Period drama. Starting in 1579 this is the story of Elizabeth I in her later years and about the politics of the time. Still without any child to continue her line Elizabeth’s advisors are anxious that she should marry and bear children before it is too late. They arrange for suitor’s from abroad to cement relationships between those who might otherwise choose to invade – but she has her eye on someone closer to home.
The following year Mirren would go on to play Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Frears’ The Queen.
production details
UK / Channel 4 – HBO – Company Films / 2×120 minute episodes / Broadcast 29 September – 6 October 2005
Writer: Nigel Williams / Script Editor: Jack Williams / Music: Rob Lane / Producer: Barney Reisz / Executive Producers: Suzan Harrison, George Faber, Charles Pattinson, Nigel Williams / Director: Tom Hooper
cast
Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I
Toby Jones as Robert Cecil
Hugh Dancy as Earl of Essex
Patrick Malahide as Sir Francis Walsingham
Ian McDiarmid as Lord Burghley
Ann Firbank as Lady Anne
Toby Salaman as Doctor Lopez
Jeremy Irons as Earl of Leicester
Barbara Flynn as Mary Queen of Scots
Jeremie Covillault as Duke of Anjou
Erick Deshors as Jean De Simier
Simon Woods as Gifford
Diana Kent as Lady Essex
