The English Trivia | 25 facts about the miniseries

«The English» is a revisionist western television miniseries produced by the BBC and Amazon Prime, written and directed by Hugo Blick.

Let’s find out more about the series!

1. The English is a revisionist western television miniseries.
2. It was produced by the BBC and Amazon Prime.
3. It was written and directed by Hugo Blick.
4. It stars Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer.
5. It premiered in the United Kingdom on BBC Two and iPlayer on 10 November 2022.
6. It premiered in the United States on Amazon Prime Video on 11 November 2022.
7. In February 2020, Emily Blunt joined the cast of the series, with Hugo Blick writing and directing, and Amazon Studios and BBC Studios set to co-produce.
8. In May 2021, Chaske Spencer, Rafe Spall, Toby Jones, Tom Hughes, Stephen Rea, Valerie Pachner, Ciarán Hinds, Malcolm Storry, Steve Wall, Nichola McAuliffe, Sule Rimi and Cristian Solimeno joined the cast.
9. Principal photography began in Spain in May 2021.
10. It ended in September 2021.
11. Emily Blunt had to learn to ride for three months prior to the shoot.
12. Because she is allergic to horses, she had to take a daily dose of antihistamine tablets throughout the production.
13. In the quest for historical authenticity, the production sought the input of a women-led racial and social justice organization known as the “IllumiNative,” and many native American Pawnee advisers were frequently consulted as fact-checkers throughout the shoot.
14. As an executive producer, Emily Blunt has said that she was deeply honored when the show received a rare stamp of approval from this organization at the official series premiere.
15. Filming was done in parts of Spain where Italian director Sergio Leone filmed his “Spaghetti Westerns”.
16. The production marks Emily Blunt’s first role as an executive producer, and first role in a western film which she described as, “Alice in a wild west wonderland.”
17. In the beginning of the movie when the Indian woman draws her head across her forehead the subtitles say “You are one of them”.
18. In actuality she is making the sign of a white man. Indians would make that sign that describes a white man wearing a hat – Indians did not wear hats.
19. Mentioned several times in the sixth episode, was a area called “Alberta”. In 1882 the district of Alberta was created as part of the Northwest Territories, and was declared a province of Canada on September,1, 1905.
20. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 82% approval rating and an average rating of 7.7/10, based on 56 reviews.
21. The website’s consensus reads: “A visual knockout elevated by Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer’s performances, The English is a heady and somewhat meandering Western made with admirable craft.”
22. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.
23. The Guardian gave it five out of five, stating: “although you might lose track of the details, the plot never becomes impenetrable or the performances less than compelling” citing Spencer and Blunt’s performances as “a revelation”
24. The English has 6 episodes in total.
25. The English isn’t based on a specific story from throughout history, and there is no sense that there was a real Cornelia Locke or a real Eli Whipp. All of the specific events from throughout the series are fictional. However, the series has been inspired by real life Pawnee cavalry scouts.