The Virgin Queen (2005– )

The Virgin Queen explores the full sweep of Elizabeth's life: from her days of fear as a potential victim of her sister's terror; through her great love affair with Robert Dudley; into her ... See full summary »

Stars:

Anne-Marie Duff, Sienna Guillory, Ian Hart

1 win & 5 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Anne-Marie Duff	...	Queen Elizabeth I (4 episodes, 2006)
Sienna Guillory	...	Lettice Knollys (4 episodes, 2006)
Ian Hart	...	William Cecil - Lord Burghley (4 episodes, 2006)
Tom Hardy	...	Robert Dudley (4 episodes, 2006)
Dexter Fletcher	...	Sir Thomas Radcliffe - Earl of Sussex (3 episodes, 2006)
Richard Syms	...	Courtier (3 episodes, 2006)
Tara Fitzgerald	...	Kat Ashley (3 episodes, 2006)
Ulrich Thomsen	...	Baron (2 episodes, 2006)
Kevin McKidd	...	Duke of Norfolk (2 episodes, 2006)
Ben Daniels	...	Francis Walsingham (2 episodes, 2006)
Jason Watkins	...	Christopher Hatton (2 episodes, 2006)

Storyline

The Virgin Queen explores the full sweep of Elizabeth's life: from her days of fear as a potential victim of her sister's terror; through her great love affair with Robert Dudley; into her years of triumph over the Armada; and finally her old age and her last, enigmatic relationship with her young protégé, the Earl of Essex.

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Plot Keywords:

tv mini series | tudor | queen elizabeth i | historical fiction | 1500s | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

BBC [uk] PBS [us]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 November 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Elizabeth I: The Virgin Queen

Filming Locations:

Alnwick Castle, Alnwick, Northumberland, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Power, Powercorp

Technical Specs

Runtime:

237 min 237 min (4 parts)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[Queen Elizabeth, a Protestant, displays a far more tolerant attitude to Catholics than Queen Mary, her Catholic sister, did towards Protestants]
Queen Elizabeth I: As for religion... Henceforce, all services will be conducted, not in Latin, but English, starting with my Coronation. How can my people understand the power of prayer unless they first understand its meaning? If they are to accept the Protestant faith, it must be through persuasion, not purges. Let the Catholics keep their crucifixes and robes, if ...

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Soundtracks

"The Tower"
Composed by Martin Phipps
Published by BDI Music

User Reviews

Elizabethan drama, literally

This is a very interesting programme, produced in Britain and originally shown on the PBS series, Masterpiece Theatre.

This miniseries was directed by Coky Giedroyc, a veteran of television productions in Britain, including another royal-themed miniseries, 'William and Mary', in 2003. Giedroyc brings an interesting modern twist to the series - rather than filming things in majestic, sweeping camera pans with classical music as a background, and rather than having the dialogue (and acting) be in a stilted, falsely formal style, Giedroyc incorporates modern music with medieval and Celtic flavouring to it (both of which have experienced a renaissance of sorts in the past decade), and the situations are decidedly modern without being out of place in their own times.

This presents the life of Elizabeth from her young adulthood under Queen Mary, as a supposed participant in intrigues against the Catholic Queen, through to her death after serving decades on the throne of England as the Virgin Queen, the queen who never married. In fact, the miniseries plays a tantalising game with Elizabeth's virginity, showing her desires (as well as those around her) without ever giving up the game of 'was she or wasn't she?' Anne-Marie Duff plays the part of Elizabeth, and does a remarkably able job for such a complex figure. Duff won the Irish Television award and was nominated for the BAFTA award for best actress in a television drama in another series, 'Shameless', last year.

Duff is joined by Tom Hardy, who plays the role of Robert Dudley, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth. Dudley is also an extraordinarily complex role, as he played several sides in the political struggles during Elizabeth's early reign, and was part of a family well experienced in regal intrigue - Robert Dudley's family had tried to manage the reign of Elizabeth's brother Edward, engineer the accession of Lady Jane Grey (placing Guildford Dudley on the throne with her), and is sometimes referred to as 'the uncrowned kings of England'. In fact, perhaps the most stunning single scene in this miniseries is after Elizabeth has elevated Robert Dudley to the earldom of Leicester, and during her illness, he sits upon the throne as the protector of the realm. Hardy is well suited to this role, and plays it with skill.

The sets are appropriate to their time period, neither too ornate nor too medieval; the costumes also have a touch of modernity to them, but are still primarily of the period. The situations presented give good insight into the overall pattern of Elizabeth's reign and some of the principal concerns during that time period, although to compress such a long reign into such a short time frame as a four-hour miniseries by necessity means that the history has had to be selectively chosen. Elizabeth faced problems from without and within, many of which were far more complex and pressing than her marriage issue. In the end, Elizabeth made the right decision for the time, if not for the future.

This is a great production for television, and holds up well against other major productions featuring the Virgin Queen Elizabeth of a few years ago.