The Bastard Executioner

The Bastard Executioner
Genre	Historical fiction
Created by	Kurt Sutter
Starring	Lee Jones Katey Sagal Flora Spencer-Longhurst Sam Spruell Sarah Sweeney Danny Sapani Darren Evans Kurt Sutter Timothy V. Murphy Sarah White Elen Rhys Ethan Griffiths Stephen Moyer Ross O'Hennessy
Theme music composer	Kurt Sutter Bob Thiele Jr.
Composer(s)	Bob Thiele Jr.
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Brian Grazer Francie Calfo Paris Barclay Kurt Sutter
Producer(s)	Chris Thompson
Cinematography	Mike Spragg Henry Braham Denis Crossan Sam McCurdy
Editor(s)	Paul Fontaine Rick Tuber Tamara Luciano
Running time	55-60 minutes
Production company(s)	Sutter Ink Imagine Television FX Productions Fox 21 Television Studios
Release
Original network	FX
Original release	September 15 (2015-09-15) – November 17, 2015
External links
Website

The Bastard Executioner is an American historical fiction drama television series, created by Kurt Sutter and aired on FX from September 15, 2015 to November 17, 2015. On November 18, 2015, Sutter announced that FX had cancelled the series after one season.

Overview

Set in early 14th century Wales, Wilkin Brattle, a Welsh knight in the army of King Edward I of England is betrayed by an Englishman who has a lust for power and who leaves him for dead. When he is near death, a child apparition implores Brattle to lay down his sword and follow the path of a different man. Later in life, Wilkin lives as a married peasant farmer, awaiting the birth of a child. His new life of peace is shattered by the unbearable taxes assessed on the peasants by none other than "Baron" Erik Ventris, the man who had betrayed Wilkin. Pressured by his fellow villagers, Wilkin leads a raid on the Baron's tax collector, which leads Ventris to the revenge killing and burning of all the women and children in Brattle's village. Brattle's raiders seek battle with the Baron ending in the death of Ventris and the massacre of the Baron's troops. Revenge, however, is not complete, as the raiders want all the soldiers who slaughtered their kin to die by the sword. Brattle assumes the identity of a journeyman punisher (executioner), injected into the plot just moments before the Baron's death. Brattle, aka Gawain Maddox, enters Castle Ventris with the intent of identifying the remaining murderers so his fellow raiders can exact revenge. Castle intrigue traps Brattle in his new alias and disdainful profession. Brattle must lead this double life while trying to determine whether this new path is the one the apparition has chosen for him, or if he has been led astray. The plot partially involves the fallout from the Madog ap Llywelyn Welsh rebellion.

Cast

Main cast

• Lee Jones as Wilkin Brattle / Gawain Maddox the Executioner
• Stephen Moyer as Chamberlain Milus Corbett
• Flora Spencer-Longhurst as Baroness Lowry "Love" Aberffraw Ventris
• Kurt Sutter as Ludwig Von Zettel, better known as The Dark Mute
• Sam Spruell as Toran Prichard / Marshal the Soldier
• Katey Sagal as Annora of the Alders
• Darren Evans as Ash y Goedwig
• Danny Sapani as Berber the Moor
• Timothy V. Murphy as Father Ruskin
• Sarah White as Isabel Kiffin
• Sarah Sweeny as Jessamy Maddox
• Ethan Griffiths as Luca Maddox
• Elen Rhys as Petra Brattle

Special guest stars

• Brían F. O'Byrne as Baron Erik Ventris, lord of the fictional Barony of Ventrishire.
• Matthew Rhys as Gruffudd y Blaidd, known as "The Wolf". He is the leader of a growing rebellion against corruption and an ally to Wilkin and his friends. He is also a half-brother of the Baroness.

Recurring/guest stars

• Kyle Rees as Calo Caine
• Richard Brake as Baron Edwin Pryce
• Ed Sheeran as Sir Cormac
• Martin McCann as Randolph Corbett
• Alun Raglan as Jonas the Collector
• Alec Newman as Leon Tell
• Ross O'Hennessy as Locke
• Tim McDonnell as Huxley
• James Rousseau as Denley
• Scroobius Pip as Scribe Master

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"Pilot (2-Hour Episode)"	Paris Barclay	Kurt Sutter	September 15, 2015 (2015-09-15)	2.11
2	"Effigy / Ddelw"	Paris Barclay	Kurt Sutter & Charles Murray & Nichole Beattie	September 22, 2015 (2015-09-22)	1.09
3	"A Hunger / Newyn"	Ciaran Donnelly	Curtis Gwinn	September 29, 2015 (2015-09-29)	1.26
4	"Piss Profit / Proffidwyr Troeth"	Kari Skogland	Roberto Patino	October 6, 2015 (2015-10-06)	1.12
5	"Thorns / Drain"	Billy Gierhart	John Barcheski & Kurt Sutter	October 13, 2015 (2015-10-13)	0.94
6	"Behold the Lamb / Gweled yr Oen"	Ashley Way	Carly Wray & Kurt Sutter	October 20, 2015 (2015-10-20)	0.83
7	"Broken Things / Pethau Toredig"	Ciaran Donnelly	Ryan Scott & Kurt Sutter	November 3, 2015 (2015-11-03)	1.08
8	"The Bernadette Maneuver / Cynllwyn Bernadette"	Paris Barclay	Robert Patino & Curtis Gwinn & Kurt Sutter	November 10, 2015 (2015-11-10)	0.82
9	"Blood and Quiescence / Crau a Chwsg"	Ashley Way	Kurt Sutter	November 17, 2015 (2015-11-17)	0.87

Production

The Bastard Executioner, the first pilot for Imagine TV with FX Network, stems from an idea by Grazer: "I find the executioner to be an incredibly fascinating and provocative character", he said. "He deals with the highest order and the lowest order in the culture. It's about as morally complex a profession as you can imagine". Grazer pitched the idea to 20th Television chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman. The two, along with Fox21 president Bert Salke, suggested Sutter as writer. After meeting with Grazer and taking some time to contemplate the idea, Sutter built a whole world around it, and the pitch was taken to FX.

Sutter explained the writing process and obstacles for the show on his vlog: "It's sort of fun of jumping into completely different world, completely different time, completely different vernacular, it's a toughest thing for me right now with the pilot is the story is all broken on my board here but you know trying to find different rhythms of speech and vernacular". Sutter held his fans hostage who are eagerly waiting for his new project. "I'm not writing it on period speech just because there's no actual recording of what that vernacular sounded like with intonation and everything."

The series was announced in December 2013. Sutter started writing the scripts once the last episode of Sons of Anarchy had wrapped up in late 2014. Katey Sagal is "definitely...involved" in the series.

Paris Barclay, who directed 15 episodes of Sons of Anarchy, directed the pilot and serve as executive producer. Charles Murray, a writer/co-executive producer of the last two seasons of Sons of Anarchy, is a writer/co-executive producer on the series. Nichole Beattie is another Sons of Anarchy alumna joining the staff of writers. She has also written extensively for AMC's The Walking Dead and Rubicon.

The series films in Wales, United Kingdom, and features a mostly British cast.

Barclay left for the UK on January 2 to work on casting and location matters. Sutter stayed in the US to finalize the script. He joined Barclay a few days later in the United Kingdom. The draft of the pilot script was sent to the studio executives at FX on the 7th of January. During mid-January Sutter and Barclay visited several possible shooting locations in Wales, including Caerphilly Castle and Fforest Fawr.

Filming started March 23, 2015. The show's producers spent 10 months considering locations in Wales with the help of the Welsh Government’s Wales Screen service, which encourages film and television productions to use locations, crews, and facilities throughout Wales. This project is one of the first major productions to move into Pinewood Studios' new facility in Cardiff.

The set for the series, in the form of a medieval village with a small castle, was constructed northwest of Cardiff at Dragon International Film Studios in Llanilid.

On May 22, 2015,The Bastard Executioner was picked up for a 10-episode series for fall launch.

On November 18, 2015, FX along with Sutter announced that Sutter had cancelled his own series.

Reception

Reviews for The Bastard Executioner were polarized, with praise being directed toward the action sequences, writing and acting, and criticism toward the pacing, limited development, and excessive violence. It holds a rating of 49% (rotten) on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 53 critics. The website's consensus reads: "Kurt Sutter's The Bastard Executioner doesn't want for dark thrills, but it unfortunately has more enthusiasm for brutality and gore than necessary narrative focus." Out of 37 reviews in Metacritic, twelve were positive, twenty-three were mixed, and two were negative, for a rating of 55.

External links

• Official website
• The Bastard Executioner at IMDb
• The Bastard Executioner at TV Guide