MUST WATCH
T
he ruthless, power-hungry
characters in Game of Thrones
pale in comparison to some of
history’s fearsome conquerors.
In End of Empire: The Rise and Fall
of Dynasties, a four-part series made for
Foxtel, Australian historian and filmmaker
David Adams examines the warrior kings
who built vast empires – only for their
dysfunctional families to later destroy
their legacies through bitter infighting or
just plain inadequacy. For some, an entire
empire was lost in a single generation.
“I think what Game of Thrones has
done across the world is renew great
interest in fantastic historical characters,”
Adams tells Foxtel magazine. “So what
we looked for in the four characters
[featured] for this series [was] people who
created these amazing empires, but then
their families basically dismembered it,
murdered or bankrupted it – often in
the lifetime of the conqueror.”
It’s fascinating stuff and every bit as
compelling as the HBO drama playing
out in frozen, fictional Westeros.
In the series, four towering figures in
history are examined: Attila the Hun;
Timur, aka ‘Tamerlane the Great’; Edgar,
‘King of the English’; and Charlemagne.
Adams, who says he has long been
fascinated by these historical characters
- thanks, in part, to his parents, who raised
him with a vast library of historical tomes
at his disposal – travels across Europe, India,
the Middle East and Central Asia to trace the
paths of the four rulers. Along the way, he
discovers that what is currently playing
out in our modern-day world – or indeed
on screen in dramas like Game of Thrones
- has historical precedent.
“I am endlessly fascinated by the
[assumption] that what people call history
now – everything from climate change to
the way great empires function – has all
been done before,” he explains. “History
is a great tool to understand the future,
as well as being a fascinating past.”
Each of the hour-long episodes was
filmed over a four-month period, taking
the crew to France, the UK, Georgia,
Uzbekistan, China, India and Turkey.
The places these dramatic historical figures
hail from are stunning in their landscape
and steeped in tradition, from the ancient
stone walls of Constantinople – what is
now Istanbul, Turkey – to the magnificent
mosaic mosques of Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
“There were aspects of filming that
were difficult – Uzbekistan, for example,
is not a democracy, so we had to convince
the government that we were going to
tell the right story,” Adams explains.
“We have shown the bloody-handedness
of these characters, but also shone a light
on their works and magnificence.”
END OF EMPIRE: THE RISE AND FALL OF DYNASTIES Stream* or watch from May 27,
Mondays at 7.30pm on HISTORY [608] available in the DOCOS pack
Registan Square in
Uzbekistan was the
hub of the ancient
city of SamarkandThe crew – here in
Uzbekistan – spent
four months on location
for each episodeIF YOU LOVE
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KNIGHT FIGHT
Stream* or watch from
May 20, weekdays at 4pm on
A&E [122] available in the
ENTERTAINMENT PLUS packFoxtel MAY 27