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The Letter For The King034 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K
the one thing that he does have, which
is hope. She has the skills to navigate this
very dangerous world which he doesn’t have.
They make a very unlikely pairing.”
Lavinia’s untrustworthy traits run in the
family, on screen at least. Serkis’ role in The
Letter For The King provided her with the
unique opportunity to act alongside her real-
life father Andy, who stars as Mistrinaut’s
equally-as-corrupt mayor. “It was bizarre,”
laughs Serkis. “I don’t think many people
have had the opportunity to play different
characters in a
different world
but still have the
same familial
relationship and
father-daughter
bond.” It also
marked an odd
role-reversal for
the duo: “It was
funny; I’ve spent
my whole life on
dad’s film sets
and at the back of
his stages. When
he finally came
on set, I was like:
‘Yeah dad, this is actually my set...’,” she
laughs. “It was great.”
Davies also has fond memories of shooting
these scenes: “It was so funny watching a
father and daughter play father and daughter.
There was such a spark and life to it. It was
really special.”
Production for The Letter For The King
took the show’s cast and crew to a range
of eye-popping locations in New Zealand,
Prague and the Czech Republic where
they were able to capture a grounded yet
otherworldly feel. “When Tonke wrote the
book it was set in a version of medieval
Europe and what New Zealand gives you is
a kind of cinematic version of that,” reasons
Davies. “It feels like medieval Europe on
steroids. There’s these massive landscapes –
and that was great because you could then
drop these young people into these huge
spaces and it makes the journey they’re
going on feel even more overwhelming.”
Serkis agrees – despite their sometimes
temperamental setbacks: “The landscapes
were incredible. There were days where
it was pouring down with rain when it
shouldn’t have been, but the scene just
adapts to it. We shot in gorgeous castles
around the Czech Republic. It helps so much
being surrounded by an environment that’s
so detailed. It completely transports you to
the world you’re trying to create.”
As with any ‘ye olde’ fantasy epic, the
series came with a hefty amount of intense
swordplay and tricky stunt work for its
young recruits. Thankfully they couldn’t
wait to get stuck in. “All the stunt training
was fantastic,” grins Serkis. “I learned
knife throwing and horse riding – it was
unbelievable. I really loved it.”
“In the schedule we called it Boot Camp,”
Davis adds. “They all had to learn to throw
knives, fight and ride. Amir went from not
really knowing how to ride to loving it so
much he was riding as soon as he got back to
England.” What’s more, this shared, hands-
on experience helped its actors form an
incredibly close bond: “I can’t even describe
how amazing everyone was, we were such
a close family,” says Serkis candidly. “We
were all going through similar things and
we never felt there was much of an age
difference. It was like being paid to go on
holiday around Prague and New Zealand.”
Visuals aside, one of the trickiest parts of
Davies’ adaptation was crafting the show’s
unique tone. While it may have magical
elements, The Letter For The King is very
much a family show, unlike its grizzly
sword and shield genre predecessor Game
Of Thrones. The show’s tone had to reflect
that, which wasn’t always easy. “We wanted
it to feel real and rooted in the natural world,
not just something where people hold theirHorsing Around
Writer Will Davies explains the show’s unlikely western connections...
Despite being packed with swords, magic and castles, The Letter For The King shares an odd connection
to one of cinema’s most enduring genres. “In a funny way, this series is both a medieval show and also
sort of a western,” explains Davies. “We were having to re-learn lessons that people knew how to do in
the Fifties – when they knew how to shoot people on horses and do dialogue on horses.” While it may
seem like a canter around the park, capturing these key sequences came with their own challenges:
“We’d put actors on a horse and film them walking, but in a minute a horse can cover such a huge
distance. We had to start recalibrating all of our sets otherwise we’d run out of space. By the end of the
shoot, we really knew what we were doing – but unfortunately we were at the end of it,” he chuckles.
“Had we known what we were doing at the beginning it would have been much easier.”The cast went through stunt
training before shooting...