The White Queen's final bow

And then we came to the end.  After ten weeks, five kings, three consorts, endless princes and a plethora of princesses, The White Queen took her final bow.  Well, sort of.  She was mysteriously absent for most of the programme but her story, the tale of her rise and fall and the epic legends that arose around it were all wrapped up as we finally made it to Bosworth and got our Tudor king.  The White Queen's dynasty has begun.

The White Queen gave her name to the show but not much else this week as she wandered round the garden while England fought for her husband's crown

 

But before she could start setting up a brand new royal house, we had to get everyone else out of the way.  First to go was Anne Neville.  She started the episode looking on while husband, Richard III, made eyes at his niece, Elizabeth of York. In the first twenty minutes she was humiliated by the couple and lost her only son.  It was all too much for her and she ended up in the wrong section of the wardrobe department, emerging in Victorian garb for her boy's funeral.  And she knew the end was nigh when she started coughing while holding a hankie.  Every character in every period drama who coughs while holding a hankie sooner or later finds blood in it and dies of TB within the hour.  And sure enough, while Richard helped Elizabeth find her way round court, Anne got red spots on her handkerchief.  She lingered long enough to find out she hadn't been responsible for the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower before dying. 

Anne Neville tackles Richard III on his rather close relationship with his niece

 

Standing by as she breathed her last was Elizabeth of York who managed to look vaguely upset even though she'd spent quite a lot of time by then chasing Anne's husband.  This intriguing episode of English history took up a lot of the final part of The White Queen, partly because the scandalous attraction of niece for uncle meant that whoever won at Bosworth, Elizabeth of York was likely to be queen consort afterwards.  Except no one really found the possible marriage of uncle Richard to niece Elizabeth that scandalous.  Margaret Beaufort looked shocked at first but then went about calculating how it might affect her plans to grab the throne of England for her son while The White Queen herself managed a minor grimace and that was about it.  Even though marriage laws weren't codified until 1560 in England, an uncle was still banned from marrying his brother's daughters - it was within the degrees of consanguinity that were barred by the church.  But despite that, no one really seemed to care.  They may have had other things to think about but Richard and Elizabeth's incestuous flirtation was treated more as a case of marital infidelity than the religious, ethical and political crisis it really was.

 

 

Richard of Gloucester offers niece Elizabeth of York a hand with her music lessons while everyone else pretends not to notice what's going on

Richard III came up with one of the best all time excuses for chasing another woman that any husband has ever offered a wife - he was trying to get all his nobles to send their soldiers to fight for him rather than Henry Tudor.  Anne didn't buy it and it didn't work anyway but it made for some great scenes between the doomed king and his dying wife.  The psychological trauma encountered by Richard in the last months of his reign was brought vividly to life by Aneurin Barnard who managed to steal the episode from usual stars of the show, Margaret Beaufort and Lord Stanley.  I have never felt sorry for Richard III until now.  But unlike previous weeks where the king had spent a lot of time preparing things, this week he just got on with the business of trying to keep his fragmenting kingdom together and his determination and isolation, as well as his relationship with his right hand man Brackenbury, were poignant in the extreme.

 

He didn't get to cry out for a horse in exchange for his kingdom but Aneurin Barnard gave a great interpretation of Richard III, doomed king of England

 

Quite how Richard managed to lose at Bosworth to Henry Tudor is one of the great questions of history and along with the relationship between the king and his niece, the final fight for the crown in the battle that ended the Wars of the Roses was the main theme of the final episode.  It all came down to Lord Stanley who famously waited on a nearby hillside to see which way the fight would go before throwing in his lot with Tudor and turning him into a king.  In this telling, Stanley really was the kingmaker as he grabbed the fallen crown of England and presented it to his stepson in the aftermath of the battle.  The wait on all side to find out which way this uber powerful man would go was brilliantly done and even though we all knew the ending already there was plenty of tension as Lord Stanely kept us guessing until the very end.

 

 

Look what I found in the gift shop....Lord Stanley keeps stepson Henry amused at Bosworth

 

It was lucky really that Henry had his stepdad fighting for him because he looked terrified for most of the episode.  Henry VII ruled England by conquest but it was hard to imagine this Tudor conquering the stairs on his way to bed, let alone a king and country.  He started off looking worried, moved on to extreme anxiety and by the time his mother inexplicably turned up to see him the night before the fight he was quaking in his boots.  Uncle Jasper was left to rally the troops while Henry wibbled and wobbled around the edges.  It's no wonder Elizabeth of York wasn't keen on marrying him, he took wimp to new levels. 

 

 

Henry didn't look to keen on conquest in The White Queen's last episode

 

But then with a mother like Margaret, who could blame the boy.  Amanda Hale was fabulous as ever.  OK, we still don't know how she got out of house arrest and galloped from Bletsoe to Bosworth in about half an hour to take on her husband and then see her son before the great battle but it didn't matter.  She's always great to watch and the scene between mad Maggie and Elizabeth of York promises great things if we do get a sequel based on the White Princess' story.  But it was her sparring with Stanley that was the real highlight, as always, and Rupert Graves' snarling nastiness towards his wife made for some great viewing.  Her revenge, at the end of the battle, was totally made up and totally marvelous.  You can stay kneeling, she snarled, and treat me like a queen.  Not even hard nut Stanley was going to argue with crazy King's mother Margaret at the moment of her greatest triumph.

 

 

 

Henry got to rule England for at least five minutes before his mother turned up to claim the power and influence she had fought for over two decades

 

The Red Queen was in charge which left just one question - where on earth was The White Queen?  She was back at Grafton in her parents' home and had found a very big hessian shawl to constantly wrap around herself.  She cropped up intermittently, always with shawl, but did and said very little.  At the end, her now 30 year old son Thomas Grey appeared to have inherited the condition endemic throughout the whole series of looking considerably younger than he was meant to be but he made up for that by bringing back his half brother, Richard of York, from exile.  Elizabeth had sent him into hiding to save him when Richard III wanted to put him in the Tower of London with brother, Edward V, and he came back as the series wound to an end with a very strange fur rucksack stuck to his back.  He promised vengeance but was told by his mother that revenge was futile - a strange remark from a woman who spent a lot of time casting spells and putting curses on her enemies - but a happy ending for now for one of the York princes.

 

   

Elizabeth had a new shawl for the final episode of The White Queen

 

And that was that.  Elizabeth began this series as a mother struggling to make ends meet and that was how she ended it.  She hadn't had the best lines, the best scenes or even the best frocks but she got he last word.  Just as her mother, Jacquetta, had told her to be brave as she got ready to wear the consort's crown, the final scene of The White Queen saw Elizabeth tell her own daughter to be strong and prepare to rule.  The story came full circle, even if it had been uneven on the way there.  Elizabeth's reign as queen of England and queen of Sunday night television was over and the baton was being passed on to another Elizabeth.  And The White Queen's final words were an order to her namesake daughter and a promise of a follow up series.  Go, she told her, and be queen of England...as she herself once had been.

 

 

Her reign is over - farewell to The White Queen







 





The White Queen - reviews so far

The White Queen review - Episode One

 

In which we meet a kingmaker and a king in love...but does he really make a queen or a fool of the girl who falls for him?

 

Episode one - fall in love with Edward and Elizabeth

*********

The White Queen review - Episode Two

 

A coronation, lots of babies and quite a lot of history in a very short period of time

 

Hardly a spoiler - you know she was queen

*****

The White Queen review - Episode Three

 

Things get very dramatic and very sad as friends fall out - be warned, this is a weepie....

The Kingmaker and his two daughters

*****

The White Queen review - Episode Four

 

Make room for one more queen and this one's very bad indeed....

 

The kingdom isn't big enough for all these queens - another consort makes an appearance in The White Queen

*****

The White Queen review - Episode Five

 

The Red Queen comes into her own and it's worth watching the series for this episode alone

 

Mad, bad and definitely dangerous to know - Margaret Beaufort is magnificent in The White Queen

*****

The White Queen review - Episode Six

 

More plotting from the queens in their various corners and a hidden love story that will win an unlikely girl a crown in the end

 

And then they fell in love - or did they?  Richard III and The Kingmaker's Daughter

*****

The White Queen review - Episode Seven

 

Another heartbreaker, for other reasons...this is drama from start to finish....

Edward's brother, George, isn't the biggest fan of his sister-in-law, The White Queen

*****

 

The White Queen review - Episode Eight

 

The women really are in charge by the end of this one

 

The three women running England in The White Queen

 

The White Queen Review - Episode Nine

 

One of English history's greatest mysteries is explored...and an illicit romance is hinted at...

 

 

Another queen for England - Anne Neville is just one of the suspects in the frame for the murder of the princes in the Tower

 

The White Queen Review - Episode Ten

 

This is where the story ends....a final battle for the throne of England and a queen trying to persuade a princess to swap her coronet for a crown...

 

 

Back where she began in Grafton, Elizabeth watches and waits to see who will wear the crown that once belonged to her husband and her son



The White Queen is about to conquer America

Three women, one crown, endless ambition.  That's just the start for the story of The White Queen and her great rivals which is about to get its first airing on American TV when the series begins on Starz on August 10th.  Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville will recommence their epic battle for the throne of England in a story that never fails to fascinate.

 

The battle begins again for the White Queen (Rebecca Ferguson, The Red Queen (Amanda Hale) and The Kingmaker's Daughter (Faye Marsay) as Philippa Gregory's version of their stories hits America

 

Who will prove most popular with American audiences?  The beautiful widow who wins a king beneath a tree?  A plain widow abandoned by her family who is trying to make her way and her son's fortune in a world against her?  Or the young girl who will be widowed before she's an adult in the schemes of her father? 

 

The White Queen and her handsome king get top billing - to start with

 

There are enough thrills and mysteries to keep the most ardent history fan going and if there are a few holes here and there, overall it's a great ride that keeps on entertaining.  But then if you're bringing one of the most dramatic parts of British history to life then it's hard not to win - sometimes the truth really is stranger than any fiction.

 

The reviews have all been brought together in the post linked below....be warned, we're up to episode eight in the UK, so there are spoilers!

 

The White Queen reviews

 

 



 

 

Confused by The White Queen

I've watched episode seven of The White Queen twice now and I still don't get it.  Not the history.  That was well done and managed to pare the details down to make them understandable without losing too much of what really happened.  The bit I don't get is why we are expected to believe anything about Elizabeth Woodville in this interpretation of her story.  The Philippa Gregory novels on which this TV spectacular are based are far more mysterious and interesting when it comes to bringing this queen consort to life.  In this series, the first commoner to wear the crown of England is nothing more than a beautiful bystander to the Wars of the Roses rather than one of its causes.  And that leaves massive holes in the story that can't be filled by longing looks alone.

 

The White Queen - yes, she was lovely to look at but as well as beauty beyond compare her ambition was pretty unmatchable as well

 

This week we reached the soap opera part of Edward IV's reign with more family intrigue than a Christmas episode in Weatherfield and Walford combined.  The king was secure enough from the threat of Lancaster but found plenty of things to worry about closer to home.  Not least the rather false looking stomach that he'd been provided with to show he was getting older and unhealthier.  Edward IV was handsome, dashing and gorgeous.  But the years of excess he indulged in after finally defeating Lancaster in 1471 quickly took their toll.  Max Irons had the body of an am dram Henry VIII but the face of, well, Max Irons.  Still young and beautiful, it's hard to believe he's aged a day let alone a decade since the story started.

 

 

Being king is a walk in the park for this Edward IV - not so much as a grey hair or little wrinkle

 

While he caroused with mistress, Jane Shore, Elizabeth delivered another son who was apparently saved by Margaret Beaufort.  The bond between the two women seemingly strengthened and within minutes Maggie was off spying for the queen at court, listening in magnificent style to every conversation being whispered in corners.

 

 

Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale) found a new role this week - curtain twitcher

 

The Neville sisters fluttered around the edges, giving voice to the fears that Elizabeth was ruling the king and thus his kingdom through both fair means and foul.  But while we've lived every moment of the White Queen giving birth, Anne and Isabel dropped three sprogs between them without batting an eyelid.  Suddenly, baby Margaret was being bounced around by Isabel and husband George while Anne was telling Richard that their son, Edward, was still small but would grow.  The arrival of heirs to the brothers of Edward IV was one of the reasons the bond between them began to fragment as each could offer a son to take the crown in the future.  And yet, Edward of Middleham and Edward, last of the Plantagent men, were confined to bit parts in this telling of the saga.

 

 

Isabel and Anne Neville with mum in happier times

 

But the real star of this week's show was George, Duke of Clarence.  Having not spoken for at least four episodes suddenly David Oakes came into his own.  George's treachery and the decision of the king to execute his brother is one of the most spine tingling, sensational and strange chapters of English history.  Hats off to the script writers for making it understandable in one hour long episode but it's a shame that we haven't seen more of the double dealing all the way through.  We had him siding with Warwick in the 1470 battle of the red and white but that was all very short and neat and with little inkling of the anger and fraying of fraternal relations that this entailed. 

 

 

George, Duke of Clarence let brotherly rivalry get the better of him in this week's episode

 

George made it clear he wanted a crown for real and nothing was going to stop him. First he tried to be regent of France then when Edward decided not to wage war, he cosied up to King Louis in a strange scene involving lots of floating material and not much dialogue.  France gone, only England remained and George crashed through several crazy attempts to change the head wearing the crown.  He accused the queen of being a witch then hired a sorcerer to bring about the death of the king.  Meanwhile, he'd convinced his pregnant wife they were in danger of being poisoned by Elizabeth.  Off they went to Warwick Castle where she promptly died leaving him to accuse the queen of killing her.  And when Edward refused him a foreign royal bride off he went to Louis again - fortunately this time we were spared the floaty curtains and menacing looks.  

 

  

Isabel Neville's death led to George putting about more rumours about the queen

 

He finally lost his marbles, and any hope of making it through to episode eight, when he gatecrashed Edward's celebrations to mark 15 years as king.  The effect of a masked ball with no one sure who hid behind the rather scary animal heads being donned all round added real drama to the episode as did the silence of the trial scenes and the begging by Duchess Cecily that one of her sons would spare the life of another.  Caroline Goodall's magnificent begging was all in vain and the drowning of the duke was played out in gruesome colour, ending the reign of the three sons of York.

 

 

 

Drowned in a butt of malmsey wine - Edward IV allowed his brother one tiny piece of clemency and that was to choose the method of execution

 

It was a shame that time meant we couldn't get into some of the more intriguing subplots  In the run up to his last act of treachery, George became convinced Isabel had been murdered and held a show trial of a woman he accused of poisoning her.  That was lost, as was Anthony Woodville who is meant to be Elizabeth's closest relative and confidante as well as adviser to the king.  This week he went on pilgrimage, just like that, and returned at the end for a chat in the garden.  His integral role in the hatred directed towards the Woodvilles when they were at the height of their power hasn't even been mentioned.  Instead he makes just like his screen sister and wanders around looking blonde and beautiful but with little substance.

 

 

Anthony and Elizabeth Woodville - making pale very uninteresting

 

And all the time, in the background, are Margaret Beaufort and husband number three, Lord Stanley.  They lurk in the shadows, whisper in the silences and hold gallons of venom and determination hidden behind poker faces.  Amanda Hale and Rupert Graves are magnificent as the ultimate power couple on the make.  They shifted sullenly through the intrigue and drama this week, shaping events to their own ends without anyone noticing.  And their exchange at the beginning of the episode when husband begged wife to play her part properly was a married couple brought to life to perfection. 

 

 

Lord and Lady Stanley may be about to emerge from the shadows as The White Queen heads towards its conclusion

 

Not wanting to spoil the ending, but thank goodness they'll be around to the end of the series.  Unlike Edward - I fear Max Irons may be bowing out next week as the story gallops to its conclusion.  His one consolation is that his character will be the only forty year old with wrecked health who still looks nineteen.

 

 

 

Maybe he moisturizes.  Max Irons as Edward IV, still impossibly young and handsome after two decades of war and retribution not to mention the wine, women and song.

 

 

The White Queen is on BBC One on Sundays at 9pm.  All photos from the BBC.



The White Queen takes a back seat

The year 1471 was a crucial one in Britain's history.  It didn't mark the end of the Wars of the Roses but it did mark the beginning of the end.  Edward IV's fight against his old friend, Warwick, led to a York strangehold on the English crown that would last for over a decade.  The fact that the king of the White Rose probably strangled his Red Rose rival to death made a big difference in the prospects for peace.  The battles of that year cost thousands of lives and it's said that not a family in the land remained unaffected by the fight for the crown.  In many ways it marked the death throes of the old order and the messy birth of a new way of life for the whole country.

 

The Earl of Warwick (James Frain) prepares for battle at Barnet - he met a bloody end alongside many of his men

The blood and brutality of that seismic year were the backdrop for last night's edition of The White Queen on BBC One.  And the show conveyed the violence and death rate pretty well.  The shots of England's fields running with blood gave some indication of the brutality of the battles and the aftermath of the Battle of Barnet, seen through the eyes of would be queen Margaret Beaufort, was pretty shocking.  Even hard as nails and bonkers with it Beaufort was horrified to see men being swept up like last night's rubbish as the victors claimed their spoils and tidied up the mess they'd made.

 Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale) didn't have a great time in this week's The White Queen - Lancaster lost, her husband died and her son went into exile

 

And Margaret gave another star turn.  Swinging violently between calm and calamitous, she clung desperately to every glimmer of hope that Lancaster would triumph.  Her snarling quietness when she discovered her husband was to fight for York was magnificent and her decision to rescue Lord Stafford and bring him home to die after Barnet was truly touching.  The pairing of Amanda Hale and Michael Maloney as the Staffords has been one of the highlights of the whole show and his death was played as perfectly as their tumultuous marriage.

Henry Stafford (Michael Maloney) took his final bow last night with Margaret Beaufort still asking for the moon as he lay dying

 

The frightening pace of events of 1471 was also well conveyed - straight from the blood of Barnet to the terrifying torment of Tewkesbury.  Strangely, Margaret of Anjou went from being a warrior maiden of epic proportions to mithering mother in law asking Anne Neville for advice on fighting wars.  Veerle Baetens snarled and spat her way through her role as The Bad Queen magnificently but the decision to make her great war strategy dependent on the random thoughts of a girl who had already admitted to not thinking a great deal about power was a strange twist.  And while we needed to gallop from one battle to the next to convey how rapid the events of that year were, it was unfortunate that the scary tension shown in the fight at Barnet was swapped for more action out of sight at Tewkesbury.  We heard a bit of cannon fire and saw a nice young boy shot with an arrow and then the victorious Yorkists came in for the spoils which rather spoiled the tension full stop.

 

 Margaret of Anjou (Veerle Baetens) decided her untested daughter in law, Anne, would be the best battle adviser as she fought for her kingdom and her life

 

I hope that next week we get the little exchange between the defeated Margaret and the victorious Jacquetta.  It was one of the highlights of the books for me and I'd love to see these two actresses bring that little vignette to life.  Sadly, Jacquetta was rather incidental this week.  She popped in and out of Elizabeth's sanctuary in Westminster Abbey as though she was just out for a loaf of bread and a pint of milk and the two of them whistled up a nice mist to help Edward out at Barnet but other than that Jacquetta was confined to a few words of wisdom at the end when the Yorks returned to court victorious and she put some nice sparkles in her side buns to mark the occasion.

Mother and daughter took a bit of a back seat this week

Much more promising was the development of the relationship between the three York brothers that was so instrumental in shaping England's destiny.  George finally spoke more than three words at a time and Richard is turning into a lovely, slippery and impossible to read villain in waiting.  The implosion of their relationship and the influence on that battle of queen consort Elizabeth Woodville is one of the great chapters of British history and I hope we get the full works in The White Queen.

 

Elizabeth lurking in the background of her husband's council - a fair reflection of the fair queen's role in Edward's political life

 

 

We got some strong hints of a growing bond between Richard and The Kingmaker's Daughter, Anne, as well as indications that her sister, Isabel, is turning from a weeping mouse into a powerhouse would be Queen of England allowing the Neville girls to take the central role they played in the affairs that followed this most dramatic of years.  Lancaster is down but not out in The White Queen - that goodbye at Tenby at the end of the episode could be just the beginning of another mighty battle.

 

 

 

Jasper Tudor prepares to take his nephew, Henry, into exile

 

 

The White Queen is on BBC One on Sunday evenings at 9pm.  All photos from the BBC.



A dark enemy for The White Queen

At last a shadow that's been hanging over The White Queen since it began disappeared, turning into a real live person before our very eyes.  Just when we thought 15th century England had no more room for any queens, along came the much talked of but so far unseen Bad Queen - known to history as Margaret of Anjou but to everyone else in the show, until now, as the ultimate Wicked Witch of the West and creator of all the country's woes.

 

Margaret of Anjou (Veerle Baetens) swept onto our screens last night in red velvet and a very strange pair of pumps

 

She appeared to make a truce with Warwick who was lurking in a rather nice Belgian townhouse plotting away while his Countess and daughters wrang the sea water out of their clothes after the dramatic and traumatic voyage that ended last week's episode and saw the family driven into exile when daddy Kingmaker's plot to put George of Clarence on the throne failed, quite possibly because George had barely spoken a word in the whole series. 

George, Duke of Clarence, brother of King Edward IV, would be traitor (played by David Oakes)

Warwick had decided his only chance of getting his hands on power again in England was by backing another decidedly quiet character, the deposed Lancastrian king Henry VI, who has said very little so far and most of that in Latin.  And if you want Henry on the throne, you have to do business with his missus, the now legendary Bad Queen.  And business they did, him on his knees offering allegiance, troops and the youngest of his daughters as a wife for Margaret's son Edward and she, imperious in red velvet, offering little in return until Henry was definitely king again.

Margaret of Anjou and her son, Edward of Lancaster, just before his wedding to Anne Neville, daughter of the Earl of Warwick

Meanwhile another Margaret, currently Lady Stafford but known to history by her maiden name of Beaufort, was plotting away loudly and dangerously.  She's been convinced for years that her son, Henry Tudor, will be king while nearly everyone else has been convinced she's almost as mad as poor old King Henry.  But now they're all coming round to her way of thinking, even little Henry.  The relationships between him and his mother and between Margaret and her second husband, Stafford, are amongst the most believable and touching in the whole series.

 

Henry Tudor became a mummy's boy in this episode of The White Queen - but what will Uncle Jasper, looking on, think of the development?

Certainly more touching than the increasingly tedious love story between The White Queen of the title and Edward IV.  He was conspicuous by his absence this week, as he was in England in 1470 when he fled his country, queen and crown as Warwick closed in.  We saw him in two fleeting scenes with Elizabeth including the by now compulsory passionate embrace and promises to return that they seem to get round to every week.  It's not that the romance isn't important in their tale, it's just that there is so much more to this Queen Consort and her king than sloppy kisses and longing looks.  They were a real power couple, Edward choosing a wife who could help him consolidate his power against the overmighty Warwick and Elizabeth choosing a husband who could help her own ambitions and those of her family.

Edward IV and Elizabeth did a bit more than gaze at each other longingly in their almost twenty years of marriage

It is unfortunate that the two episodes featuring hardly anything of The White Queen of the title have been the best of the series.  Yet again, the Neville girls stole every scene they were in.  Isabel is turning into a truly fascinating psychological study of all it was to be a high born woman in medieval times, weeping in private and smiling in public as she's pushed from pillar to post and York to Lancaster by her scheming father and husband.  And Anne is perhaps the most interesting of them all.  Played to perfection by Faye Marsay, this Anne is girlishly ambitious and romantically optimistic even in the face of manipulation and marriage to the superbly brutish Edward of Lancaster.

 

Isabel and Anne Neville had to do just what Dad told them - it brought both of them close to the throne of England but only one went on to wear the consort's crown

The history is being explained very well and although we've still had no actual battle action there's a great sense of the way England's fields were soaked in blood in a war that cost a huge amount of lives and affected nearly every family in the land.

But I did begin to wonder last night whether the story might have been even more powerful told from the angle of Jacquetta of Luxembourg.  We were given several hints last night of how every single person in the tale is linked to her - and the most clunkingly disappointing moment came when Margaret of Anjou told her soon to be daughter in law, Anne, of her close relationship with The White Queen's mother.  It was all a bit explanatory whereas seeing things through Jacquetta's eyes would have allowed that to develop more naturally.  Similarly, when the Queen's mother was on trial for her life her mention of her bond with Margaret was shoe horned in rather clumsily.  As Jacquetta delivered her grandson, a prince and future king called Edward, it wasn't lost on anyone that she'd done the same almost twenty years earlier when she helped her friend, the Bad Queen, as she gave birth to another Edward who was at that point destined to be King of England.  Janet McTeer is fabulous in her role and a bit more of her all the way through could fill in some of the gaps that are inevitable in trying to spin such a complex yarn in so short a time.

Elizabeth Woodville and her mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg

 

 

We had plenty of thrills at the end as Elizabeth fled with her baby daughters into sanctuary in Westminster Abbey and some quite terrifying scenes as Edward of Lancaster consummated his marriage to Anne Neville.  The poignancy of mad old King Henry VI meeting little Henry Tudor was beautifully done and it's all setting the scene for next week when we get to the crux year of 1471, the year of two kings and two queens.  And a lot of pretenders to the throne.

The White Queen is on BBC One on Sundays at 9pm.  All pictures from the BBC.

At last, The White Queen gets a bit dirty....

BBC One's epic historical drama, The White Queen, is reaching the crux of the story and is finally getting really good.  Never mind the romance of episode one or the crash lesson in medieval history that followed, part three gave us a proper old fashioned soap opera telling of an old, old story.

We're now at 1469 and the start of a turbulent two years that would see two Queen Consorts of England - a fact referenced by Izzy Neville who worried she might be put in danger as a potential third.  She and her sister, Anne, were at the heart of the action this week as their father started playing all kinds of tricks on Edward IV in another bid to take total control of the country.  Warwick spent much of the episode setting up a fake attack on the king to try and capture or kill him, spurred on in the knowledge that Isabel was expecting a baby that would provide an heir for Edward's brother, George.

Isabel Neville (Eleanor Tomlinson) came tantalizingly close to being Queen of England

 

 

As the action shifted to the epic battle in the middle of Edward's reign between York and Lancaster we also saw much more of Margaret Beaufort.  So far a staid presence, doing good and lecturing others to do the same, this week Margaret got manipulative and a bit minxy to boot.  Seeing the possibility of an empty throne, she plotted against both kings and even gave up her nunnish ways to seduce her long suffering husband, Lord Stafford, in an attempt to raise an army to grab the crown for her son, Henry Tudor.  Margaret is a bit of a star turn in the show - increasingly mad, fairly bad and definitely dangerous to know, especially for her younger brother who turned up half way through looking scared and was dead less than ten minutes later, perhaps justifying the look of terror he wore throughout proceedings.

 

 

Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale) takes being a pushy mother to new heights

 



All this meant that Elizabeth, the White Queen of the title, took a bit of a back seat this week and the programme was no worse for it.  On her few appearances she developed a bit more bite which also helped a great deal.  The big issue I've had at the start of this telling is that Elizabeth is too white - there's nothing of the scheming, ambitious woman that must have lurked within her to get to where she rose to.  She was beautiful, we know that, and Edward was obsessed with her.  All this is true.  But the portrayal so far of a woman who just happened to fall in love with the King of England and suffered as a result takes away so much of what makes her one of the most fascinating queens there is.

 

We saw her become increasingly angry and bitter about the deaths of her father and brother at the hands of Warwick and there was some lovely low key hissing at Warwick's wife.  She was still all sweetness and light despite the utter rudeness of Warwick at the Christmas celebrations but then went off to stir up a storm that resulted in the end of his plans to take the throne from Edward and also ended with the loss of Isabel Neville's baby.

 

 

Elizabeth Woodville (Rebecca Ferguson) finally started to show her teeth in The White Queen

 

 

Which means the race is still on for a York heir.  And all the time, in the background, Anne Neville watched and waited, wondering what her part would be.  A rather clunking exposition of gender roles in the 15th century aside (James Frain as the Earl of Warwick explaining to Anne that she must play her part and just get on with things) the development of Anne's character is fascinating and the scene in which Elizabeth humiliated her as she set about getting frisky with the king in front of her was great.  A proper power struggle with Elizabeth picking on the wrong Warwick for revenge.  The trauma of watching her sister lose her baby was also well played out.  Anne is a fascinating and in may ways tragic Queen of England and it will be interesting to see how her story is told in future weeks.

 

 

Anne Neville (Faye Marsay), often put upon but showing nerves of steel

 

 

Onward to the big battle then.  We hit 1470 next week which means sanctuary in Westminster Abbey, babies galore and a right royal battle for the throne.  And hopefully a bit more of a relationship between the York boys.  I know this is the War of the Roses told through the eyes of the women but at the heart of the White Rose was an unbreakable bond between Edward IV, George and the future Richard III.  Brothers who fought for a crown and would do anything for one another, they barely seem to have met in this interpretation.  And given some of the drama still to come, that could prove a tricky one to catch up on in one episode.  Here's hoping....

 

 

 

Richard, Edward and George on one of their rare appearances together

 

 



 



The White Queen is on BBC One, Sundays, 9pm (all photos from the BBC)