New “Game of Thrones” series goes small and intimate

“We have one guy and some horses and a few nice trees,” says creator Ira Parker. “It was very important for us to feel earthy … and to feel intimate came very easily because we are just following one person’s story and we’re seeing it through his eyes.”

That one person is Ser Duncan the Tall, a low born “hedge” knight who longs to claim his place in a world of Targaryens. After burying his mentor, Dunk enters a tournament and, along the way, comes upon a boy, Egg, who wants to be his squire. Quickly, they become friends and the journey begins.

“Dunk is such an immediately likable human being,” Parker says. “He’s earnest and honest and he has a lot of self-doubt and anxieties. He’s just a kid with a silly dream who wants to go out and be a knight, but he doesn’t quite know how to achieve that.”

Peter Claffey, who plays Dunk, worried about measuring up.

“I really admire his moral compass and his black-and-white sense of chivalry,” he says. “But I’ve learned a lot from the character and, in a world as ruthless as Westeros, it’s quite a beautiful and endearing thing to see a character like Dunk, who’s trying to navigate it in a moral way.”

Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell, who plays Egg, bonded at arcades in Belfast.  “We’re like brothers, not only like our characters, but in real life,” Ansell says.

“We were lucky to have about two months preparation before we got into shooting,” Claffey says. “We did horse riding every day and combat training. I’m so glad to be his friend now, and I’m very, very close with him and his family, and they’re really, really good, lovely people. Those two months could have been quite nerve-racking. But something clicked in that chemistry read, and we haven’t looked back since.”

Ansell, who’s the only child in the series, says it wasn’t difficult to feel accepted by the adult actors.

“I’ve only been (acting) for two years, but that’s like, what, a fifth of my life? But it feels like I’ve been with these guys for my whole life. I’m so close to them all, and we just feel like buddies.”

As secrets are revealed, Dunk’s journey becomes one viewers can relate to.

Bertie Carvel, who plays Prince Baelor Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne, says, “It’s very relatable in our own world. We’re all asking ourselves whether you can find the moral courage to do the right thing, whether it feels like a wasted effort.

“That’s why it’s good television, it’s good storytelling, and I think a story that we have a real thirst for right now, in a sort of darkening world.”

“We don’t have that roving epic scale of going from family to family and the dead coming to kill mankind and dragons,” Parker says.

Claffey’s body language and sense of humor contribute to the overall feeling. Without that, “we never would have been able to get out Dunk’s inner monologue, which is so important to this series,” Parker says.

When Carvell read the story, then watched it on screen, he realized viewers are reminded of Dunk’s humanity, mortality and limitations.

“He looks around and sees knights who seem more capable and grander … and that’s why it’s relatable,” Carvel says. “It’s a heroic story because it’s sort of grounded in something quite humane and mortal. It would be good if we would all ask ourselves the question, ‘What would it mean to be more heroic?’”

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” airs on HBO.