Elizabeth R: Review & Picspam (Pt 1)

[lost_spook]

I've just watched this for the first time and I thought, since it is one of those things that is supposed (here in the UK, anyway) to be a seminal piece of television, that people might be interested in my thoughts. Also I have screencapped it and there will therefore be pictures, including familiar faces from Doctor Who. (It was made in 1970, so

Comments

[persiflage_1]

Funny that you're watching this while I've been watching The Virgin Queen (which I confess, I only watched for the sake of Ben Daniels as Francis Walsingham).

Now I shall have to get hold of this one to do a comparison.

(I'm a bit of an Elizabeth I nut myself - I blame the fact that I'm a Shakespeare Nerd, and you can hardly have one without t'other!)

[lost_spook]

That is funny! :-) I can imagine you won't prefer this Walsingham in that case, but I liked him more than I ought to have done!

I'm sure you'd like this one - the age of it does tell on it, but it's written very much as a series of history plays. Sometimes to the point of being amusing, as in the Armada episode, one of DRake's captains keeps running in to say how the sea battles are going, rather than us getting to see any of them, :lol:. (And, although it makes references to Shakespeare in the last one, he doesn't appear in it.)

It is such an undeniably interesting and colourful era, isn't it?

[persiflage_1]

*grins* I couldn't possibly like another Walsingham more (I might like one as much - say Peter Wingfield (should he play the role))!

I'll have to see if either the library or Love Film have it.

It's absolutely fascinating...

[lost_spook]

:lol:

There's probably a better chance of it than the things I usually mention! (I'd offer to do the posting thing again, but my Mum's demanded I post it to her! She hasn't watched it since she was 20 and it was first on. She's all impatient and I made her wait while I screencapped it, heh.)

[john_amend_all]

Yes, Brian Wilde played Foggy. He also played Mr Barrowclough (the liberal prison officer) in Porridge.

[lost_spook]

Thanks. I can never remember which one of the not-Compo-or- Clegg ones are which. He was extremely good in this, though, as I said.

[dbskyler]

Oooh, I remember watching this as a kid! That is to say, my parents were watching it, and I actually got caught up in it myself and watched it with them even though I knew very little about British history so wasn't sure what was going on. I remember my parents had to explain stuff to me. And yes, they let me watch the severed heads. Maybe they expected that a BBC historical drama would be suitable family viewing?

[lost_spook]

Well, if it's historical, it's not violence, is it, it's educational. Heh. And, to be fair, there was only one severed head. Well, apart from a few on pikes here and there and... ;-D

I'd never seen it before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was very well done, despite its age.

[dimity_blue]

I've got this on DVD. It's *so* hard to watch in places! I totally agree with all your advice to Babington. Good grief! He might as well have gone straight to the Tower, said, "I'm plotting treason, please kill me," and stuck his head on the block. It would've saved so much pain.

I find the Tudor period fascinating, but I am so glad I wasn't there.

Btw, did you spot Angela Thorne as Lettice (Dudley's 2nd wife)? She played Penelope Keith's nice and not too bright best friend in To the Manor Born. She was an absolute schemer in this!

Another 'spot the actor' series is "I, Claudius". They might as well rename that "Who's Who in British Acting" and have done with it.

[lost_spook]

Yes, there are some bits that suddenly become almost unbearable in places. But I don't think I could *not* watch, either. :-)

I find the Tudor period fascinating, but I am so glad I wasn't there.

Yes, I thought that quite a bit while watching it. Heh.

I did, and I thought that was who she was. And, hmm, I, Claudius is another thing that's been idly on my 'to watch' list for ages. (I read the two books years ago and enjoyed them a lot.)

[belantana]

Oh, something else apparently seminal that I've never heard of! I'm intrigued and delighted that Elizabeth appears to speak in verse - or is this only in the quote you posted?

(Ohhhhhhhh, I just thought of something else you have probably seen but on the off-chance you haven't should do so immediately! Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy? Unlike the remake that's out soon, it's not at all noisy and fast-moving, and may satisfy your squeamish bloodthirstiness with its mostly off-screen bloodshed. *g*)

[lost_spook]

Well, these things depend on where you are in the world! If the BBC made a list of 'great drama serials we have made', this would come fairly high up & you know I love history, so I've been wanting to see what it was like for years.

And, noted! I haven't seen it. Really, I have not seen an amazing amount of things. I just go on about the ones I do quite a bit. Although since I wrote that, I have actually been able to watch some bits of the West Wing and some Red Dwarf! Woot. So maybe my Spooks and DW collections will start being accessible to me again? But, noted. The pic is certainly cool enough to intrigue me. :-)

[belantana]

Yayyyy, well, I hope you enjoy it if/when you get around to digging it up! It has such a lovely atmosphere to it, and excellent layered characters, and of course it's always the Russians.

Oops posted too early -- Tentative hurrahs (if such things exist) that you can watch WW again! Here's hoping milestones continue. :D