Chris O’Donnell. Now there’s one young lad who has had his fair share of hits and misses, from Maeve Binchy’s Circle of Friends (that accent…) to Batman & Robin with George Clooney (clearly the best Batman ever, save for Adam West).

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However, it’s his turn as D’Artagnan in the 1993 adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic that remains burned to the back of my skull. Jus’s sayin. That’s not to say that the film wasn’t thoroughly enjoyable – Tim Curry made an utterly fantastic Richelieu, while Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Oliver Platt provided the one for all and all for one. And sure wasn’t there even a young Irish lad at the centre of it all? Hugh O’Conor (soon to be seen in The Stag alongside Andrew Scott and a whole host of fantastic fellow Irishmen) took the mantle of French king Louis.

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Countless re-tellings of the adventures of Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D’Artagnan both preceded and followed the film, and now the BBC is embarking on another action packed journey with France’s most famous sons. The Musketeers debuts on BBC One on Sunday January 19th (following Sherlock won’t be easy) and here’s why I personally can’t wait to see what’s in it for us viewers.

1. They’re working with some rather decent source material.
Any drama, I find, is only as good as the tale it’s trying to tell so if you haven’t got a decent story you’re not going to go very far. In The Musketeers the BBC has some fantastic source material to work with, so here’s hoping they don’t take things to far and end up losing the (generally brilliant) plot. *cough*

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2. There’s top notch talent involved.
Now, there are two ways to interpret this. We could go with “ohmygod it’s Luke Pasqualiano from Skins and that really hot fella from Merlin/Heroes”, which I’m sure t’internet would only love. Alas, I’m going to be grown up about it and say “OHMYGOD it’s Luke Pasqualiano (because he’s actually a DECENT young actor who held his own in cancelled Battlestar Galactica spin-off Caprica) and the utterly infallible (well, you’d like to think so) Peter Capaldi”. Who also happened to be in Skins at one stage. *tips TV trivia hat*

3. There’ll probably be something for everyone.
For those in search of televisual eye candy there’s Luke Pasqualiano from Skins and that really hot fella from Heroes *aherm* to name but a few. Also schemin’, fightin’ and a bit of romance to boot? Ah lads, sure who could say no?

4. The trailer looks pretty fabulous.
Here’s hoping it isn’t just a compilation of all the decent bits.

5. The villain’s being played by Malcom ‘effing’ Tucker.
And we all know how fantastically badass he was in The Thick of It.

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Catch The Musketeers on BBC One, Sunday January 19th at 9pm