AN EPIC drama heralded as a rival to Game of Thrones and shot in parts of the North-East is set to hit TV screens.

Beowulf ‘Return to the Shieldlands’ chronicles the adventures of the legendary hero in what is ITV Studios' biggest ever production.

Some of the 12-part series has been filmed in Weardale where Herot, the Anglo Saxon fortress heart of the Shieldlands, was constructed on the former Eastgate Quarry site.

And an historic hay barn which has overlooked the village of Westgate, near Stanhope, for 300 years will also appear in the show.

Another familiar site will be Derwent Reservoir on the County Durham and Northumberland border where crews created the fort and campsite of Bregan on its shores.

Home to tough fishermen and warriors, Bregan is the coastal settlement gateway to the Shieldlands.

Elsewhere on the reservoir a small mining camp was built as the scene of a monumental battle with a troll while a big warrior fight sequence was filmed on the shoreline at the western end.

Co-creator and executive producer Tim Haines said: "We decided to film in the North-East because I knew the darkest skies in England are in Northumberland and we also chose Northumberland and Durham because we wanted to represent a big and varied landscape.

"You can go from the high moorlands right down to the sea, through lakes, forests and rivers in a very short space of time and we knew we had to find wilderness everywhere."

The new adaptation of the enduring poem, set in Scandinavia, stars Hartlepool’s Kieran Bew as Beowulf alongside a stellar cast including multi award-winning actor William Hurt.

Alistair Baker, PR and media manager for Northumbrian Water, which manages Derwent Reservoir, said: "It’s fantastic that our region was chosen as the place to film this major TV drama series and we were delighted to host the production at our beautiful Derwent Reservoir.

"Northumbrian Water has many rural and industrial sites which are ideal locations for film making and we are always keen to support the film industry which is becoming increasingly important to our regional economy."

The series starts on ITV on Sunday, January 3, at 7pm.