||||||
| 6 | "Battle on the Beach" | Mark Brozel | Joe Barton | 24 March 2018 | N/A | |
|
In the hills, Paris finds himself with the Amazon Queen Penthesilea. Patroclus tries to convince Achilles to re-join the war. Afterwards, Hector kills Patroclus. Hector's wife Andromache gives birth to Astyanax, their son. | ||||||
| 7 | "Twelve Days" | John Strickland | David Farr | 31 March 2018 | N/A | |
|
Under the direction of the wily Odysseus, Thersites tricks Achilles into thinking that the Trojans have broken their mourning truce, and Achilles re-joins the war. Paris shoots an arrow into Achilles' heel. | ||||||
| 8 | "Offering" | John Strickland | David Farr | 7 April 2018 | N/A | |
|
The western Greek alliance at last gains entry to Troy, employing the ruse devised by Odysseus-the Trojan Horse and sack the city. After Helen's betrayal, Menelaus kills Paris. Aeneas (the subject of Virgil's Aeneid) is one of the few male survivors amongst the Trojans. Helen is taken back to Sparta by Menelaus, and Andromache is seized as a war trophy following the death of her baby son Astyanax. | ||||||
Changes from earlier adaptations
The show makes a number of alterations from the original Greek texts, as well as departures from earlier modern adaptations of the legend.[11] For instance, it vilifies Menelaus, proposes a resolution to Briseis' captivity, and omits Aeneas' identity as the son of Aphrodite.[11] The show also omits the final reconciliation between Achilles and Agamemnon from the Iliad, instead replacing this with Agamemnon resorting to "ignoble trickery".[11] It also reimagines the circumstances of the Trojan Horse stratagem by making it filled with grain for the starving city, thus making the Trojans more likely to bring it in.[11] More significantly, it also incorporates myths about the lead-up to the war and about the backgrounds of the major characters that are not found in the Iliad and are not normally included in most modern adaptations.[11]
One of the show's most radical changes from earlier adaptations was its decision to include the Greek gods as human-like characters played by live actors who speak normal dialogue.[11] While the gods are major figures in the original Homeric epics, ever since the mid-twentieth century, adaptations of the Trojan War have nearly always either removed the gods from the story or heavily reduced their role in it.[11] Most twenty-first-century adaptations of the Trojan War, including the film Troy (2004), Alessandro Baricco's Iliad (2004), Margaret George's Helen of Troy (2006), and Alice Oswald's Memorial (2011) omit them entirely.[11] The gods play an active role in the show for the first half of the series, but they recede into the background halfway through after Zeus orders them to stop intervening in the war.[11] Zeus does give this command in the original Iliad, but it is almost immediately violated and eventually repealed entirely.[11]
The most controversial change was the showrunners' decision to cast David Gyasi, a black actor of Ghanaian descent, as Achilles,[11][12] and Nigerian-born Hakeem Kae-Kazim, another black actor, as Zeus.[12] These decisions resulted in almost immediate backlash as both roles are traditionally portrayed by white actors and historically depicted as white.[11][12]
