10 TV Shows That So Badly Wanted To Be Game Of Thrones

And finally we come to the one show that arrived on our screens to a heap of Game Of Thrones comparisons, but which nevertheless went on to become an unquestionable hit in its own right. Vikings began in the early days of Thronesmania and is still going strong today.

Camelot co-creator Michael Hirst's second bite at the violent early medieval cherry, Vikings, like The Last Kingdom, takes advantage of the fact that stories passed down from the so-called Dark Ages are a mix of fact and legend. It might have been made for the History Channel, but Vikings is happy to play pretty loose with real history, shifting events that happened decades apart into the space of a few episodes to make a more action-packed story.

Starting by telling the story of the rise from raider to king of the semi-mythical Viking saga hero Ragnar Lothbrok, the series eventually outgrew its original lead to embrace a wider canvas of the Viking Age across Europe.

While it gave Thrones fans the gory medieval power struggles and warrior women they loved, the critical view of Vikings' narratively narrow first season was that it was a simplistic version of Game Of Thrones's ambitious scope.

As the series progressed, however, Vikings was able to find its own style not quite as driven by sex and sensation as the HBO blockbuster. Discovering an identity of its own allowed Vikings to escape Game Of Thrones' shadow.

It may have launched with designs on being the next Game Of Thrones, but it succeeded by being the first Vikings.

A spinoff, Vikings: Valhalla, has been ordered by Netflix. There's a pretty good chance it will mean Vikings finally winning against HBO's fantasy behemoth by beating the eventual Thrones spinoff to the punch.