Game of Thrones

Imagine The Lord of the Rings with lots of hot elf-sex, The Sopranos with swordfights instead of gunplay, and The Tudors with less pesky historical accuracy and more zombies and dragons, and you'll come close to imagining just how cool HBO's Game of Thrones is. Adapted from a series of novels by American author George RR Martin, it's a ten-part show set in a fantasy world where appetites for sex and power are all too human, where winters last for decades, and where sympathetic characters get killed off with a refreshing unpredictability. The cast includes Sean Bean, Lena Headey, Mark Addy and Peter Dinklage, who plays a drunken, whoring dwarf. "There's so much complexity here," says Bean, who stars as Eddard Stark, the grizzled warrior who risks all to defend his king: "a myriad of fascinating characters who are backstabbing, loyal, disloyal, incestuous, decadent and corrupt." Says co-producer Dan Weiss: "When we read the books the first thing we thought was that these are absolutely fantastic, compelling stories. The second thing we thought was, they're too complicated, too mature, developed, sexy and violent for a movie." There are five books in the A Song of Fire and Ice series and the good news is that HBO have already ordered a second series. 

Games of Thrones debuts on Showcase, Sun 17 Jul, 8.30pm

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