Borgia (TV series)

Borgia is a historical drama television series created by Tom Fontana for Canal+, ZDF, ORF, and Sky Italia. The show recounts the Borgia family's rise to power and subsequent domination of the Papal States during the Renaissance.

Borgia debuted in Italy on Sky Cinema 1 on 10 July 2011. It was since renewed for a second season, which premiered in France on Canal+ on 18 March 2013. A third and final season premiered in France on Canal+ on 15 September 2014. The series finale aired in France on Canal+ on 27 October 2014 as the 38th episode overall.

Production

The series is produced by Atlantique Productions, a subsidiary of Lagardère Entertainment, for French premium-pay TV Canal+ in association with EOS Entertainment, and was filmed in the Czech Republic and Italy. Czech production was held by company Etic films. International distribution is handled by Beta Film GmbH. Season 3 was filmed between 27 May 2013 and 27 January 2014.

International production

The show was a French-German-Czech-Italian production, and the cast and crew represented a range of other nationalities as well. Series creator, producer, and lead writer Tom Fontana was American, as were writers Sean Whitesell, Gina Gionfriddo, and Larry Cohen. Season 2 saw French writer Audrey Fouché join the writing team.

The directors came from several different parts of Europe: Oliver Hirschbiegel and Christoph Schrewe are German, Dearbhla Walsh is Irish, Metin Hüseyin is British, and Thomas Vincent is French. Each director would handle at least two consecutive episodes before handing the series over to the next.

Main character Rodrigo Borgia was portrayed by American actor John Doman. The rest of the cast hailed from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, and several other countries.

Cast and characters

Main

• John Doman as Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia / Pope Alexander VI
• Mark Ryder as Cesare Borgia
• Stanley Weber as Juan Borgia and Francesco Borgia (Season 1, guest seasons 2–3)
• Isolda Dychauk as Lucrezia Borgia
• Marta Gastini as Giulia Farnese
• Diarmuid Noyes as Cardinal Alessandro Farnese
• Art Malik as Francesc Gacet, Rodrigo Borgia's secretary
• Assumpta Serna as Vannozza Cattanei
• Christian McKay as Cardinal Ascanio Sforza (seasons 1–2)
• Scott Winters as Cardinal Raffaele Riario-Sansoni
• Dejan Čukić as Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere

Recurring

Guest starring

Episodes

Season 1 – Borgia: Faith and Fear (2011)

(March 1492 – June 1493)

Season 2 – Borgia: Rules of Love, Rules of War (2013)

(February 1494 – September 1494)

Season 3 – Borgia: Triumph and Oblivion (2014)

(1495 – 1507)

The third season premiered on Netflix on 1 November 2014.

See also

• 2011 in Italian television
• Television in Italy
• 2013 in French television
• Television in France

References

External links

• Borgia at IMDb
• Lagardère Entertainment and Canal+ Press Release March 2009
• Official French website Archived 2017-09-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Article about Borgia on Austrian public TV website "ORF"