THE UK will be getting a brand new theme park in 2026 – but it won’t have your typical thrill rides.
Kynren – An Epic Tale of England, is the UK’s largest live action outdoor theatre production and next year it will launch Kynren – The Storied Lands, a new daytime historical theme park.
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A new historical theme park will be opening in the UK next yearCredit: Kynren
Set to open in summer 2026 in County Durham, the theme park will immerse visitors in multiple live shows and experiences that “span millennia”.
Phase One of Kynren – The Storied Lands will reveal The Lost Feather and four other live-action shows and immersive experiences, including Fina, a Medieval horse show, a viking show and a Victorian Adventure with characters from the past.
There will also be The Legend of the Wear which will transform a lake into a stage, where the Lambton Worm myth will be brought to life with water stunts and special effects.
In the future, the theme park will have even more shows, as well as educational content and themed experiences inspired by Robin Hood, Excalibur and the Tudors.
As a whole, the attractions will form the UK’s first live-action historical theme park.
Anna Warnecke, CEO of Kynren – The Storied Lands, said: “2026 is going to be an unforgettable year.
“Not only will our award-winning night show return, but we’ll also open Kynren – The Storied Lands a unique new experience that brings history, heritage and myth to life on a scale not seen anywhere else in the UK.”
The news follows the announcement that Kynren – An Epic Tale of England is set to return next summer, with tickets now on sale.
Located in Bishop Auckland, the show involves more than 1,000 cast and crew members and mass choreography, combat, horsemanship, stunts and fireworks – all on a seven-and-a-half acre stage.
The show takes spectators on a journey of 2,000 years of history from Boudicca’s rebellion to Viking invasions, Norman conquests, Tudor drama and even Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
The show lasts 90 minutes, beginning at sunset and ending when the stars are out.
It will run every Saturday evening between July 18 and September 12, 2026.
Tickets cost from £30 per adult and £20 per child.
Children under the age of three, are free.
If visitors book their tickets now, they will also unlock an ‘Insider Pass’, which gives them priority access for tickets to the new Kynren – The Storied Lands when it opens next summer.
Travel writer Catherine Lofthouse, who visited this year’s show, said: “If you’ve never heard of Kynren in Bishop Auckland, Durham, you’re not alone.
The theme park will feature a number of immersive experiences and showsCredit: Kynren
“Over an hour and a half, scenes that tell the tale of our homeland, history and heritage come to life across the 7.5-acre outdoor stage.
“The 1,000 professionally trained volunteers might be amateurs, but this incredible cast put on one of the best shows I’ve seen, one that really has to be seen to be believed.
“My boys aged 12 and 10 were absolutely enthralled by the evening’s entertainment from start to finish.
“The whole event is epic – from Viking ships rising from the water to the recreation of a magnificent stained glass window in the spray of a fountain.
“Battle scenes, stunts, celebrations, historic moments, lines from Shakespeare – it’s sometimes difficult to know where to look at there’s so much to take in from one moment to the next.
“It was such a high-quality performance, I’d say it rivaled a live Disney show too.”
The series will air over four gripping hour-long episodes.
Sean Bean in his new series
Sean Bean is leading a new factual series delving into the lives of some of history’s most notorious criminals.
From Al Capone to The Krays and the Queen of Harlem, Original Gangsters sees the actor team up with experts to separate fact from fiction when it comes to their legacies.
The synopsis for the episode reads: “Sean Bean unveils the real-life Peaky Blinders who terrorised Birmingham in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“From the labyrinthine alleyways of industrial Birmingham in the 1860s through riots and deadly gang warfare where the city’s ruffians battled with police, to the early twentieth century where rogue street mobs coalesced to become organised and eventually united under the hand of one man: Billy Kimber.
“With testimony from Carl Chinn, the world’s leading expert on Birmingham crime and the Peaky Blinders, discover more on the people behind history’s first intercity gang war.”
The Peaky Blinders street gang consisted largely of young criminals from working class backgrounds who engaged in robbery, violence and illegal bookmaking.
They were recognised by their signature outfits which included tailored jackets and flat caps.
They held control for 30 years until 1920, when a larger gang known as the Birmingham Boys, led by Billy Kimber, overtook them.
Still, the name “Peaky Blinders” became synonymous slang for many of Birmingham’s street gangs.
Episode two of Original Gangsters focuses on Al Capone – an American gangster and businessman who became famous during the Prohibition era.
Episode three looks at Stephanie St. Clair, known as the Queen of Harlem, who ruled Harlem’s numbers rackets in the 1920s.
Episode four explores Ronnie and Reggie Kray, and London’s original ‘Gentleman Gangster’ Billy Hill.
Original Gangsters with Sean Bean airs on Sky History from November 4 at 9pm
“House of Guinness,” as in the famous Dublin brewery, begins with the disclaimer “inspired by true facts,” which is another way of saying, “Don’t believe everything you’ll see.” Or, in “Dragnet”-speak, “Names have not been changed, and we have no desire or obligation to protect the innocent. This is a drama, and anyway, you can’t libel the dead.” The framing may be sound, but the portraits are imaginary.
The unchanged names in the series, which premieres Thursday on Netflix, belong to the four children of Benjamin Lee Guinness, whose grandfather created the signature porter in 1778. They are Arthur (Anthony Boyle), Edward (Louis Partridge), Anne (Emily Fairn) and Benjamin (Fionn O’Shea). As we begin, it is 1868 and Benjamin Lee, just deceased, has left the brewery in equal shares to Arthur, who has been away in London for five years losing his accent and finding peace, and Edward, who has been pretty much running the place. Anne, only a woman, and a married one, is basically skipped over; and Benjamin, who has problems with drink and gambling, is given a small allowance, because, as expressed in his late father’s will, “I feel it wise not to burden Benjamin with the temptations that come with fortune.”
As seen here, neither Arthur nor Edward, whose professional expertise is mostly represented by signing papers and occasionally walking around his factory — you won’t learn anything about how Guinness is made — seems capable of running a brewery. But all that really matters to the show is that each is a tortured romantic and will have to find a way to thrive in their uneasy, unasked-for partnership.
Indeed, as a viewer in search of entertainment rather than enlightenment, it’s best to treat these characters, however much attached they are to the real people whose names they bear, as entirely fictional. There are also, of course, characters mixed up in this business who have no factual counterparts, and by virtue of their fates not being written in books or Wikipedia pages, are subject to the whims of series creator Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders,” “A Thousand Blows,”), creating opportunities for suspense that might otherwise be lacking.
Prime among these creations are Sean Rafferty (James Norton), the Guinness family fixer, a handsome brute whom the ladies like, and the beautiful, brilliant Ellen Cochrane (Niamh McCormack), a Catholic firebrand who sees a better way toward Irish independence than throwing rocks at old man Guinness’ hearse or setting beer barrels on fire; for some reason, the Fenians, epitomized by Ellen’s “bonehead” brother Patrick (Seamus O’Hara), a grating presence and no advertisement for the movement, have decided that targeting Guinness (rich, Protestant) is going to get them somewhere.
James Norton as Sean Rafferty in “House of Guinness.”
(Ben Blackall / Netflix)
Apart from the politics, the family squabbles and the not particularly worrying fortunes of the family business — I mean, you can still order a Guinness — the main concerns of this historical melodrama, this stout opera, if you will, are beating hearts and heaving breasts. Skeptically accepting a meeting with Edward in the spirit of detente, Ellen feels electricity sparking between them, and vice versa. (More acceptably, Edward also has eyes for his cousin Adelaide Guinness, played by Ann Skelly, who has none for him.) Ben, meanwhile, is beloved by Lady Christine O’Madden (Jessica Reynolds), who foolishly believes she can reform him. Well, we’ve all seen that story.
But wait, there’s more! In this telling, at least, Arthur is gay, which is a problem for him as a person living in a super-religious country in the late 19th century and as a representative of the family and their eponymous product. If his orientation becomes known, it is suggested, the world will cease drinking his beer, and the family will be forced to subsist on the millions of pounds they have in the bank and whatever they can scrape off the several estates they own around the country. (Whenever contemporary figures are mentioned, screen-filling subtitles translate the sum into its 2025 equivalent, just so you realize how freaking rich these people were. The budget of the series is not sufficient to make that readily apparent.)
Arthur’s “complication,” which is no secret among his nonjudgmental siblings, has made him A) a target for blackmail, and B) a person in immediate need of a wife, especially as he’s about to stand for his late father’s seat in parliament. Enter Aunt Agnes Guinness (Dervla Kirwan), the story’s yenta, and marriage prospect Lady Olivia Hedges (Danielle Galligan), who is quite happy to settle for a maximum of freedom and a modicum of responsibility, and who curses in a most unladylike fashion. (But, really, the F-words and the Sh-words fly everywhere in this show.)
And what about Anne, saddled with a degenerative disease and a less-than-sexy cleric husband? She’ll sublimate her own romantic heartache in urban renewal and other good works. (Factually, the family had a philanthropic bent, and the company was so far ahead of its time in treating its workers well, including pensions beginning in the 1880s — that gets a moment here — and providing medical care to staff and their families, that much of this country still hasn’t caught up. They were less evolved, however, for many years, when it came to hiring Catholics.)
What else? There’s a curious Hobbit of a character named Byron Hedges (Jack Gleeson), an illegitimate cousin who arrives to sell himself as the man to represent their interests in America, into which Edward is keen to expand; we get some scenes set in New York. There’s Potter (Michael McElhatton), the droll, dry butler, who looks askance upon the younger Guinnesses but stays loyal, like butlers do. And Bonnie Champion (David Wilmot), a charismatic crime lord who’s also involved in the company’s export business.
There’s nothing subtle about “House of Guinness,” which makes its points in declarative sentences — sometimes gussied up with Irish-y prose — and gives its characters hardly a moment to relax and enjoy their porter, swelling the soundtrack with aggressive modern Irish rock and rap to make it exciting to the people of 2025. The show can border on the cornball; the characters are the sort you might have seen in the sort of dramas popular in 1868. But the actors inhabit their roles with commitment, so that even the bad company is good company. Good craic, as they say over there.
The film saga has many fans, who’ve previously lauded the series on IMDb.
One person titled their 10/10 review: “One of the all time great seafaring adventures!”
The user added: “It ranks up there with the original Mutiny on the Bounty,The Sea Hawk and Master And Commander as one of the greatest of its kind.”
Another person said in their 10/10 review: “This is one of the most realistic historical dramas out there.
“Everything in Hornblower is played to perfection, from the sets (fantastic, towering ships) to the costumes to the cast. The actors are all so believable in their roles that it’s hard to pull yourself out of that world. I had only flicked onto it by accident on TV, but I couldn’t pull myself away.”
Robert Lindsay starred in the historical films (Image: ITV)
A third described the drama as a “True Swashbuckling Adventure” and added: “A great cast and the sight of the beautiful sailing vessels in full rigging — I’d forgotten how much I love them.”
Someone else commented: “Storytelling at its best!” and elaborated: “The first in the Horatio Hornblower series, this installment is absolutely stunning. After watching this, you will find yourself longing for more. There is enough action, drama, and humor to satisfy just about anyone [sic].”
Yet another person hailed the show as “top notch entertainment” and said: “I viewed this show with some trepidation, as the name Hornblower to me (as with many others) is synonymous with Gregory Peck.
“But this is a different Hornblower and the magic is very much the same – fancy uniforms, good guys and bad guys, lots of sailing ships and lot of blood and thunder. What more can one ask for?”
The film series focuses on the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars(Image: ITV)
Hornblower was a series of historical films led by Hollywood star Ioan Gruffudd and was based on the three of the 10 novels written by C. S. Forester.
The drama followed the fictional title character Horatio Hornblower, a Royal Naval officer during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
The films ran on ITV from 1998 to 2003, and there were eight in total.
Other cast members included Robert Lindsay, Paul McGann, Paul Copley, Sean Gilder, and Jamie Bamber.
The historical TV films have been praised by audiences (Image: ITV)
There were also some other big names who made appearances, including Denis Lawson, Ian McNeice, Samuel West, Cherie Lunghi, and Greg Wise.
Prior to the ITV films, there were other adaptations of Forester’s novels, with Hollywood star Gregory Peck taking on the character in the 1951 movie Captain Horatio Hornblower.
While David Buck starred in an American TV series as the character in 1963 and Michael Redgrave appeared in a radio adaptation in the 1950s
Netflix has released first-look images at its brand new historical drama House of Guinness, which is written by the creator of the BBC hit series Peaky Blinders
Netflix has released first-look images at its brand new historical drama House of Guinness, which will premiere in the coming weeks(Image: Netflix)
Netflix has released first-look images at its brand new historical drama House of Guinness.
The upcoming programme, which will launch on the streamer in the coming weeks, delves into the story of the family behind the famous brewery following the death of patriarch Sir Benjamin Guinness. A trailer for the programme dropped on Monday and teased a host of dramatic twists and turns that will play out over the course of eight episode.
In the teaser, it is revealed that the business owner bequeaths his empire to just two of his children and doesn’t want to ‘burden’ the others with such a responsibility. It is made clear that trouble will come to the forefront of the series as conflicts around money, power and family look set to rattle throughout.
The series stars a host of famous aces from the world of television(Image: Netflix)
Throughout the preview from the upcoming drama, it’s teased that ‘rich men attract clever women’ after the line: “The man’s name is Guinness, of course there’ll be f****** trouble!” is bellowed amid a scene of what looks like a battle that is ready to break out.
A synopsis from the streaming provider reads: “House of Guinness explores an epic story inspired by one of Europe’s most famous and enduring dynasties – the Guinness Family.
“Set in 19th-century Dublin and New York, the story begins immediately after the death of Sir Benjamin Guinness, the man responsible for the extraordinary success of the Guinness brewery, and the far-reaching impact of his will on the fate of his four adult children, Arthur, Edward, Anne, and Ben, as well as on a group of Dublin characters who work and interact with the phenomenon that is Guinness.”
The brand new trailer promises a series of twists and turns (Image: Netflix)
The cast is made up of a host of esteemed names from the acting world, including Masters of the Air star Anthony Boyle, Louis Partridge, who starred alongside Millie Bobby Brown in Enola Holmes, Emily Fairn, Normal People’s Fionn O’Shea, and James Norton, who has appeared in a string of television hits like War & Peace and Happy Valley but is currently on screen in the drama King & Conqueror.
Dervla Kirwan will also feature alongside Game of Thrones stars Michael McElhatton and Jack Gleeson, with Niamh McCormack, Danielle Galligan, Ann Skelly, Seamus O’Hara, Michael McElhatton, David Wilmot, Michael Colgan, Jessica Reynolds, Hilda Fay, and Elizabeth Daulau all rounding out the cast.
The series has eight episodes in total and will launch on Netflix later in September (Image: Netflix)
The series has peen penned by Steven Knight, who is best known for having created the BBC’s runaway hit Peaky Blinders. With Peaky Blinders running for six series and even launching an upcoming film, there’s a strong possibility House of Guinness will spark yet another successful franchise for Netflix.
The series is directed by Tom Shankland and Mounia Akl and penned by Knight.
The acclaimed showrunner is releasing House of Guinness ahead of two major film projects, including his Peaky Blinders follow-up film, The Immortal Man, arriving on Netflix in 2026.
He is also set to write the next James Bond movie, directed by Denis Villeneuve with the role of Agent 007 still to be cast.
House of Guinness will premiere on Netflix on September 25th 2025
