Kings and Queen

With the death of Elizabeth I, 1603 heralded the beginning of the Stuarts; a royal house that was to last for over one hundred years. Here was a period that would see amongst other events; civil war, a great plague, the fire of London, the abolition and re-introduction of the monarchy and the gunpowder plot. James I and Charles I ruled until 1649 when Parliament took over during an eleven year period which came to be known as the Commonwealth and Protectorate. The monarchy was finally restored in 1660 with the crowning of Charles II, he was followed by James II, William III and Mary II and finally in 1702 by Queen Anne. 1714 brought England a new royal line with the coronation of George I and so ended another turbulent chapter of England's royal history. With expert analysis from Alan Ereira and atmospheric period reconstructions this programme is an interesting and informative record of the Stuart years.

Our read · Kings and Queen (2004) reads as a sombre, steady, grounded drama · comedy entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.