This is a very enjoyable and enlightening drama about relationships, ambition and power. The story could be set in Wall Street, Dallas or modern day London but it's in the fascinating and dynamic days of the early 1600s.
It's told totally through the life and experience of Mary Beaumont so don't expect a history of King James. So there's no commissioning of the Bible, nothing about how he skilfully avoided getting involved in the 30 years war or his penchant for killing witches. The James in this story is just the James who becomes enamoured with young men. Although not everything we see is based on fact, the basic history hasn't been altered too much which makes a nice change to a lot of what's made these days.
Similarly, seen through the eyes of Mary, George isn't the atrocious and incompetent member of the government responsible for countless disasters he was in reality. He was in truth promoted way above his skill grade and indeed in this story he's unaware of his own inadequacies - which was one of his biggest character flaws so it's a pretty accurate representation of him.
This offers very much a 2024 perspective on the story. In twenty years time or so this will probably look as dated as those period dramas made in the 1970s but for now it really works. Some people have criticised the accents and the 'modern' manners of speech. Since the English spoken back then probably sounded more American than modern English does, that's a pointless criticism but there does seem to be a lot of gratuitous swearing.
What makes this different to the historical dramas were used to that profundity of swearing and quite a lot of sex. That might put a few people off but its bawdy script does capture a certain mood which was a characteristic of James' court. It is therefore a refreshingly accurate depiction of England at the start of the seventeenth century and good fun.
It's told totally through the life and experience of Mary Beaumont so don't expect a history of King James. So there's no commissioning of the Bible, nothing about how he skilfully avoided getting involved in the 30 years war or his penchant for killing witches. The James in this story is just the James who becomes enamoured with young men. Although not everything we see is based on fact, the basic history hasn't been altered too much which makes a nice change to a lot of what's made these days.
Similarly, seen through the eyes of Mary, George isn't the atrocious and incompetent member of the government responsible for countless disasters he was in reality. He was in truth promoted way above his skill grade and indeed in this story he's unaware of his own inadequacies - which was one of his biggest character flaws so it's a pretty accurate representation of him.
This offers very much a 2024 perspective on the story. In twenty years time or so this will probably look as dated as those period dramas made in the 1970s but for now it really works. Some people have criticised the accents and the 'modern' manners of speech. Since the English spoken back then probably sounded more American than modern English does, that's a pointless criticism but there does seem to be a lot of gratuitous swearing.
What makes this different to the historical dramas were used to that profundity of swearing and quite a lot of sex. That might put a few people off but its bawdy script does capture a certain mood which was a characteristic of James' court. It is therefore a refreshingly accurate depiction of England at the start of the seventeenth century and good fun.