Ripper Street stars Matthew Macfadyen and David Dawson are teaming up again for an "epic" drama set in ninth-century England featuring Blade Runner star Rutger Hauer.
Filming has started on the BBC drama, based on a series of best-selling books by Sharpe author Bernard Cornwell, which has already been likened to the hit fantasy show Game Of Thrones.
Dawson, who plays journalist Fred Best alongside Macfadyen's detective Edmund Reid in Ripper Street, will play King Alfred the Great in the eight-part series.
Alexander Dreymon, who starred in American Horror Story, plays the main character - the son of a Saxon nobleman kidnapped by Vikings and raised among them before returning to England to fight them.
Further details about the cast have not been released but it also includes Ian Hart alongside Hauer and Macfadyen.
Ben Stephenson, controller of BBC drama commissioning, said: "I hope The Last Kingdom will expand BBC2's distinctive portfolio of drama. It's an epic narrative with an extraordinary creative team. It will feel like nothing else on television, with all of the scale and intrigue of the best fantasy stories but the reality of fact."
Game Of Thrones, which is made in the US by HBO, is based on George RR Martin's novels set in a medieval-inspired fantasy world.
Cornwell's Sharpe novels, about a soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, inspired a long-running TV series with Game Of Thrones star Sean Bean in the title role.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article