Laid-back fantasy

This is how heavily Game of Thrones (Sky Atlantic, Monday) is being promoted: the preview discs came with a big, wider than A4, stiff-backed glossy book containing pictures of the actors and the settings, plus a glossary and a guide to the programme’s fantasy land — more than any lonely schoolboy in his bedroom could wish for.

This is how heavily Game of Thrones (Sky Atlantic, Monday) is being promoted: the preview discs came with a big, wider than A4, stiff-backed glossy book containing pictures of the actors and the settings, plus a glossary and a guide to the programme’s fantasy land — more than any lonely schoolboy in his bedroom could wish for.

But this is not just aimed at lonely schoolboys, though I’m sure plenty will watch it. The notion is that GoT reinvents the genre for everyone. There are no hobbits, no men in boarskin tabards saying, ‘My Lord, the Tharg-men of the Ultimate Kingdom are even now assailing our lands beyond the Great Mire.’