norah carlin

Utter and shameful rubbish. There are too many anti-historical inventions to even begin to count. Leaving aside the characters and invented events, 16th-century Scotland appears as a desolate landscape without towns or even roads, and Holyrood Palace (a grand Renaissance residence at the foot of Arthur's seat) is shown as a half-ruinous castle on a crag. James, who was born three or four months before Mary left Scotland, seems to have grown to the size of a 5-year-old. And so on, and on. It seems that the makers thought history has to look like Game of Thrones or it isn't historical enough. The Favourite shows what an alternative, intelligent and entertaining historical film could look like. This has none of these qualities.

Fantastic! Witty, naughty, plays fast and loose with history and is crowned by Olivia Colman's sublime performamce as the queen.