Game of Thrones season 7 breaks record for most people set on fire in a film or TV show

'We also set 20 people on fire at one time'

With Daenerys Targaryen finally reaching Westeros in Game of Thrones season 7, the stunt team have been working overtime.

Stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam won an Emmy for his work on season 5, which saw 20 people set on fire across a single day, but with season 7 they reached that figure in one go.

“In one battle scene we set more stuntmen on fire than have ever been simultaneously set on fire,” showrunner David Benioff told EW. “Our stunt coordinator really wanted to get in the Guinness Book of World Records for this.”

​Irlam himself added to the publication: “One sequence has 73 fire burns and that itself is a record. No film or TV show has ever done that in a whole show, let alone in one sequence.

"We also set 20 people on fire at one time."

He continued: "I think in Saving Private Ryan they had 13 on a beach, and on Braveheart 18 partial burns. Because of the nature of our attacking animals, we had the liberty to expand on that."

The GoT stunt team of course have state of the art flame retardant equipment for these sequences, but that doesn't mean they're not still without danger.

“It’s totally different from going underwater in your bathtub and counting the seconds in your head,” Irlam said. "If somebody bumps you and you breathe in by accident you will breathe in flame."

The new episodes arrive on HBO and Sky Atlantic 16 July.