Season 1

Britannia (2018), Season 1 is a dark historical-fantasy drama you can watch online on iFILM — nine episodes set in 43 AD, when Rome's legions land on a Celtic island ruled by warring tribes and druids.

General Aulus Plautius marches his army inland, into a country split between two feuding peoples, the Cantii and the Regni. Their leaders — Kerra and Queen Antedia — loathe each other almost more than they fear the invaders from the south. Rome doesn't only fight with swords: Aulus plays the clans against one another, probes the islanders' faith, and edges toward the secret the druids guard. Threaded through it all is young Cait, named a chosen one by prophecy, whose journey across the ruins of her home stitches the show's mysticism to its bigger war. By the finale the alliances collapse and you see exactly how the Empire really does business with the tribes it calls savage.

The series comes from playwright Jez Butterworth, made for Sky and Amazon, which explains the blend of muddy realism, pitch-black humour, and the druids' hallucinogenic magic. A psych-rock soundtrack deliberately drags the period out of joint. For anyone who likes Vikings but wants something stranger and meaner. Stream Britannia Season 1 online on iFILM.