Kevin Costner has won critical praise for his role in 'Hatfields and McCoys'.

The actor plays the role of 'Devil' Anse Hatfield in the History Channel show which premiered on Monday night (28.05.12), with critics wowed by his performance in the series about a 19th Century feud between two families in Kentucky and West Virginia.

New York Daily News gave the series four stars out of five, praising Kevin - who is the star and producer of the show - for ''doing well''.

The Los Angeles Times also reviewed the show positively, calling it ''gorgeous'' and ''astonishingly nuanced''.

'Hatfield & McCoys' broke cable television history after its premiere, with 13.9 million tuning in the first time round and 17 million in total over the two times it has aired.

Commenting on the figures, History Channel president Nancy Dubac said: ''With all the success we have had at History, we felt strongly for some time that we should own historical drama, and in true History fashion, we have done it, with - pardon the pun - guns ablazin!''