House of the Dragon star James Norton says show is 'sexiest circus in the world'

House of the Dragon star James Norton says show is 'sexiest circus in the world' BAFTA-nominated actor James Norton lifts the lid on House of the Dragon's epic set, and shares what it's really like behind the scenes on Sam Mendes's upcoming Beatles biopic It is "the biggest, best, sexiest circus in the world", says James Norton, 41, about the HBO smash House of the Dragon. The 41-year-old star, who plays Lord Ormund Hightower in the hit show, says the most amazing thing about the fantasy epic is the sheer scale of the production, the latest season of which ended earlier this month. He says: "The set builds were extraordinary, the armour, the sword, everything is kind of like pitch perfect. These kind of shows, you're so supported. There's so many people, thousands and thousands of people. "So, in a way, I felt like I was joining this massive circus, but it was the sort of biggest, best, sexiest circus in the world. You have all the stunts and the machines and the toys and everything else. So it's fun. It's a big old playground. I’ve never been on a set like it.” And the attention to detail on the vast set, which was built at Warner Bros. Studios Levesden in Hertfordshire, has stunned James. Speaking on The Arts Hour on the BBC World Service, he says: "My main set was this place called Tumbleton, which is like a three-quarters of an acre build. They basically built a town. "You could walk around the town. It would take you a good 10 to 15 minutes, and you'd be going down different streets, and every so often I'd find like a door, and I'd open it, and inside would be this incredible carving. "Someone has spent hours on this door. And I'm like, ‘that's never going to get in shot.’ But for me, as I'm standing waiting to enter the scene from this door, and I'm looking at it, that actually lifts your game. "And then when it's released, that's when I was like, wow, this is global. This is nuts. I've never been meme'd so much in my life." James says the one real pressure was joining a world the fans know inside out, telling The Arts Hour on the BBC World Service: "The reason any show, any successful film, movie, TV show [works] is all because people pay attention. This one gets so much love and loyalty and that feeds into the scale of it. The attention to detail, and the money, and the support you have. "One of the pressures is that you're aware you're never going to know as much about the world as the die-hard fans. You can research the character as much... there will always be a team of people who just know so much more. So, in a way, you relax. That's a pressure which I sort of tried to contend with and then gave up on." James is now deeply involved in another huge job, playing the band's manager Brian Epstein in Sam Mendes's new Beatles film. He spent five weeks shooting in Barcelona with the young stars playing the Fab Four, and is having a blast. Paul Mescal plays Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson is John Lennon, Barry Keoghan is Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn plays George Harrison. He says: "The boys are extraordinary. They're playing all the tunes themselves. They've spent this incredible amount of time learning their instruments. Paul Mescal's playing the bass with his left hand, he's flipped sides. They're really tight, and they're having an immense amount of fun." Much of the Barcelona shoot recreated the Beatles' famous 1965 concert at Shea Stadium in New York, staged at the Montjuic stadium in the city. "Talk about pressure," says James. "You think the pressure on them is extraordinary. And yet, credit to Sam Mendes and the boys that they've managed to maintain a playfulness, which is key to The Beatles, because whenever you saw The Beatles interviewed or playing, they just were messing around. They were having the time of their lives." A keen cold-water swimmer, who takes a dip most days near his south London home, James took full advantage of the ice bath on set in Barcelona. He says: "We had one in our unit base. It was so lovely. "The boys are doing strenuous activity, they're on stage playing. I'm standing watching, being sort of adoring. But once you stand on set for a long time, there's nothing better than getting into some ice-cold water." It is the first time the Beatles and their families have handed over their music and life stories to a movie. Director Sam Mendes is making four films, one seen through the eyes of each band member, for release in 2028, with Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney and Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono. The wider cast features David Morrissey as Paul's father Jim McCartney, Aimee Lou Wood as George's wife Pattie Boyd, Mia McKenna-Bruce as Ringo's first wife Maureen Starkey and Harry Lloyd as producer George Martin. Epstein was the Liverpool record-shop boss who signed the band in 1961 and drove them to global fame. Often called the fifth Beatle, he died in 1967 aged just 32, and his own story was told in the 2024 film Midas Man. Meanwhile, James, who built his name as Tommy Lee Royce, the killer in Happy Valley, earning a Bafta nomination in 2015, is refreshingly grateful for all his roles. He says: "There's something incredibly empowering about that, playing the bad man. You feel kind of invincible, because he doesn't care what people think about him." Then playing a vicar in Grantchester, Prince Andrei in the BBC's War and Peace and a gangster's son in McMafia, he also appeared in Little Women and the Bob Marley film One Love. He led the Netflix drama House of Guinness for Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, and takes the throne as Harold in the 1066 epic King and Conqueror, opposite former Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William the Conqueror - falling from a horse during filming in Iceland. Bookmakers have long made him a favourite to become the next James Bond, but he’s ruled that out. He says: "I've been asked a thousand times over the last 10 years. And I can honestly, hand on heart, say no. I think I may be a little bit long in the tooth now." Fiercely private, he was engaged to actress Imogen Poots, his partner of around five years, but they split in 2023. He has said: "I lost the person, but I also lost the life I was about to lead, the kids we had named." Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 22, James now campaigns as an ambassador for the charity Breakthrough T1D, and has read a CBeebies bedtime story to help children understand the condition, which his mother and sister also have. At one black-tie awards do he nearly passed out as his blood sugar crashed. Stuck at the top table opposite Nicole Kidman and too polite to stand, he begged a waiter for orange juice, and staff smuggled him a bowl of hot potatoes in the middle of the speeches. But he has never let his diabetes hold him back, saying: "I never thought for a moment it would slow me down.” *This interview from The Arts Hour on the BBC World Service is available in full on BBC Sounds