''World Without End'' is an eight-episode 2012

television miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. " Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

based on the 2007 novel of the same name by

Ken Follett Kenneth Martin Follett, (born 5 June 1949) is a British author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 160 million copies of his works. Many of his books have achieved high ranking on best seller lists. For example, in the ...

. It is a sequel to the 2010 miniseries ''

The Pillars of the Earth ''The Pillars of the Earth'' is a historical novel by British author Ken Follett published in 1989 about the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, England. Set in the 12th century, the novel covers the time between the ...

'', also based on a Follett novel. ''World Without End'' is set 150 years after ''The Pillars of the Earth'' and chronicles the experiences of the English town of Kingsbridge during the start of the Hundred Years' War and the outbreak of the Black Death. The cast is led by

Cynthia Nixon Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, activist, and theater director. For her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), she won the 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supp ...

, Miranda Richardson,

Ben Chaplin Ben Chaplin (born Benedict John Greenwood; 31 July 1969)''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com is a British actor. He is best known for his roles in films, including ''The Truth About Cats & Dogs' ...

Peter Firth Peter Macintosh Firth (born 27 October 1953) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC One programme '' Spooks''; he is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the programme's ten-series lif ...

, Charlotte Riley, and Tom Weston-Jones. The miniseries differs significantly from the novel in both the plot and characterizations. Filming took place in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

John Pielmeier John Pielmeier (born February 23, 1949) is an American playwright and screenwriter. Life and career Pielmeier was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the son of Louise (Blackburn) and Len Pielmeier. He was raised Catholic. He earned a Bachelor of Art ...

adapted the screenplay and

Michael Caton-Jones Michael Caton-Jones (born Michael Jones; 15 October 1957) is a Scottish director and producer of film and television. His credits include the World War II film '' Memphis Belle'' (1990), the romantic comedy '' Doc Hollywood'' (1991), the biog ...

directed all eight episodes.

Overview

Set in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

during the 14th century, the series chronicles the lives of ordinary citizens. Edward III leads the nation into the Hundred Years' War with France, while Europe faced the Black Death. Caris ( Charlotte Riley), a visionary woman, and her lover Merthin ( Tom Weston-Jones) build a community that stands up to the crown and the church.

Cast and characters

King Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to the ...

/ Sir Thomas Langley * Charlotte Riley as Caris Wooler * Nora von Waldstätten as Gwenda * Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Ralph Fitzgerald * Rupert Evans as Godwyn * Tom Weston-Jones as Merthin Fitzgerald *

as Petranilla *

Tom Cullen Thomas Cullen (born 17 July 1985) is a Welsh actor and director. He had roles in the independent film ''Weekend (2011 film), Weekend'' (2011), as Anthony Foyle, Viscount Gillingham in the television series ''Downton Abbey'', and as Sir Landry ...

as Wulfric *

Blake Ritson Blake Adam Ritson (born 14 January 1978) is an English actor and director. Early life Blake was born on 14, June, 1978 in London and attended the Dolphin School in Reading, Berkshire until 1993, before going to St Paul's School in West Londo ...

King Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring ...

* Hera Hilmar as Margery * Aure Atika as Queen Isabella *

Tatiana Maslany Tatiana Gabriele Maslany ( ; born September 22, 1985) is a Canadian actress. She rose to prominence for playing multiple characters in the science fiction thriller television series ''Orphan Black'' (2013–2017), which won her a Primetime Emmy ...

as Sister Mair * Miranda Richardson as Mother Cecilia *

as Earl Roland *

Sarah Gadon Sarah Lynn Gadon (born April 4, 1987) is a Canadian actress. She began her acting career guest-starring in a number of television series, such as '' Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' (1999), '' Mutant X'' (2002), and ''Dark Oracle'' (2004). She also ...

as Lady Phillippa * Ian Pirie as Elfric *

Carlo Rota Carlo Dante Rota (born 17 April 1961) is a British-born Canadian actor. He has appeared in ''Little Mosque on the Prairie'' and as systems analyst Morris O'Brian on the Fox series '' 24''. He also co-starred as Emilio Solano in ''Jane the Vi ...

as Edmund * Kostja Ullmann as Holger * David Bradley as Brother Joseph * Caroline Boulton as Sister Elizabeth *

Megan Follows Megan Elizabeth Laura Diana Follows (born March 14, 1968) is a Canadian-American actress and director. She is known for her role as Anne Shirley in the 1985 Canadian television miniseries '' Anne of Green Gables'' and its two sequels. From 201 ...

as Maud *

Indira Varma Indira Anne Varma (born 27 September 1973) is a British actress and narrator. Her film debut and first major role was in '' Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love''. She has gone on to appear in the television series ''The Canterbury Tales'', ''Rome'', ''L ...

as Mattie Wise * Dan Cade as Handsome Jim *

Hannes Jaenicke Hannes Jaenicke (born 26 February 1960 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German actor, voice actor, audiobook narrator, and author. He has played in various television-programs and movies, including '' Lost Treasure''. After he was born, Jaenicke and hi ...

as Roger Mortimer

Production

While acquiring the rights to ''

'' from

, Tandem Communications also secured a first right to negotiate a deal for '' World Without End'', the sequel to the first novel. The project was announced in December 2010. The ''World Without End'' miniseries was co-produced by Tandem with

Scott Free Productions Scott Free Productions is an independent film and television production company founded in 1970 by filmmakers and brothers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. They formed the feature film development company Percy Main Productions in 1980, naming the ...

, Canadian-based Take 5 Productions and Galafilm.

, who adapted ''The Pillars of the Earth'', wrote the screenplay.

signed on as director in March 2011. Casting for the main roles was completed in June 2011, and filming began a month later in Europe. Shooting took place primarily in

, where an entire medieval town was constructed on a 12,000-m² backlot at Korda Studios west of Budapest. Additional location shoots took place in

and

Broadcast

''World Without End'' has been acquired by Sat.1 in Germany,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

in the United Kingdom, Shaw Media in Canada,

Cuatro Cuatro is Spanish (and other Romance languages) for the number four. Cuatro may also refer to: * Cuatro (instrument), name for two distinct Latin American instruments, one from Puerto Rico (see Cuatro) and the other from Venezuela (see Cuatro) ...

in Spain,

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

in Austria,

Sky Italia Sky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian satellite television platform owned by the American media conglomerate Comcast. Sky Italia also broadcasts three national free-to-air television channels: TV8, Cielo and Sky TG24. As of 2018, following an ag ...

in Italy, DR in Denmark and TV2 in Hungary. In the United States, Starz, which aired ''The Pillars of the Earth'', could not reach an agreement with Tandem to air the show. The series was acquired by

ReelzChannel Reelz (formerly known as Reelz Channel) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. The network's programming was formerly devoted to entertainment-oriented programming focusing on the Hollywood ...

instead. In Canada it premiered on 4 September 2012 on

Showcase Showcase or vitrine may refer to: *Cabinet (furniture) *Display case Music * ''Showcase'' (Bill Anderson album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Patsy Cline album), 1961 * ''Showcase'' (Buddy Holly album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Philly Joe Jones album), 1959 ...

; and in Australia on 7 December 2014, as 90 minute combined episodes on ABC. In the U.S., four 2-hour episodes were aired, the first on 17 Oct 2012 on

. The eight hours were similarly divided into four episodes when broadcast in Italy on Sky Movies between 11 November and 2 December 2012. The series was broadcast under the title of ''Mondo Senza Fine'' with a choice of Italian-dubbed audio or the original English audio.

Episodes

Home media releases

''World Without End'' was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on 4 December 2012 in

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and Blu-ray Disc formats. The two-disc sets contain the featurette "The Making Of Ken Follett's World Without End".

References

External links

Official website
* {{Michael Caton-Jones 2012 Canadian television series debuts 2012 Canadian television series endings 2010s Canadian television miniseries 2010s German television miniseries Adaptations of works by Ken Follett Black Death in fiction Hundred Years' War in fiction Sat.1 original programming Television series by Tandem Productions Television series by Scott Free Productions Television series set in the Middle Ages Television series set in the 14th century Television shows based on British novels Television shows directed by Michael Caton-Jones Television shows filmed in Hungary Edward II of England Edward III of England