Troy: Fall of a City: What is Troy: Fall of a City based on?

Is Troy: Fall of a City real?

The short answer is no. The epic new series has been co-produced by the BBC and Netflix, and is based on an Ancient Greek poem.

Homer’s Iliad serves as the inspiration for Troy: Fall of a City.

The classic story has been adapted thousands of times over the years – most notably in the 2004 movie Troy, starring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom.

So the series is not real or based on historical facts – but it is based off a real text, which itself is fictional.

This version is not completely loyal to the original story, but draws it inspiration from it, providing a fresh take on something that has been done time and time again.

Episode one left some viewers a little hot under the collar after Troy: Fall of a City featured a sex scene in the first five minutes.

The official synopsis from the BBC reads: “Combining thrilling adventure with heartbreaking intimacy, it explores primal emotions, the psychological repercussions of human actions and life-changing decisions amid the devastation and destruction of war.”

WHERE IS TROY: FALL OF A CITY FILMED?

Screenwriter David Farr has said that the Greek myths were always something he loved reading, and when he started reading them again following his work on the BBC mini-series Occupation.

“I found myself in Kefalonia and Ithaca, re-reading the Greek myths which I’d loved as a boy, and thinking that, though at one level they are so distant from us – 3,000 years old – how raw, immediate, primal and elementally rich they are.”

Speaking about the Iliad and the story of the Trojan War, he added: “I thought perhaps there is a way of doing justice to this great epic story, combining the intimate and epic, the human and the ambitious scale, in one narrative.”

It has already been compared to Game of Thrones in terms of its production value, style, cinematography and epic fantasy elements, but the story of the fall of Troy is much older – and there won’t be any dragons.

There will be a wooden horse though…

WHO IS IN THE CAST OF TROY: FALL OF A CITY?

BBC

Helen and Paris

What is Troy: Fall of a City based on?

Troy: Fall of a City is based on the Iliad – a fictional work by historical Ancient Greek poet Homer.

The Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War and the 10 year siege of the city of Troy (also known as Ilium).

The war began when one of the Trojan princes, Paris, also known as Alexander, (played by Louis Hunter in the show) eloped with the wife of a Greek King.

On a visit to Sparta, Paris and Helen (Bella Dayne) fall in love.

HOW MANY EPISODES ARE IN TROY: FALL OF A CITY?

BBC

Helen leaves Menelaus for Paris

Helen, who is the most beautiful woman in the world, decides to leave Greece and elope to Troy with her new lover.

Her husband is Menelaus (Jonas Armstrong) who is the brother of the powerful Agamemnon (Johnny Harris), the king of all the Greek city-states.

They declare war on Troy and sail across the Aegean Sea after Helen.

The Greek Gods play an important role in the story, acting as guides for the characters.

WHEN WILL TROY: FALL OF A CITY BE ON NETFLIX?

BBC

Agamemnon and Menelaus

The Iliad is a lengthy piece of text, its English translation contains about 170,800 words – that’s nearly 600 pages.

So the story is long and convoluted and contains thousands characters and situations but at its core it is a story about love, war, revenge and wrath.

The original text is told mostly from the perspective of the Greeks, but this particular adaptation tells the story from the Trojan perspective.

Much of the research from the series was taken from Michael Wood’s 30 year-old BBC documentary series, In Search Of The Trojan War, which executive producer Derek Wax said is “essential viewing”.

Speaking about his adaption, Farr added: “In this case I wanted to tell the story of a peasant who finds out he’s a prince, and a queen who is utterly unhappy in her marriage. They fall into a passionate affair and unleash demons. “

BBC