Continuing our conversations with the cast of Netflix’s The Last Kingdom, we recently sat down with James Northcote, who plays Aldhelm, once the right hand to Lord Aethelred and the unofficial behind-the-scenes photographer of the medieval drama. What can he tell us about his experience on the show, and where it’s going?
“I loved joining the show in Season 2,” Northcote told us. “I thought Season 1 was so different from most historical dramas I’d seen and the approach of the show was really refreshing. I think it helped that Toby Regbo (Aethelred) and I joined the cast at the same time bringing the Kingdom of Mercia into the story. It meant I had someone to share the experience with and I always enjoy working with him. It’s great when you get to bring in a new part of a world that is growing and expanding with each season. It gives you a lot of freedom.”
While the Kingdom of Mercia could be as much a hindrance as an ally to Alfred and the Kingdom of Wessex, the cast and crew were anything but to the newcomers. “The cast and the whole team were incredibly welcoming as soon as we arrived,” Northcote said. “I remember meeting Ole Ertvaag (Sven) and Tobias Santelmann (Ragnar) on the street in Budapest for the first time and these huge Norwegians scooped me up and took me for Thai food. I don’t think I ever got to share a scene with either of them but immediately I felt like I was part of a family. I think a lot of that comes from Alex (Dreymon) — he’s at the centre of the show and really brings everyone together both on and off set.”
“Let’s get some Thai food!”
Moving on, season 3 marked the moment when The Last Kingdom was no longer a joint production between Netflix and the BBC, but rather just a Netflix joint. For the most part, Northcote doesn’t believe the change affected much. “The Carnival team who created the show stayed the same so there wasn’t a big difference,” he said. “We still had the brilliant Steven Butchard and his team of writers leading the story and Chas Bain leading the look of the show as cinematographer. The vibe of the show has the same attention to detail and desire to tell a grim, ninth century story, it has the same humor and heart. Kate Benton and her team continued their hair and makeup wizardry and Levante Lezsák kept bringing all the action as stunt coordinator.”
"For Season 3 Crissy Skinns came on board to produce and she brought with her Cait Collins. We had a new costume designer in Molly Rowe who brought a brilliant and different take – particularly to Mercia. With each season new people come and bring a fresh perspective and we work with great directors. Season 4 brought on Martha Hillier as lead writer and Vicki Delow as lead producer but still kept a lot of the same team. Truly, every season is built on the incredible Hungarian crew, some of whom have worked on the show from the very beginning. They are some of the most skilled people I’ve ever worked with."
However, Northcote does think the show changed in one major way once it moved under Netflix’s umbrella: “Where I think the support from Netflix come in, is in the scale of the show. More action, more adventure and less rules. That feels like the Netflix way. They took what we had already and gave it a shot of adrenalin and I think the audience can feel that.” This viewer certainly did.
With an excellent cast and crew in place for season 4, it looks like we’re ready for smooth sailing. Still, season 4 presented Northcote with his hardest scene yet:
"It’s often the scenes that you don’t expect to be challenging that end up being the hardest. I managed to get food poisoning this season and had to shoot quite a big action sequence the next day. In the script it was just two lines of description so I fooled myself that it wouldn’t be too difficult. But the director had bigger plans for it and we were running about sliding through woods, on horses, off horses, running, jumping, hiding – the whole works. It was one of those days that would usually be my favorite and the forest we were filming in was stunning, but my body just had other plans! When you see me sweating and terrified in that scene – it’s not makeup – and probably not acting."
Well, now our minds are racing. Could it be this scene Northcote is speaking of?
If experience is any guide, Northcote probably felt like dying during that bout of food poisoning, and while he might have survived, his character Lord Aldhelm is long dead in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Tales, the source material for The Last Kingdom . That might scare a mere mortal, but Northcote sees a silver lining:
"I’m going to be honest and say that in The Last Kingdom we all know that there are no guarantees you’ll survive a scene, let alone a series. I stopped worrying about survival a long time ago! It’s one of the things I love about the show and I feel really lucky to have made it so far. Being a character who isn’t exactly as he is in the book is also an amazing thing. It encouraged me to do a lot of historical research. One of the interesting things I found is that Aethelflaed did have a very loyal Mercian lord called Alhelm. That’s close enough for me. It’s a tiny mention in the Mercian Chronicle but I like to think that Bernard Cornwell secretly based Aldhelm on him and was just waiting for me to find the evidence. Being ‘dead’ in the books has given me a lot of freedom to develop the character, and I never know what path he’s going to choose!"
For those not up on your medieval English history, the Mercian Chronicle — or Mercian Register — is part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the1,100-year-old manuscript from which Cornwell drew inspiration. And if Northcote is right about Cornwell basing his character on just one small mention, then we are super impressed.
Finally, we talked about Northcote’s habit of sharing pictures from behind the scenes of the show. “Production are great about behind the scenes and they are usually very supportive,” he said. “We do have to be careful about spoilers though and also make sure that everyone is credited for the work they do. We’re always worried about revealing Uhtred’s new haircut or sometimes we have to crop out new characters so that we don’t spoil the reveal for fans of the show. I managed to get some great stuff this year. Battle behind the scenes on Super 8, about 1000 photos on film, even a 16mm black and white short film with Mark and Ewan. I love taking photos and film on set because it reminds me how lucky I am to do what I do with the people I do it with.”
How much do we have to pay to see that short film? Maybe it will hold us until season 4 drops on Netflix!
We have more with Northcote coming up soon. He examines Lord Aldhelm’s motivations, and gives us some hints as to what’s coming in season 4!
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