‘Lorna Doone’ on Prime Video: Young Goth Aidan Gillen Steals This Dreamy Romantic Show

Sometimes the best part of a dreamy romance isn’t the love story, but its cast of actors. Case in point: 2000’s Lorna Doone, now streaming on Prime Video, boasts a cast that includes Chilling Adventures of Sabrina villain Richard Coyle as a lovelorn farmboy, Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt as a 17th century nerd girl, and a super young James McAvoy as the soldier pining after her. But the three-part miniseries saves its biggest surprise for Game of Thrones fans: the Doone clan is made up of three familiar faces from Westeros, with a young Aidan Gillen serving up a sadistic, goth riff on Littlefinger.

Based on the R.D. Blackmore novel of the same name, Lorna Doone is a tale of star-crossed lovers living in 17th century Exmoor. As a child, John Ridd watches the cruel Carver Doone (Aidan Gillen) murder his father in the streets. He and his family swear vengeance and undying hatred for Carver and the entire Doone clan, a noble family that thrived on secrecy and cruelty. One day while fishing, John falls into the river and is cast over a waterfall. He is saved from drowning by a little girl named Lorna, who shows him a secret passage between the rocks.

Years later, the grown up John Ridd (Richard Coyle) crosses into this passageway and finds the adult Lorna (Amelia Warner). The two immediately fall in love, although John is thrown by the revelation that Lorna is a Doone and destined to marry Carver. (I mean, dude, you met her on Doone land. You shouldn’t have been so surprised.) Nevertheless, the couple’s love is too strong to deny. This, of course, causes confrontations between John’s family and the Doones, but the twist is Lorna might not be who she thinks she is after all… But I won’t spoil that part.

Even though it’s a little clunky at times, Lorna Doone has a coziness that can’t be understated. Maybe it’s because the setting is evocative of Outlander, or maybe because its tone feels like such a throwback, it’s just pleasant to watch. The most fun part of Lorna Doone, though, is Aidan Gillen’s tremendous performance. Carver is mean, nasty, and cruel to the point of parody, but Gillen sells it. It doesn’t hurt that he gets to go toe-to-toe with two other Game of Thrones alums — Anton Lesser and Peter Vaughan — who play his father and grandfather, respectfully. Gillen seems to be having the most fun in the whole series, which inadvertently highlights the show’s one major failing: the chemistry of its core couple.

That aside, Lorna Doone is a dreamy, dramatic, and slightly campy escape. At only three hours long, you can watch the whole thing in one evening.

(Also, if you, like me, find the soundtrack to be utterly dreamy, that’s probably because it comes from composer John Lunn. He’s the man behind the famous Downton Abbey theme, along with the scores for The Last Kingdom, Grantchester, and The White Queen.)

Where to stream Lorna Doone (2000)