Nikolaj Coster-Waldau on intense fight scenes that saw King and Conqueror star 'knocked out'

Most will recognise Nikolaj Coster-Waldau for his role of Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones but for his latest venture, he's transformed into William, Duke of Normandy - or as many will know him, William the Conqueror.

The Danish actor will go head to head against James Norton in the BBC historical drama which follows the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

King and Conqueror also marks the first time Nikolaj has directed. And funnily enough, his directorial debut saw him choreograph a scene which sees the leading actor fight bare-chested.

Speaking of filming the fight, which fans will get the chance to see in episode five, he recalled: "That was tough. I was spending a lot of time planning that because we only had so much time to do it.

"The stunt team was incredible. The trick, or the challenge, when you do something like that, of course, because everyone's bare-chested, you can't hide anything. You know you're going to hurt yourself when you do these things, so we had to be very careful."

Heaping praise on the stunt team, which included UFC and MMA fighters, Nikolaj shared: "These guys insane. The Icelandic guys, they're brilliant. I mean, there's one scene, the guy I'm fighting - he's in fights in the the big stuff - which is why I wanted to be the guy choking him out.

"There's this big, big guy - at one point, he lifts up James [Norton] - early in the fight, he takes one of the other stunt guys and he throws him against this wagon.

"And that was planned but what wasn't planned was that he's thrown him so hard that he went through the wagon and he like completely crashed the whole thing. The sound you hear, it's literally a guy being thrown through. But they just took it."

He went on to share that during filming, everyone got so involved, one member of the team was knocked out.

"We had rehearsals where there was a guy knocked out. I mean they go so close, right? And it was a mistake both of them. I mean you should always be able to hold your fist but the other guy, he instead like holding the distance, he kind of moved forward right as he was swinging.

"And they were also you know MMA fighters. So his tooth went out, blood out. And then the other guy, of course, because he hit the tooth, broke [his knuckle], he had to have stitches in his hand as well."

King and Conqueror is the story of a clash that defined the future of a country for a thousand years.

The synopsis reads: "Harold of Wessex and William of Normandy were two men destined to meet at the Battle of Hastings in 1066; two allies with no design on the English throne, who found themselves forced by circumstance and personal obsession into a war for possession of its crown."

King and Conqueror airs Sunday 24 August on BBC One at 9pm.