James Norton recalls 'painful' collarbone injury he sustained while filming historical drama King and Conqueror

The 40-year-old actor was in rehearsals days before a scheduled break from the series, which is set to launch on August 24 and tells the tale of King Harold (Norton) and William the Conqueror’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) fight for England in 1066.

Tragedy struck when he broke his collarbone after falling off a horse.

"I fell off a horse and I landed on my shoulder. Actually it was a remarkably quick recovery and it didn’t affect shooting. Luckily we dealt with it. The collarbone recovers very quickly. It was just quite painful," Norton told The Times.

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He added: "In some of the battle scenes in the latter half of the shoot, I’m yelping very loudly and the yelps are pretty authentic."

Norton said he was apprehensive about telling the show’s executive producer, Kitty Kaletsky, about the incident.

"I was doing all my own stunts but I had an amazing stunt double who I was in the hospital with. There was like a moment where we said, ‘We’re f***ed. Are you going to call Kitty, or am I?’" he added.

An extra also had to have his nose bandaged after Norton bit it too hard while recording a fight scene.

"I literally bit his nose. The poor guy. I went through his skin. It was terrible. The following day the guy came into rehearsals with a huge bandage. It was like some kind of comedy. But I was just getting really into it," the actor said.