Elizabeth I is a 2005 British television miniseries directed by Tom Hooper. The teleplay by Nigel Williams concentrates on the last 25 years of the nearly 45-year-long reign of Elizabeth I of England.
The series originally was broadcast in the UK in two two-hour segments on Channel 4. It later aired on HBO in the United States, TMN in Canada, ATV in Hong Kong, ABC in Australia, and TVNZ Television One in New Zealand.
The series went on to win Emmy, Peabody, and Golden Globe Awards. The same year, Helen Mirren starred as Queen Elizabeth the second in The Queen, for which she dominated the award season.
Plot synopsis
Part One focuses on Elizabeth's close and volatile relationship with her oldest friend and confidant, the Earl of Leicester, as it survives her contemplated marriage to the considerably younger Duke of Anjou, war with Spain, and his exile from and eventual return to the court, finally ending with his death in 1588.
Part Two follows Elizabeth through her later years, during which she has a passionate affair with the stepson of the Earl of Leicester, the much younger Earl of Essex, whose political ambitions frequently clash with his devotion and loyalty to the monarch. As Elizabeth finds her young lover's behavior becoming increasingly worrisome, she draws closer to Robert Cecil, who is named Secretary of State following the death of Sir Francis Walsingham.
Chief among the problems facing the throne is the question of a successor, given Elizabeth has no heirs. Both the queen's first cousin, the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, and Mary's son, James VI of Scotland, would like to usurp Elizabeth from her position, but she is determined neither one will take her place.
Production
The series was filmed in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the massive sets were constructed inside a sports arena. The church where Elizabeth and James VI meet is St. Anne's Church, built in 1500.
This series' broadcast forced the BBC to postpone the premiere of The Virgin Queen, also about Elizabeth I, until January/February 2006. Ewen Bremner appeared in both productions.
Historical inaccuracies
The screenplay explicitly mentions that Gilbert Gifford attempted to murder Elizabeth I by stabbing (in the first part of Episode One, which compresses events from 1579-1581). He is then seen being tortured and interrogated, but reappears in the second part of the episode (which compresses events from 1584-1588) to play his real historical part in the Babington Plot. This part of the episode even includes a scene where Gifford meets the Queen and she acknowledges him as the perpretator of the failed murder seven years before. The murder attempt never happened and, if it had, would inevitably have resulted in the perpetrator's execution.
As in the 1800 play Mary Stuart by Friedrich Schiller, Elizabeth visits Mary, Queen of Scots, in prison, although the cousins never met in real life.
Dialog implies that the Duke of Anjou died seven years after his failed marriage attempt with Elizabeth, putting his death in the same year as the Babington Plot. Actually the final rejection of the marriage proposal happened in 1581, the Duke died in 1584 and the Plot took place in 1586. This is one of several instances where artistic license for dramatic effect results in distortion of the actual timeline of events.
In 1588, while waiting on the beach to see if the Spanish Armada is about to invade England, the Earl of Leicester uses a telescope to identify the flag on a ship sailing up the river. The telescope wasn't invented by Hans Lippershey until 1608.
Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded in a courtyard, but according to accounts written at the time she actually was executed inside Fotheringhay Castle.
In Episode Two, the Queen transfers the monopoly on sweet wines to the Earl of Essex as a prize after the English Armada expedition to Portugal. The transfer actually happened a year earlier as an inheritance from Essex' stepfather the Earl of Leicester.
The marriage of Essex and Frances Walsingham is shown as happening after the execution of Doctor Lopez. The marriage actually happened in 1590, four years before Lopez' execution in 1594.
Other scenes relating to the accusations against Lopez and the appointment of a new Attorney General (both having happened in 1594) also involve Frances' father Sir Francis Walsingham who actually died in 1590, four years before the execution and the Privy Council controversy about the Attorney-generalship.
The screenplay depicts the Queen appointing Essex as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on the day of Lord Burghley's burial in August 1598 while it actually happened only in early 1599 after bitter infighting between Essex and Burghley's son Sir Robert Cecil.
Robert Cecil presents Elizabeth with a poem the Earl of Essex allegedly wrote just before his execution. The piece she reads aloud actually was the work of Chidiock Tichbourne, who wrote it just before his execution for the role he played in the Babington Plot.
The story inaccurately attributes the speech Elizabeth allegedly made in which she said "I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman" to the Earl of Leicester's invention.
Cast
Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I
Critical reception
David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "It almost goes without saying that when Helen Mirren plays Elizabeth Tudor in HBO's new miniseries, the scenery becomes a veritable banquet table that gets picked clean in two nights ... [Her] performance is powerful enough to shatter your television screen, not to mention any notion you might have had that if you've seen one Elizabeth - Bette Davis, Glenda Jackson or Cate Blanchett, for example - you've seen them all ... Right up there with Mirren, the rest of the cast is stellar. Irons, now a lion in winter, has sometimes settled into craggy self-parody in lesser films. But here, he invests Leicester with as much depth and complexity as he can, and he is every bit Mirren's equal onscreen." [1]
Brian Lowry of Variety observed, "Somewhat plodding through its opening hour, Elizabeth I gains steam and then soars through its concluding installment ... watching Mirren sink her teeth into this role is a treat worth savoring ... Tom Hooper, who previously directed Mirren in Prime Suspect 6, indulges Williams' penchant for long, theatrical monologues, which require a little getting used to in the slow early going. Gradually, however, as with the best British costume drama, the narrative becomes absorbing." [2]
Awards
Helen Mirren and Patrick Malahide as Elizabeth I and Sir Francis Walsingham
- 58th Primetime Emmy Awards
- Outstanding Miniseries
- Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries
- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries (Helen Mirren)
- Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries (Jeremy Irons)
- Outstanding Art Direction
- Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries
- Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries
- Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries
- Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries
- 64th Golden Globe Awards
- Best Television Mini-Series
- Best Actress in a Mini-Series (Mirren)
- Best Supporting Actor in a Mini-Series (Irons)
- 12th Screen Actors Guild Awards
- Outstanding Female Actor in a Mini-Series (Mirren)
- Outstanding Male Actor in a Mini-Series (Irons)
- BAFTA Awards
- Best Original Television Music
- Costume Designers Guild Award for Best Costume Design - Miniseries or TV Film
References
External links
