So, I have to admit to being a newcomer to Game of Thrones, although I am now completely hooked. Not sure why it took so long but now that I am here, I am loving all the plotting, intrigue and straightforward violence. Okay, so, given that it is the designed for a premium rate channel, there is rather more nudity than is strictly necessary, but I am not going to start complaining about this one minor flaw – if you can call it a flaw.

It’s also really refreshing to see an offering from a premium rate channel that doesn’t sell itself as ‘its not exactly a western … or cop show … or …’ Well, you know the routine. What is this supposed to be ‘not exactly Dungeons and Dragons’. If so, its a complete failure. It is absolutely packed with both dungeons and dragons!

But while I have been fascinated by the carnival of beastliness and brutality, I have also noticed that its chock full of British actors – its vast cast seems to feature everyone who ever came out of the British stage and screen. But what seems completely unsurprising is that the casting says everything that you ever needed to know about the British acting profession on the one hand, and British society on the other.

In other words, the cast seem to be neatly ranked along class lines, or rather they fall into two camps – aristocracy and peasants. And the peasants are pretty much all Northerners. Okay, so Mark Addy does play the king for a while but he is quickly knocked off – gored to death more like – and Sean Bean also plays a nobleman, but he is a rough Northern sort for whom the real aristocrats have nothing but contempt. And, of course, at the top of the pile, sneering contemptuously over everyone is Charles Dance.

So basically this is a world that is tormented by sadistic, blonde, foppish types, while gruff dark Northerners grunt and die. This is social realism, right?