The Pillars of the Earth (TV miniseries)
Encyclopedia
The Pillars of the Earth is an eight part 2010 TV miniseries, adapted from Ken Follett
's novel of the same name
. It debuted in the U.S. on Starz and Canada on The Movie Network
/Movie Central
on July 23, 2010. Its UK premiere was on Channel 4
in October 2010 at 9pm. In 2011, the series was nominated at the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards.
in the fictitious town of Kingsbridge during a tumultuous period of English history known as The Anarchy
in the 12th century.
, the Canadian film company Muse Entertainment Enterprises
, and the UK and USA based Scott Free Productions. It was filmed in Austria and Hungary in 2009. The finishing work of the set was done by a Budapest firm of stonemasons, Reneszansz Plc., which does maintenance and restoration on historical buildings. It also trained the lead actors who played role of stonemasons in the series. The final aerial shot is of modern day Salisbury
and the Salisbury Cathedral
.
Ken Follett
Ken Follett is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels. He has sold more than 100 million copies of his works. Four of his books have reached the number 1 ranking on the New York Times best-seller list: The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, Triple, and World Without End.-Early...
's novel of the same name
The Pillars of the Earth
The Pillars of the Earth is a historical novel by Ken Follett published in 1989 about the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, England. It is set in the middle of the 12th century, primarily during the Anarchy, between the time of the sinking of the White Ship and the...
. It debuted in the U.S. on Starz and Canada on The Movie Network
The Movie Network
The Movie Network is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service, owned by Astral Media. The service is licensed to operate east of the Ontario-Manitoba border, excluding the territories...
/Movie Central
Movie Central
Movie Central is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service. Movie Central is designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories...
on July 23, 2010. Its UK premiere was on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in October 2010 at 9pm. In 2011, the series was nominated at the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards.
Plot
Like the novel on which it is based, the miniseries centers on the construction of a cathedralCathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
in the fictitious town of Kingsbridge during a tumultuous period of English history known as The Anarchy
The Anarchy
The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...
in the 12th century.
Cast
- Ian McShaneIan McShaneIan David McShane is an English actor, director, producer, voice artist, and comedian.Despite appearing in numerous films, McShane is best known for his television roles, particularly the BBC's Lovejoy and HBO's Western drama Deadwood...
as Waleran Bigod - Rufus SewellRufus SewellRufus Frederik Sewell is an English actor. In film, he has appeared in The Woodlanders, Dangerous Beauty, Dark City, A Knight's Tale, The Illusionist, Tristan and Isolde, and Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence. On television, he starred in the 2010 mini-series The Pillars of the Earth...
as Tom Builder - Matthew MacfadyenMatthew MacfadyenDavid Matthew Macfadyen is an English actor, known for his role as MI5 intelligence officer Tom Quinn in the BBC television drama series Spooks and for starring as Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.In June, 2010 Macfadyen won a British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting...
as Prior Philip - Eddie RedmayneEddie RedmayneEdward John David "Eddie" Redmayne is an English actor and model. Redmayne won the 2010 Tony Award as best featured actor in a play for his performance in Red.-Early life:...
as Jack Jackson - Hayley Atwell as Aliena
- Liam GarriganLiam GarriganLiam Garrigan is an English theatre and television actor. As a youth he attended classes at Kingston upon Hull's Northern Stage Company and was a student at Wyke College, Kingston upon Hull.Garrigan trained as a professional actor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the City of London...
as Alfred Builder - Tony CurranTony CurranAnthony "Tony" Curran is a Scottish actor.Curran was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He is an alumnus of Holyrood Secondary School and is a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama....
as King StephenStephen, King of EnglandStephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda... - Sarah ParishSarah ParishSarah Parish is an English actress.Parish is known for her work on such TV series as: Peak Practice, Hearts and Bones, Cutting It, Doctor Who, Mistresses, Merlin and the new ITV medical drama Monroe....
as Regan Hamleigh - David OakesDavid OakesDavid Oakes is an English film, television and theatre actor.-Early life and education:He was born in Fordingbridge, New Forest, England, the son of a Church of England canon and a professional musician....
as William Hamleigh - Robert BathurstRobert BathurstRobert Guy Bathurst is an English actor. Bathurst was born in the Gold Coast in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. His family moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1959 and Bathurst was enrolled at an Anglican boarding school...
as Percy Hamleigh - Alison PillAlison PillAlison Courtney Pill is a Canadian actress best known from her roles in Milk, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Midnight in Paris.-Life and career:...
as Princess MaudeEmpress MatildaEmpress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood... - Sam ClaflinSam ClaflinSamuel George "Sam" Claflin is an English actor, perhaps best known for his role in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides....
as Richard - Skye BennettSkye BennettSkye Deva Bennett is an English teen actress, best known for her role as Sarah in the 2008 film Dark Floors, as well as for her role as Martha in The Pillars of the Earth.-Personal life:...
as Martha Builder - Emily Holt as older Martha
- Gordon PinsentGordon PinsentGordon Edward Pinsent, CC, FRSC is a Canadian television, theatre and film actor.-Early life:Pinsent, the youngest of six children, was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, the son of Flossie ; originally from Clifton, Newfoundland, and Stephen Arthur Pinsent, a papermill worker and cobbler;...
as the Archbishop - Natalia WörnerNatalia WörnerNatalia Wörner is a German actress.- Biography :After finishing high school, Wörner moved to New York, where she studied acting at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio...
as Ellen - Anatole TaubmanAnatole TaubmanAnatole Taubman is a Swiss actor, who has appeared in many films, such as a henchman in the latest James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace and as the monk Remigius in the TV miniseries The Pillars of the Earth.-References:...
as Remigius - Donald SutherlandDonald SutherlandDonald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
as Earl Bartholomew - Götz OttoGötz OttoGötz Otto is a German actor known for his very tall stature. He is 198 cm tall and is often characterised by bleached blonde hair in his films....
as Walter - Skye Lourie as Elisabeth
- Jody Halse as Johnny Eightpence
- David Bark Jones as Francis
- Kate DickieKate DickieKate Dickie is a Scottish actress who has appeared in television series, stage plays and films. She is best-known for her portrayal as the security camera operative Jackie in her starring debut Red Road, directed by Andrea Arnold, and for which she was given several awards as best actress, among...
as Agnes Builder - Marl Phelan as Otto Blackface
- Tibor Pinter as Jacques Shareburg
- Freddie BoathFreddie BoathFreddie Boath is an English actor. He is known for his role as Alex O'Connell in The Mummy Returns.Boath was born in London to a banker and a producer, respectively his father and mother. He has an older brother, Jack and a younger sister, Millie. Boath attended the Catholic prep school St Phillip's...
as King Henry IIHenry II of EnglandHenry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the... - Clive WoodClive Wood-Film and television:Wood's first starring TV role was as Vic Brown, opposite Joanne Whalley and Susan Penhaligon, in the 1982 ITV drama series based on the novel A Kind of Loving. He has played Matt Kerr in Press Gang, DCI Gordon Wray in The Bill and Jack Morgan in London's Burning...
as King Henry IHenry I of EnglandHenry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106... - Douglas BoothDouglas BoothDouglas Booth is an English actor.Booth rose to prominence following his portrayal of Boy George in the BBC Two television drama Worried About the Boy. He has more recently appeared in Christopher and His Kind...
as Eustace - Matt Devere as Robert of GloucesterRobert, 1st Earl of GloucesterRobert Fitzroy, 1st Earl of Gloucester was an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England. He was called "Rufus" and occasionally "de Caen", he is also known as Robert "the Consul"...
- Feodor AtkineFéodor AtkineFéodor Atkine is a French actor.Born in Paris of Russian-Polish descent, he has had a career in European cinema and television since the early 1970s, and made occasional appearances in English-language films, notably as the Russian gangster "Mikhi" in Ronin, as Woody Allen's brother in Love and...
as Abbot SugerAbbot SugerSuger was one of the last Frankish abbot-statesmen, an historian, and the influential first patron of Gothic architecture.... - Ken FollettKen FollettKen Follett is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels. He has sold more than 100 million copies of his works. Four of his books have reached the number 1 ranking on the New York Times best-seller list: The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, Triple, and World Without End.-Early...
as a merchant
Production
The miniseries took about a year to produce, at a cost of US$40 million. The project was funded by the German production company Tandem CommunicationsTandem Communications
Tandem Communications is a Munich based company which produces TV movies, miniseries, television series and film series.It was founded in 1999 by Emmy-nominated producers Rola Bauer and Tim Halkin.-Produced:* Relic Hunter...
, the Canadian film company Muse Entertainment Enterprises
Muse Entertainment Enterprises
Founded in 1998, Muse Entertainment is a Canadian producer of films and television programs. Muse Entertainment produces dramatic series, television films, mini-series for family programs....
, and the UK and USA based Scott Free Productions. It was filmed in Austria and Hungary in 2009. The finishing work of the set was done by a Budapest firm of stonemasons, Reneszansz Plc., which does maintenance and restoration on historical buildings. It also trained the lead actors who played role of stonemasons in the series. The final aerial shot is of modern day Salisbury
Salisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
and the Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture....
.
Broadcast
In the first US broadcast by Starz, episodes 1 and 2, as a series premiere, and episodes 7 and 8, as a series finale, were broadcast together as a single episode, using only a single introduction and ending credits. In the 2011 broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the series was re-cut into nine episodes.Episode list
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|