The Best TV Shows and Films Set in the Dark Ages To Binge Watch When Trying To Avoid the Summer Heat

I love a good historical movie or TV series. I finished The Last Kingdom on a rainy Tuesday a couple of months ago and remember feeling really depleted when it was over. I’d got to know all the characters so well and felt like I’d lost an old friend.

So naturally, I went straight off to hunt for what to watch next that would let me throw myself back into the world of Vikings and Anglo-Saxons. And below is what I found.

So, if you want the best TV shows and films set in the Dark Ages, my advice is to start with The Last Kingdom and Vikings, then add the finale film Seven Kings Must Die, the sequel series Vikings: Valhalla, Robert Eggers’ The Northman, and the Arthurian sweep of The Winter King. Between them, they carry the era: the raids, the shield walls, the slow and bloody birth of England. Here’s how I’d rank the lot, and where each one bends the truth just a tad.

What Counts as the Dark Ages?

Before the list, a quick word on what we’re actually talking about. The Dark Ages are roughly the 5th to the 10th centuries in Western Europe, after Rome withdrew its legions from Britain and before the Norman Conquest of 1066 drew the curtain.

For our purposes, the list covers Anglo-Saxon England, the Viking raids that began at Lindisfarne in 793, and the misty Arthurian world right at the start of it all.

Know what you’re signing up for: mud, blood, guts and gore, and faith clashing with the old gods, and a great many men shouting behind shields. I love every minute of it.

The Best Dark Ages TV Shows, Ranked

Let’s start with the small screen, because this is where the era truly comes alive over a long, happy binge.

1. The Last Kingdom

My number one, and it isn’t close. Across five seasons, it follows Uhtred, a Saxon-born but Dane-raised warrior torn between two worlds, as Alfred the Great fights to hold Wessex together. 

It has the best story and the most heart of anything on this list, and the battles are a masterclass in shield-wall tension. If you watch one thing, watch this.

Verdict: the gold standard.

2. Vikings

The one for spectacle and myth. It premiered on the History Channel in March 2013 to 6.2 million viewers and charts the rise of the legendary raider Ragnar Lothbrok from an ambitious farmer to the scourge of England. 

It leans hard into saga and legend, but the sweep is glorious, and his shield-maiden wife, Lagertha, and scheming brother, Rollo, are worth the investment of time.

Verdict: raids, gods, and glorious chaos.

3. Vikings: Valhalla

Set about a hundred years after Vikings, this Netflix sequel picks up a new generation: Leif Erikson and the voyages that took the Norse west toward America, Freydis, the fierce believer in the old ways, and the ambitious Harald. 

It’s slicker and faster than the original, if a touch less soulful.

Verdict: a strong next step once Vikings runs dry.

4. The Winter King

The newest arrival and a treat for Last Kingdom fans, because it too comes from a Bernard Cornwell novel. It retells the Arthur legend not as knights in shining armor but as a warlord scrapping for survival in grubby, post-Roman 5th-century Britain. 

It was sadly canceled after one 10-episode season, but that season is well worth your time.

Verdict: Arthur with the magic stripped out and the mud left in.

5. Merlin

For something gentler, the BBC’s Merlin reimagines the legend through a young wizard hiding his powers at Arthur’s court. 

It’s more adventure and warmth than history, but it’s funny, big-hearted, and ran a happy five seasons. 

Verdict: the cozy, family-friendly Arthurian option.

6. Cursed and Camelot

​​

Two more Arthurian swings. Netflix’s Cursed retells the tale through Nimue, the future Lady of the Lake, all fantasy and fury, while Starz’s Camelot gave us a darker, sexier young Arthur. Both were canceled after a single season, so temper your investment. 

Verdict: stylish, flawed, and one-and-done.

7. Norsemen

And for a laugh, this Norwegian comedy plays Viking life for gloriously deadpan farce while getting the mud and the misery oddly right. 

Verdict: the perfect palate cleanser.

The Best Dark Ages Films

When you want the whole story in a single sitting, the films that deliver.

1. The Northman

The big one, and the most striking Viking film ever made. Robert Eggers’ 2022 epic follows a prince named Amleth on a blood-soaked quest for revenge, and Eggers worked with archaeologists and saga scholars to build nearly every ritual and rite from real evidence. It’s brutal, strange, and unforgettable. 

Verdict: the most authentic Viking film there is.

2. The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die

The Netflix film that closes out Uhtred’s saga, carrying him into the story of Æthelstan, the man who became the first king of all England. It landed at number one on Netflix’s English-language film chart with 35.5 million hours viewed in its first week, topping the list in 92 countries. 

Verdict: essential if you’ve watched the series, baffling if you haven’t.

3. The 13th Warrior

A cult favorite from 1999, in which an Arab traveler joins a band of Norse warriors against a shadowy enemy, loosely spun from the Beowulf legend and a real 10th-century account. 

Verdict: rousing, underrated fun.

4. Valhalla Rising

For the art-house crowd, Nicolas Winding Refn’s dreamlike, near-wordless Norse odyssey is a hard and strange watch. 

Verdict: hypnotic, and not for everyone.

5. Alfred the Great

If you want the real history behind The Last Kingdom, this 1969 British epic dramatizes Alfred’s actual war against the Danes. 

Verdict: dated but earnest.

6. The Arthurian classics

For the legendary end of the era, reach for John Boorman’s gorgeous, operatic Excalibur from 1981, or the 2004 King Arthur with Clive Owen, which reimagines Arthur as a Roman-British commander facing the Saxons. 

And if you fancy a giggle, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is still the funniest thing ever set in the Dark Ages. 

Verdict: pick your Arthur, from solemn to silly.

Is Vikings or The Last Kingdom More Historically Accurate?

It’s the question every fan ends up asking, and the short answer is The Last Kingdom, comfortably.

It rests on Bernard Cornwell’s meticulously researched Saxon Stories, and it gets the broad shape of Alfred’s reign right, including his retreat into the Somerset marshes and his victory at the Battle of Edington in 878. Alfred really did drag Wessex back from the brink, and the show honors that.

Vikings, by contrast, leans into legend, drawing on Norse sagas written two to four centuries after the events they describe. Its creator, Michael Hirst, has been open about it, admitting he took liberties because nobody knows exactly what happened, and a purely accurate account would reach thousands where the show needed millions. Fair enough.

Was Uhtred of Bebbanburg a Real Person?

Uhtred of Bebbanburg, the whole beating heart of The Last Kingdom, is fictional, invented by Bernard Cornwell for his novels.

He did borrow the name, mind. A real Uhtred the Bold served as Ealdorman of Northumbria from around 1006 to 1016, nearly a century after the show’s events, and Cornwell is descended from that line. But our Uhtred, the man himself, never drew breath.

The good news for history lovers is that it barely matters. The world he moves through is real, and most of the people around him truly lived: Alfred the Great, his formidable daughter Aethelflaed, and his son Edward the Elder. The invented hero is simply our way into a true story.

What to Watch After You’ve Finished Them All

When the Anglo-Saxon well runs dry, widen the net. The Arthurian films above are the natural next step for the legendary early end of the period. And if you find yourself craving more crowns and betrayal, our fuller guides to the best TV series set in the Middle Ages and the medieval movies worth your evening will keep you going for months.

Frequently Asked Questions