Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke and Peter Dinklage on top form in the battle for Westeros  

Coronation Street actress Catherine Tyldesley gives birth to baby boy

Coronation Street actress Catherine Tyldesley has given birth to a baby boy

How Amal is coping with celebrity…and the night George Clooney really did go to bed with Cindy Crawford

George Clooney\'s drinking buddy Rande Gerber has revealed how the actor and his new wife Amal are coping with media attention

Neighbours: Holly Candy and Olympia Valance lead the glamour at 30th anniversary party

Holly Candy and Olympia Valance attend a London party to celebrate 30 years of Neighbours

Game of Thrones, Season 5 - TV premiere review: Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke and Peter Dinklage on top form in the battle for Westeros

There were executions, dragons and bare buttocks aplenty in the first UK screening of the new series of Game of Thrones at the Tower of London last night

From the Free Cities to beyond the wall: Seven Kingdom stars Hannah Murray, Jacob Anderson and Nathalie Emmanuel attend the Game Of Thrones Season 5 UK Premiere (Picture: Dave Benett)

The first UK screening of Game of Thrones series one took place in a Soho basement in the presence of four journalists. Last night, at the world premiere of season five, dragons were projected on to the walls of the Tower of London and over 1,000 attendees drew breath as that theme tune struck up. The future of Westeros is big business these days, on and off-screen. And so is the pressure to please fans now fanatical and numerous enough to make up a formidable force, should White Walkers ever attack Planet Earth.

This was a measured scene-setter, with breasts and buttocks bared as per, but less of the blood or other bodily fluids that will surely be spilt later on. A palpable sense of weariness pervaded many of its characters without afflicting the show itself.

There were executions both ad hoc and ceremonial, a funeral and a wake. The promised flashbacks kicked in early with a trip to a clairvoyant witch (Jodhi May) whose predictions brought bad tidings for one leading player.

Others began moving into position for what is starting to resemble — brace yourselves — an endgame. Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) was drowning his sorrows in relative safety after spearing his dad in the privy (not a euphemism although, this being Game of Thrones, you wouldn’t be surprised); a grieving Jon Snow (Kit Harington) was burying his head in the eponymous white stuff. Both were offered unexpected alliances with potentially far-reaching consequences.

Game of Thrones stars hit London red carpet for premiere of Season 5 at Tower of London

Game of Thrones: 40 things you need to know about HBO's fantasy series

Tower of London to host world premiere of new Game of Thrones series

Game of Thrones exhibition at the O2 gives fans the chance to sit astride Iron Throne

And then there was Daenerys (Emilia Clarke): in theory the leading contender for the Iron Throne, yet in control of neither her people nor her dragons. “I’m not a politician, I’m a queen,” she warned ominously, in a world where neither position comes with much in the way of inherent integrity or life expectancy. Evangelical faith and guerilla insurgency bubbled under with intent, while long-separate storylines intertwined in tantalising fashion.

The next head to roll could be that of the HBO executive who dares call time on a series that gets better and better.

'We're losing the art of it': Kate Upton talks turning her back on social media and why people's low expectations make everything easier

Eva Mendes talks motherhood and reveals her secret to keeping Ryan Gosling happy

Go Westeros: meet Game of Thrones' new player Toby Sebastian

One Direction's Zayn Malik quits world tour due to stress

Nathalie Emmanuel on the next Game of Thrones series: 'It’s going to be a really tense season for everyone'

My female co-stars are the real knockouts says Insurgent's Theo James

Cate Blanchett: Hollywood actress reveals she would love a role in Downton Abbey

One Direction star Zayn Malik insists he loves Perrie Edwards after pictures shared of him with arm around another woman

Jeremy Clarkson suspension: BBC probe 'hears evidence' from men at centre of embarrassing fracas

The best man: Rande Gerber on stag nights, sharing beach houses and boys-only bike rides with George Clooney

Game of Thrones stars glam up for New York premiere of Season 4

Maggie Q steals the show in a (very) little black dress at Divergent premiere in LA

Worst dressed celebrities: From Sam Faiers to Bonnie Strange, we show and tell...

Before they were famous - stars' dramatic makeovers

Jeremy Clarkson: Richard Hammond and James May 'rejected offer to continue as presenters on Top Gear without suspended co-host'

Two teenage boys 'forced to fight and perform sex acts by man in south London'

Watch heartwarming moment dog owner is reunited with stolen pet

Two thugs hunted after barmaid glassed and man beaten so badly police thought he had been shot in head during brawl on party boat

Jeremy Clarkson in fresh race row after claiming foreign London taxi drivers' cars smell of sick

Family home cracks in half and collapses because of builders' botched basement dig

'One in three Londoners to live on streets with 20mph speed limits by summer'

'Axe empty night buses to save money,' says mayoral hopeful Stephen Greenhalgh

Women with vagina piercings to be classed as suffering from FGM

'Smelly poo' forces long-haul flight to turn back for Heathrow

'I felt like James Bond': Boy, 13, enlists taxi in chase across city to find iPhone he left on bus

KOOZA is an electrifying return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil combining two circus traditions - acrobatic performance and the art of clowning.

Calling all entrepreneurs! See how crowdfunding can provide you with a full-circle, end to end solution for your business. 

Stars hit London red carpet for premiere of Season 5 at Tower of London

Pollution cloud enveloping capital 'could cause fatal asthma attacks'

Woman charging £20 for human placenta smoothies investigated by health officials

Weetabix ice cream and Crunchy Nut chicken: why Londoners are eating cereal for lunch and dinner - not just breakfast

Sisters Holly Candy and Olympia Valance lead the glamour at celebratory London bash

Shower under your bed in 'cosy' flat on the market in Kensington