Once I engage in something, I really engage in it, and I love the process of reading and researching because I come from an academic background. Michael Hirst More Quotes by Michael Hirst More Quotes From Michael Hirst I felt that a lot of Viking culture had been caricatured and misconstrued. After all, they were far more democratic than the Saxons and the Francs, who were exercising really hierarchical social structures at that time. The Vikings had popular meetings where everything could be discussed. Michael Hirst everything meetings time culture The American obsession with 'Downton' amuses me slightly because it's such a fiction. I've always been questioned about my historical veracity, and 'Downton' just flies past, when it's completely made up. Michael Hirst me always historical past TV drama - not always, but on the whole - were pretty appalling and very secondary, too. No one expected it to be like watching a movie; that was the point. But I think when you start watching 'Vikings,' it is like watching a movie - you're taken somewhere else. Michael Hirst start think you drama People offer me loads of stuff, and some of it I like, but I just can't do it because I can't write it all. So I might get in the position where I have some sort of company and just write maybe the first episode, but these are love projects, in a way. Michael Hirst me love people way You have to create characters - certainly in series TV - who people engage with. They don't have to be nice; you don't have to agree with them. But they do have to be compulsively watchable and believable and human, and you want to know what happens to them. Michael Hirst know you nice people First episodes are difficult things to write. Michael Hirst things difficult-things difficult