While the BBC America broadcast began at the beginning of October, the UK finally gets to see The Last Kingdom tonight on BBC2 at 9pm.

The Last Kingdom 9pm, BBC2 Time for some Saxon violence. The BBC makes a move into Game of Thrones territory with this adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s historical novels, in which invading Danes rampage across ninth-century Britain. This opener is heavy on prologue, with 10-year-old hero Uhtred a bystander in the Northumbrian fracas that will shape his fate. But there’s no shortage of GoT-style realpolitik, with betrayals, decapitations, mooning Vikings and, best of all, Rutger Hauer as a perpetually self-amused blind poet.