By the time you read this, James Delingpole and I will have made our first podcast in 596 days. That’s the length of time that elapsed between the last episode of Game of Thrones and the new one broadcast on Monday night. Yes, that’s right, we have our very own Thronecast in which we dissect every instalment of the long-running saga.
This isn’t exactly original. Every self-respecting broadcaster has a Thronecast these days. There’s even a Thronecast Shopping Network where you can buy miniature iron thrones for your mantelpiece. Although why anyone would want to is a mystery. The era when the series enjoyed cult status is long gone. Last Sunday’s episode attracted a record-breaking 17.4 million viewers in America alone and its global audience is many times that. It’s hard to feel a sense of ownership of something so widely shared.
The only thing that’s different about the Delingpole-Young Thronecast is that we don’t pretend to have a clue what’s going on. Game of Thrones is notoriously difficult to follow because it has so many characters and plot lines. One minute you’re in a cave with the Three-Eyed Raven; the next, you’re in the Great Hall at Winterfell as Jon Snow tries to rally his banner men. A minor character called Gendry completely disappeared at the end of season three, then popped back up at the beginning of season seven.
When a major character dies you breathe a sigh of relief and think, ‘At least I don’t have to keep track of that bastard any more’, only for said bastard to be brought back from the dead in the next episode. There are even three characters with almost identical names: Bronn, Bran and Brienne. Thanks a lot, guys!
All the Thronecast hosts feel obliged to constantly advertise their mastery of this material, although you know there’s an army of nerds off-camera feeding them information.
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