PM says she became hooked on TV show about feuding fiefdoms during her summer break

It’s a bloody tale of warring clans fighting for control of the throne – so it should perhaps come as little surprise to Game of Thrones fans that Julia Gillard is an avid viewer.

Revealing herself as a fan of the HBO series in an interview with Guardian Australia, the prime minister said she had been drawn into George RR Martin’s mythical medieval-like world, in which feuding fiefdoms do battle in pursuit of power.

And her favourite character? Daenerys Targaryen - the woman who emerged triumphant from a trial by fire to be acclaimed as the uncontested leader of her people.

Gillard is backing Targaryen, who carries the title “khaleesi”, to take control of the iron throne. Targaryen is the first female war leader of a tribe called the Dothraki, in the complicated maze of competition between would-be rulers. She’s resolute and at times bloodthirsty – the khaleesi, that is.

The prime minister said she became hooked on the show over her summer break during a rare few days off.

“I was given the DVDs over the summer period when I did get a little bit of time to watch so I watched them one after the other,” she said. “I don’t get many lazy afternoons but I managed to have a few and now I am a bit of an addict. I anxiously await the new episode each Monday night. I like it because I think the intrigue between the contending families is enough to sustain the storyline.

“I am not usually a consumer of things with fantasy elements in it but I very much enjoy it.”

And which of the family fiefdoms did she hope would prevail? “I’m barracking for the khaleesi, the mother of dragons,” Gillard said, without hesitation.

Could she perhaps be referred to as “khaleesi” in her own office? “Well, I don’t have any pet dragons – maybe they would come in handy from time to time– nobody has given me any dragon eggs and since she had to walk into fire in order to hatch them I am not sure I particularly want that bit of it.”

Like many viewers, Gillard was surprised when another central character, Ned Stark – head of the house of Stark and played by actor Sean Bean – came to a sudden gruesome end in the first series.

“I was a little bit shocked when Ned Stark got killed off so early on,” she said. “He sort of had hero written all over his forehead, so I assumed he would be a central heroic character for all of it or most of it, so I didn’t expect the grisly end so early.”

There was insufficient time to pursue with the prime minister the possible Australian political analogies of a plotline in which a leader apparently set for a long reign is cut down prematurely.