Elizabeth I..

[fajrdrako]

Today, thanks to my wonderful friend Sheila, I saw the recent HBO miniseries, Elizabeth I with Helen Mirren as Elizabeth Tudor and Jeremy Irons as Leicester - two of my favourite actors. Beulah, Tasia, Lyn and I went to Sheila's place for a potluck supper and a good dose of cinematic Tudor history.

And what an enjoyable show it was. As is usual with movies, it focussed fairly narrowly on Elizabeth's relationships with Robert Dudley (Earl of Leicester) and Robert Devereux (Earl of Essex), with a side of the Duc d'Anjou and Mary, Queen of Scots. I thoght they went gently with d'Anjou, whom they could have played up as outrageous, and were fairly unkind to Mary, Queen of Scots. The best thing about the show was how clear it made the relationships, not just the rather ambiguous romances betweent he men and the famously-virgin queen, but the relationships between Leicester and Essex and their families, and the Walsingham family and Burghley, including their relative ages.

My favourite cameo was of Ewen Bremner as James of Scotland - I thought he had the young James pegged. Other favourite characters of her time sometimes zipped by so fast I hardly noticed them - Sir Francis Drake, for example - and it picked up her story too late for Sir Philip Sydney, even in the unlikely even they might have featured him. The likes of William Shakespare, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir Walter Raleigh didn't get mentioned, but to my surprise we saw a fair amount of the effete Henry Wriosthley, Earl of Southampton, as a confederate of Essex. Was he really? Not to mention a fairly sinister Franics Bacon. What was that about him loving Essex? I should have counted the number of times someone, often but not always Elizabeth, referred to Essex as a 'pretty boy'. Well, I suppose, historically speaking, that's a fair assessment of him.

I won a bet. Sheila and Tasia were sure Mary, Queen of Scots had been in the Tower of London. I bet them ten cents she never had been. I knew she'd never been that far south. I won a whole twenty cents! History champion, that's me.

Loved it. I want more television like this.

Comments

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

Sounds good! It's on my Rogers ziplist, so we'll see it sooner or later.

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

BTW, if you ever want this stuff earlier - I downloaded it last year when it ran in the UK. I get a lot of the stuff for myself anyway, so it wouldn't be a problem to get it for you as well.

Right now, I'm mostly concentrating on Doctor Who (and DWConfidential and Totally DW), but I also got the third series of Hustle, and the occasional odds and ends.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

oh you evil gambler.

Are you sure there isn't been a time were they've taken down the tower and rebuilt it farther north, so that Mary can still have been inprisoned in it without ever being as far south as London? :-)

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Oh fun, I have this taped but haven't watched it yet. I'll have to get on that.

The Tower of London...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, that could have happened - I can just see them moving it, stone by stone, in wheelbarrows - but I don't think they could have done it without my noticing. Besides, what's the fun of a bet if there's no gamble at all? I might have bene wrong. But I wasn't! And now I have twenty cents to gamble. Tasia grumbled that I should have gone for ten dollars, just to make it worthwhile. Since she lost the best, I thought that was a really bad idea from her point of view. Besides, I couldn't afford to lose ten dollars!

Had I been wrong. Which I wasn't.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think you will enjoy it - there's a lovely scene where pretty-boy Essex fights a duel; you'll appreciate that. And the dialogue is delightfully witty. I'd want to see it again for the dialogue alone.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What's a ziplist?

And when you do see it, do tell me what you think!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh good heavens, bless your heart! That is very kind of you, and I am always eager for This Sort of Thing.

What is Hustle?

I haven't seen any of the new Doctor Who, and I barely saw the Christopher Eccleston version - just the first episode. I gather it's all good?

I do wish I lived closer to you, or you to me!

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

there's a lovely scene where pretty-boy Essex fights a duel; you'll appreciate that

LOL, oh yes I would. I saw bits and pieces while taping and he stood out. I'm a total sucker for swords and prettiness.

[chazzbanner.livejournal.com]

>>to my surprise we saw a fair amount of the effete Henry Wriosthley, Earl of Southampton, as a confederate of >>Essex. Was he really?

Oh yes. He was in Ireland, and part of the Essex's attempted uprising.

Since I have three Leicester-related icons you can guess which side I'm on in the debate... where there's a debate, that is!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can think of several Leicester-related debates. Which one were you thinking of?

I certainly liked Leicester in this version!

I've read about Southampton in various contexts, but not this one. I love it when pieces of the puzzles come together, and individuals come clear in relation to each other. Southampton popped up on one of the books I was reading about the court of James I; I was quite delighted to see him.

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

Chris Eccleston was fabulous, and I loved that series the best of all DW to date.

David Tennant is lovely and the show is fun, but to me, it's less and less Doctor Who all the time. More along the lines of Buffy. It's still a great series for what it IS, though.

I've got them all as AVIs and it's easy to write those to VCD if I need to. In fact, now I've begun downloading them a day later and getting the version that a guy makes up in VCD format, with both the episode and that week's documentary (Doctor Who Confidential), all ready to burn as a VCD and he even includes a disc label!

Hustle is a series that ran in the UK a few years ago, about a group of con men (led by Robert Vaughn) - we just got the first two series of it on AMC. After a bit of a break, they just got a third series of it in the UK - and I rather suspect that us buying the first two helped make that third one! I fell in love with it on a BMI flight last year that ran an episode.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I am certainly a sucker for swords, and I have no problem with prettiness, and I have no problem when the two go together. In fact, I wished the show had more swordplay, but it pretty much centred on wordplay, which is even better.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've heard good things about the Eccleston run.

I don't mind that they change the Doctor Who ambience, though. Shows that stay static aren't worth watching, after a while.

I haven't seen David Tennant in action but he looks really cute in the stills I've seen.

As for Hustle - I'll see if I can find it.

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I forgot to mention - of course I downloaded the new Sharpe, both parts, and the "making of"

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, beautiful! Well, if you could send me any of these things, I'd be thrilled. (Should I send you blank DVDs?)

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

Sorry; Rogers Video Direct.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't think I get Rogers Video Direct... Pity.

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

Nah, I have a ton! I'll have to double-check (when I get home) that I have your current e-mail, since I lost a lot of them when my computer crashed in january

[chazzbanner.livejournal.com]

Leicester debates.. well, I believe he didn't kill his wife or have his wife killed. (what would he gain?)

And I think he was the love of her life. He loved her? Yes, all and all, I do think that. Sooner or later he realized he'd never get an heir with her, and none of the queen's men were supposed to get married etc., it must have been hugely frustrating, I'm not surprised that his 2nd marriage was made in secret - or that he had an illegitimate son (well, some say he was married three times, Lettice being the third).

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Ah. I can handle that.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I agree, on the whole... Leicester would have too much to lose and too little to gain. But people can make terrible, passionate errors in judgement... I do love historical mysteries.

Note to myself: read more about Leicester.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

A computer crash is a terrible thing.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

See why I love Lymond? He gives me both.