Game Of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 1 – The Wars To Come. Preview and potential SPOILERS!

On a massive screen erected in a huge tent at the Tower Of London, those of us lucky enough to be invited to the World Premiere watched the opening episode of season 5 of Game Of Thrones, and tried to pay attention while 35 members of the cast sat a few feet away, occasionally whispering conspiratorially to each other.

But as soon as the first scene arrived – a flashback! – we were gripped and there was no let up for the rest of the hour. Like all GOT season premieres, it was a scene-setter of an episode, and also a reminder of where we are with the various big characters vying for power and the chance to rule over all of Westeros. In fact if you’ve never seen the show before this is a pretty good place to start (helped by the recap of season 4 at the start of course).

But it also featured a couple of gruesome deaths, an amazing moment of epic spectacle involving a huge gold statue crashing down to earth, a lot of male nudity, a bit of gay frolicking, some dragon action and a few big laughs, mainly involving what you do when you need to go to the toilet and you’re banged up in a crate.

There are major spoilers below, for those who crave actual deets of what the hell happens in this episode, but with only minor spoilers here, let’s just say after that initial flashback (which involves Cersei as a young girl being given a prophecy), we get updates on what’s going on with Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) who’s been helped by arch power player Varys (Conleth Hill) to escape from King’s Landing in a crate, after Tyrion killed his much-hated dad Tywin last season. As for his super-nasty sis Cersei (Lena Headey) in the present day, she’s busy mourning dad at his massive funeral, arguing with her bro and bumping into an old flame.

In Kit Harington news, his Jon Snow is busy up in Castle Black trying to do the right thing and help principled Mance Rayder (Ciaran Hinds) grapple with whether to “bend the knee” to King Stannis (Stephen Dillane) who wants to use Mance’s people in battle. Mance isn’t keen, to say the least. Oh, and Jon also gets a creepy approach from a (surprising) female.

As for dragon queen Daenerys, she’s holed up in her pyramid, trying to cement her power base and keep her dragons happy, while also have deep tactical discussions in bed with her hot (naked) lover Dario. Good for her. That spectacular tumbling of an old statue we mentioned earlier is the symbol of her securing her new base, and of her rejection of the old gods of Mereen. She’s got her army of the “Unsullied” and she’s looking stronger than ever. As long as she can keep control of those dragons.

All in all it’s a superb opener, cunningly advancing the story of most of the major characters, while providing us with enough macabre humour, touches of gore, sex and swearing to keep all devotees happy, and ending on a powerful moment of... death.

5 most exciting bits of GOT's season 5 premiere (SPOILERS)

1 Cersei’s prophesy

In that opening flashback she hears that her three children will die. Of course psycho Joffrey’s already gone, but that can’t be good news for her remaining offspring.

2 Tyrion and Varys’ new alliance

They’re on their way to see Daenerys – after Varys tries to persuade Tyrion to stop messing about boozing and focus on the matter at hand: which possible ruler would work out best for him. Could an alliance with Dany and her dragons could be on the way?

3 Loras Tyrell is back

And having loads of gay fun - there’s more male nudity than female in this episode, especially during a visit to Loras Tyrell’s bed where he’s with his young blond chum. Then up pops his sis Margaery to remind him he should maybe be more discreet, since he is engaged to evil Cersei.

4 New deaths, new dangers

Not only do we see the gory throat-slitting of poor White Rat, an Unsullied who visits a brothel just to get some quiet time with a sexy lady, at the hands of one of the gold-masked Harpies, but the episode climaxes with the burning at the stake of… (MAJOR SPOILER!) Mance Rayder (actually someone fires an arrow into him to kill him before the full burn gets underway).

5 Hot Lancel’s gone religious

One of the best scenes is Cersei bumping into the hot young dude (and her cousin) Lancel she once bedded way back in Season 1. Now he’s dressed as some kind of monk and has gone all religious. Quite what his cult will mean for her and Westeros in general we’ll be fascinated to see.