The Witcher: Blood Origin review – this profanity-packed fantasy is a riot

Extremely bad-ass fights and hilariously playful swearing make this drama lots of fun – plus it’s only four episodes long. Everyone’s a winner!

For this prequel to The Witcher, we go back, back, back to 1,200 years before the time of Geralt of Rivia – and if you don’t know who that is, it matters not. Slide right into the self-contained story of a continent where elves, dwarves and other often-warring peoples are living in uneasy proximity, until the arrival of one vicious dictatorship to rule them all makes everyone even less relaxed. Out in the sticks, soldier turned travelling bard Éile (Sophia Brown) is already fomenting revolutionary solidarity by singing rousing folk songs in pubs – and, in her introductory scene, taking care of drunk punters who get aggressively handsy with a waitress, by stabbing them in the legs and smashing their faces on tables, before continuing to play her bowed zither thingy and sing about people power. We like her immediately.