Game Of Thrones fans will have to wait no longer.
Season four of the fantasy epic kicks off on Sky Atlantic HD on Monday, April 7, at 9pm, less than 24 hours after the show debuts in the US.
And that means a return to the TV screens for Huddersfield actress Lena Headey.
The Shelley star - who hit the cinema screens last month as Queen Gorgo in 300: Rise of an Empire - is reprising her role as Cersei Lannister.
Based on George R.R. Martin’s best-selling book series A Song of Ice and Fire, the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning drama chronicles an epic struggle for power in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom.
Headey is delighted the series is back, having spent months filming in various parts of Europe and Croatia.
“Thrones just kind of goes from strength to strength,” she said when asked about the upcoming season.
“I think, because we have such brilliant people all over it and it just gets darker as we go on because the stakes are higher and they’re all losing their morality in terms of survival.
“So the game really has begun.”
Many of the cast will return including Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kit Harington, Aidan Gillen, Iain Glen, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Jack Gleeson, Alfie Allen, Natalie Dormer, Gwendoline Christie and Charles Dance.
A wealth of new talent will also join the cast, including former Bretton Hall College student Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), Joel Fry (Trollied), Roger Ashton-Griffiths (Gangs of New York), Indira Varma (Luther) and Pedro Pascal (Homeland), who will play Prince Oberyn Martell aka The Red Viper.
The plots again centre on the vast continent cut off from the rest of the world by The Narrow Sea.
Westeros which stretches from the south, where heat breeds plots, lusts and intrigues; to the vast and savage eastern lands; all the way to the frozen north where an 800-foot wall of ice and The Night’s Watch protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond.
FACTFILE
- Game of Thrones author George R R Martin has yet to finish the series of novels the award-winning TV show is based on - but he's told showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss how the fantasy epic ends.
- Evil boy king Joffrey Lannister is based on the Roman Emporer Caligua.
- The show's appeal in the US resulted in more than 160 girls being named Khaleesi in 2012 - the official title of popular character Daenerys Targaryen.
- Filming locations for the show include Northern Ireland, Scotland, Croatia, Malta and Morocco.
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