Elizabeth I – The
Virgin Queen (WGBH)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C- Episodes: B
Running an always watchable 230 minutes, Elizabeth I –
The Virgin Queen (aka The Virgin Queen, 2005) is a very well acted,
produced, directed and executed (no pun intended) British TV mini-series
production about the historical title figure (Anne-Marie Duff in an
extraordinary performance covering many decades of her life) in her sudden and
surprise rise to power. She looks for
happiness and even love, but is smart enough to know how to fight and stick to
power without letting it get to her too much.
Having some grasp of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon
(1975), the costumes do not look cumbersome and unnaturalistic, along with so
much that makes it feel like it is happening in its time period. It ultimately is more melodramatic than a
Kubrick film would have been, but Paula Milne’s teleplay is exceptional and
dense with detail and moments that build on each other. The two parts are never too predictable and
the story gets into Elizabeth’s psyche more deeply than just about any previous
versions, though we are still very impartial to the 1998 Kate Blanchett
film. Tom Hardy, Ian Hart, Dexter
Fletcher, Hans Matheson and Joanne Whaley are also very noteworthy in the
supporting cast. Coky Giedroyc’s
directing shows some skill and has a previous history directing Mystery TV we’d
like to see more of. The program
overall is very solid and one of the best from TV in the past year.
The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is a little softer than a
new production should be, pretty simply because WGBH does not offer
anamorphically enhanced DVDs. David
Odd’s cinematography is pretty good and not the usual stuffy kind that seems
stillborn and is too interested it trying to get money out of the production
design budget by showing said design too much.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has just enough Pro Logic surrounds to
allow that as a good playback option.
The use of quasi-Rock music at times is a bad call. Unfortunately, despite being a double DVD
set, the only extras are the usual weblink and descriptive video services.
- Nicholas Sheffo
