The New "Shogun"

 I am a big James Clavell fan, having read all of his Asian saga novels. My favourites in the series are "Shogun" and "King Rat". I've read "Shogun" more than once and watched the 1980's tv series of the same name starring Richard Chamberlain. Yes, I am that old!

So you can imagine how pleased I was to find out the series has been remade and shot in Canada and is now on Disney+ here in the U.K.  OH and I watched the first episode last night and I'm hooked. 

Shogun is the story of the British sailor, John Blackthorne, who is the pilot of a group of Dutch financed ships seeking the way to the Orient. His ship, the Erasmus, is the only one that survives the journey and Blackthorne and what is left of his crew, are shipwrecked on the Japanese coast, 

They are taken captive and Blackthorne becomes a pawn and player in the fight for power between rival samurai in 17th century Japan. The plot is further involved since Spain and Portugal, in the form of the Catholic Church, are already established in the country when the English crew arrive, and are not happy about it.

Cosmos Jarvis, an American-born British actor, plays the part of Blackthorne and he sounds like Richard Burton. I don't know if that is coincidence or deliberate, but its enjoyable. 

The first two episodes are available here and I'm looking forward to watching more!