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blood red carpet

32 things we learned when we were invited to the Game of Thrones world premiere

We went, we saw, we conquered.

LAST NIGHT DailyEdge.ie upped and went across the sea for the Game of Thrones Season Five World Premiere at the Tower of London.

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Here’s what we learned:

*Some very minor season five spoilers ahead. Spoilers for previous seasons too. You have been warned*

They went all out

A massive purpose built marquee was tacked onto the side of the Tower of London, big enough for 1,000 people, the free drinks they were gagging for, their wees, the Iron Throne, and a large proportion of the 35 main cast members of Game of Thrones.

It was a big deal for the premiere to be outside the US

And, by all accounts it was a big deal for the Tower of London to allow such an event to take place.

This is the first time the Game of Thrones premiere has taken place outside America, and the HBO bigwigs had flown over for the occasion. One of them had a very impressive, rich-looking tan.

The dragons were let out of the dungeon for the night

The outer walls of the Tower of London were treated to some magic.

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It was selfie central

A small number of fans had been granted tickets to line the red carpet as the cast members arrived. They didn’t know which Game of Thrones stars were going to be there though, so blood curdling screams went up whenever a familiar face appeared.

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Seven million people work for Sky

At least that’s what it seemed like. An army of important looking people with important looking headsets, important looking black outfits, important looking Game of Thrones passes around their important necks were in charge of the event, shepherding people left, right and centre.

An impressive feat.

We mostly stood over there

Look, there, in the corner.

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Wearing these

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Here’s what it looks and sounds like when the stars are posing for these kinds of pics

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Tywin Lannister is just as terrifying in real life

He kept calling us “darling”, but in a way that made us feel like he might skin you alive and feed you to a velociraptor.

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And he snuck in a David Cameron burn

When asked what he thought about David Cameron comparing himself to Ned Stark, Charles Dance replied:

I don’t think he’s brave enough to be a Lannister darling.

Dean Charles Chapman (Tommen) had his first on screen kiss with Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell)

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The 17-year-old blushed when asked about lobbing the gob on Dormer, saying “it’s good, it’s all good”. He told DailyEdge.ie that he’s met her fiancé (Irish director Anthony Byrne) and that he’s a “lovely person” (whose missus he’s lobbing the gob on).

Tommen and Margaery’s wedding won’t be as big as Joffrey’s

The union of this pair is inevitable, but Chapman said that the wedding is “very pretty” and “not as big or bloody as Joffrey’s”. Phew. We couldn’t any more wedding stress to be honest. Stick to the triangle sandwiches and cocktail sausages.

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Brienne of Tarth and Theon Greyjoy are best pals

When Gwendoline Christie and Alfie Allen spotted each other on the red carpet there were squeals of (Grey)joy.

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They all talked about how the show is moving away from the books

We asked various members of the cast about what to expect from season five and they were all keen to point out that…

… there’s going to be some extraordinary stuff coming alone. There’s gonna be some stuff that’s not in the books, that the “know-it-alls” are going to be quite surprised by.

(Liam Cunningham)

The TV series has caught up with the books and from this point on none of us know what happens next.

(Aidan Gillen)

Aiden Gillen was full of the chat

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In fact, a PR person had to drag him away.

He did let slip that he may not appear in the final two episodes of the season, saying that he likes to just read his own scripts and storylines and that he hadn’t even read any of what happens in episodes nine and ten.

He wasn’t the only person dragged away by a PR person

Both Mark Gatiss and Sophie Turner were also unceremoniously plucked off the red carpet.

Gatiss presumably to avoid being plagued with questions about the Sherlock Christmas special (to be fair, he was making a beeline for us at one stage and we were well armed with Sherlock questions. An important person in black shooed him away, importantly).

mark1 Mark! Mark! Over here Mark!

One of the new characters is a kick ass woman with a whip

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Jessica Henwick plays Nymeria Sand, and told us that she spent five months training with an eight foot kangaroo skin Indiana Jones bullwhip.

She said she watched videos on YouTube to help perfect her technique.

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Liam Cunningham is the biggest messer on set

That’s according to at least two of his co-stars.

And he didn’t even get a pint on St Patrick’s Day

Cunningham lamented to DailyEdge.ie that he spend Paddy’s Day on a plane coming to the the London premiere, so he didn’t even get to have a sup.

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And he was very cagey about talking about episode 9

Traditionally a big episode in previous series of Game of Thrones (The Red Wedding, The Watchers on the Wall), Liam Cunningham wouldn’t confirm if he plays a part in season five, episode nine:

You’d be killed, and then after they finished killing you, they’d kill me.

Sound like the perfect episode nine, to be honest.

Showrunners David Benioff and D B Weiss weren’t there

They were in LA still putting the finishing touches to some of the season five episodes.

They did send a video message though, calling the Tower of London the “Throniest location we could imagine”.

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But the Iron Throne was there

We sat on it. Obviously.

Kit Harrington said this is going to be a “shocking season”

Jon Snow told DailyEdge.ie:

It seems to go ‘story season’ then ‘shocking season’ then ‘story season’ then ‘shocking season’. And this is a real shocking season.

And he said he’s involved in a “massive episode”

There’s a very big episode for Jon Snow this season, and it’s towards the end of the season. It’s not a whole episode, but it’s bigger than last season’s episode nine, just in scale.

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And he smelled amazing

We got close enough for a good sniff.

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So did Jaime Lannister

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Forget about ‘kingslayer’, what about ‘LADYSLAYER’?

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Overheard in the smoking area

Several members of the cast enjoy a cig. They used their time to reminisce on filming and to exclaim things like “and Dormer already had an iPhone 6!”. (We’re not sure if this was Richard Dormer or Natalie Dormer, or what treachery was begotten with said iPhone 6).

The smoking area also saw some cast members being introduced for the first time. Some of the sets and storylines are so far removed from each other that some of the actors never actually meet until events like the premiere.

Everything was branded, from the water bottles:

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To the cloakroom tickets:

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The after party food was served in… er… a plate of moss?

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Everyone bailed in together for the party. Celebs, non-celebs, Sue Perkins. Good times.

They all call it ‘Thrones’

Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister, they were all at it. Casually calling the show ‘Thrones’, like someone who knows Sandra Bullock really well might call her ‘Sandy’.

From now on we’d like you call call us simply The Edge. We don’t care that it’s already taken by The Edge from U2.

Finally, most importantly, the jacks.

We’re big fans of celebs and their jacks.

The Game of Thrones thrones were fairly swanky, even though they were temporary jacks in a marquee. 

Good effort.

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You can watch every episode of Seasons 1-4 of Game of Thrones on demand through Sky Box Sets before season 5 starts on Monday 13 April at 9pm on Sky Atlantic #GoTAtlantic @skyatlantic

*It was originally 31 things, but now it’s 32. We just learned so much. 

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