Linda Nussbaum-Richman

Costumes were wonderful. My favourite scene was the duck racing - that was inspired! It could have been a great comedy, but it wasn’t. I felt the "re-imagining" of Queen Anne’s life was spiteful, nasty & unempathetic - the poor woman had 17 pregnancies - many ended in miscarriage, premature birth, still birth, death shortly after birth, death in infancy - one son lived until age 11. why would someone want to portray such a tragic life in the way this movie did? She wasn’t thick either & took a very lively part in government & politics. There are well documented facts attesting to her life - her love for her husband too.. So, I’m feeling something misogynistic about this movie. The dance sequence was a stupid parody of the dance sequence in Knight’s tale… I was reminded of some "Carry On" moments too .. (brothel scene). I was left feeling that the writers weren’t sure what story they were writing.. consequently, for me, it was weak, muddled but contained some moments of genius. Very much, a missed opportunity - and selecting a very sad and tragic woman as the object of such misrepresentation was ignorant and misogynistic imo.

The acting was great, David Tennant was really scary.. The first episode was fab, I was very drawn in, but after the first episode, there was no more story.. what a shame, hugely missed opportunity.. There was no proper ending for me. So, this sort of artsy drama is not for me. I did think the writer & portrayal of characters very much out of touch with reality - how many primary school teaching assistants married to a police officer and having IVF can actually afford to live in a Cotswold village in a beautiful period Cottage ?? If that had been explained somehow, it would have helped… so the whole social scene portrayed was very unrealistic.. I did notice, the male characters were very odd - the weepy policeman was very very strange. Police people are amongst the most resilient & capable I know… The character Kate, in the real world, would not have been so wet. The series promised so much, but was for me, weird & "non". A bit of a let down.