1 9 6 5 (UK)
16 x 25 minute episodes
Anglo-Norse nobleman Hereward Leofricsson (Alfred Lynch) is a wildly undisciplined young roisterer who is the despair of his stern and upright father Earl Leofric (Tony Steedman), and even more so of his mother, the saintly Lady Godiva of Coventry (Dorothy Reynolds).
Edward the Confessor, the last of the Saxon kings, still rules in Westminster but he favours William of Normandy (John Carson) as his successor and Norman influence is already strong in England, especially in the church.
One day, a stiff Norman cleric (David Swift) falls foul of Hereward and his drunken housecarls, and this is the last straw: Hereward is made “Wolf’s Head” (outlaw) and so he becomes a roving fighter and berserker, leading a sustained and gallant resistance to William and his Norman followers.
Hereward’s attendant and friend, Martin Lightfoot – a slave with a mysteriously acquired store of education – was played by Bryan Pringle.
The BBC dramatisation of the Charles Kingsley novel provided a real taste of a harsh and bloody period in British history and was presented in 16 weekly parts – the longest classical serial ever mounted by the BBC at the time.
Hereward Leofricsson
Alfred Lynch
Martin Lightfoot
Bryan Pringle
Torfrida
Yvonne Furneaux
William of Normandy
John Carson
Ivo Taillebois
Alan Rowe
Gilbert of Ghent
Francis De Wolff
Alftruda
Justine Lord
Prior Herluin
David Swift
Winter
John Collin
Gwenoch
Peter Needham
Sir Raoul de Selignat
Clive Graham
Lady Godiva
Dorothy Reynolds
Earl Leofric
Tony Steedman
Edwin
Alan Lake
Pery
Arthur Cox
Thorold
Peter Stephens
Ranald of Ramsey
David Neal
Baldwin
Kynaston Reeves
Abbot of St. Bertin
Patrick Holt
Arnoul
Raymond Platt
Earl Harold
Peter Arne
Gyda
Margaret Vines
Morcar
Gilbert Wynne
Abbot Brand
John Wentworth
Horsa
Michael Miller
Episodes
Forfeit for Eternity | A Single Blow | The Brain Biter | A Champion’s Reward | The Sorceress of St. Omer | The Court of Love | The Wind Blows | Death of a King | The War Arrow | The Art of War | The Broken Promise | Live and Die | The Burning of the Golden Borough | Face to Face | The King’s Vengeance | The Last of the English