History (DStv 254) has ordered the TV channel's first drama series entitled Vikings about the legendary Norsemen of medieval times.
Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios will be producing the show for the History channel in America where it will start showing in 2013. That makes the likelihood big that Vikings will also be shown on History in South Africa which is a channel feed from Britain. Vikings could also go to MGM (TopTV 113) itself (although the channel only currently shows movies from its own MGM stable) or another broadcaster in South Africa, since MGM will be the distributor of Vikings outside of Ireland and Canada.
Vikings will be a historical drama, and will be filmed in Northern Ireland and other locations in Northern Europe similar to where the first seasons of the fantasy shows Camelot and Game of Thrones were filmed last year.
"People think they know about the Vikings – we see references to them all the time in our popular culture, from TV commercials to football teams – but the reality is so much more fascinating and complex, more vivid, visceral and powerful than popular legend," says Nancy Dubuc, History president and general manager in a press release.
''We will explore the mysteries of the Vikings, the adventures they took and the people who led them. And we will start to understand a past that is very much part of our collective DNA today."
Vikings will be a fictitious historical family drama, chronicling the exploits of historical figure Ragnar Lothbrok and his band of Viking brothers as Lothbrok rises to become king of the Viking tribes.
Vikings is an international Ireland-Canada co-production from World 2000 and Take 5 Productions. Vikings has been created and will be written by Michael Hearst whose other show indeed included Camelot.
