The White Queen

If you are of the disposition to enjoy extravagant production values, a handsome cast and plots compromised of devious political maneuvering, then it will be easy to appreciate BBC One's epic saga The White Queen for the rollicking good drama that it is. If, however, you are a narc for period accuracy, it's probably best to stick to the history channel.

Adapted from the best selling novel series The Cousins' War by Philippa Gregory, the show is set during the War Of The Roses, a conflict between the House of York and The House of Lancaster for the throne of England.

The subtext of the series revolves around the plight of medieval women, a fate fraught with perils equal to anything that their male counterparts faced on the battlefield. It's an oppressive, violent and often soul destroying existence from which not even the nobles from which the series draws it's focus are spared. In this way the The White Queen surprisingly possesses quite an insular focus despite the scope of the events that play out around the main characters. Interpersonal dynamics and the quest for personal power are the main factors that propel the narrative.

The pilot episode has actually been the weakest thus far, mainly serving the purpose of character introductions and setting the foundation of the central romance between Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV. This is not say that it is without merit, as the episode acts as an intriguing appetizer of promised delights to come. Initial patience is soon rewarded as the subsequent installments have upped the anti ten fold. Admittedly creative license has been taken in regards to a number of events, but there is no denying that The White Queen is thrilling melodrama nevertheless.

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I'm a huge fan, there's my position at the start. I love quality historic TV productions, and as such am a big fan of The Borgias and its European cousin Borgia, of Rome, of I Claudius, and I tried very hard to like The Tudors.

I'm not sure how a viewer with no historic background knowledge of the Wars of The Roses (as we know them) and the dynastic struggle that eventually resulted in The Windsors, but I find the tale, which includes some of the present Queen's ancestors, completely gripping.

Unfortunately I know what's about to happen during most scenes (apart from the silly stuff with Elizabeth and Lady Rivers, which does not detract from the story), so my advice is not to visit Wikipedia if you don't want your fun spoiled. Enjoy this tragic and dramatic story of one of England's earlier civil wars.

Ostensively, this is based on three books written by Philippa Gregory; The White Queen, The Red Queen, and The Kingmaker's Daughter.

First, the White Queen/Queen Elizabeth (Rebecca Ferguson) who marries Edward IV (Max Irons) after his overthrow of the old ineffective King Henry VI and the cruel Bad Queen/Margaret of Anjou. Elizabeth had lost her husband defending the old King. Edward won the crown with his brothers Richard (Aneurin Barnard) and George (David Oakes) and cousin Warwick (James Frain). Neither the mother of the three brothers nor Warwick like the new queen claiming she practices witchcraft which she does.

The second is the Red Queen/Lady Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale) who is the mother of Henry Tudor. She burns with the conviction that her son will one day be King. She chaffs at all the slights imparted on her son and stays close to court waiting for an opportunity.

The third is Anne Neville (Faye Marsay), the daughter of Warwick and eventual wife to Richard. Her mistrust of Queen Elizabeth would ignite a whole series of internal family struggle after the death King Edward.

This is kind of like a prequel to The Tudors. If you like scheming and backstabbing, this has loads of that. This series likes to go with more the point of view of the women of court. It doesn't have any big battles or big set pieces. That's perfectly fine. There is still plenty of drama to be had. Rebecca Ferguson is quite good at the center stage. It is James Frain who steals much of the scenes. His presence is overwhelming and rises above everybody. He also has a great part. In fact, there are a lot of great performances from everybody. It helps that the Royal soap opera is so rich.

One night early there was a preview showing of this new series from the Brits. It looks promising if a bit unorthodox in its approach to history and slips in the settings and costumes. The series is based on Philippa Gregory's novel, 'The Cousins' War' and roughly the story line promises to follow these lines: Set against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, the series is the story of the women caught up in the long-drawn-out conflict for the throne of England. It starts in 1464--the nation has been at war for nine years fighting over who is the rightful King of England, as two sides of the same family, the House of York and the House of Lancaster, are in violent conflict over the throne. The story focuses on three women in their quest for power, as they manipulate behind the scenes of history--Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville.

In the first episode we don't see much more than King Edward's bedding and wedding of Elizabeth, a lot of bickering, some fighting, and some castle intrigue. Rebecca Ferguson plays Queen Elizabeth, Amanda Hale plays Lady Margaret Beaufort, Faye Marsay is Anne Neville, and the remarkable actors are Janet McTeer as Jacquetta Woodville (Elizabeth's magical mum) and Max Irons (handsome son of Jeremy Irons) as King Edward. James Frain is an unusually grumpy and sour Lord Warwick and Caroline Goodall is splendid as the evil Duchess Cicely. It is difficult to tell from an isolated episode, but the series has enough interest in the poorly understood realm of the War of the Roses for American audience that it will probably have staying power. Stay tuned...

Grady Harp

The very first episode was rather underwhelming however it was still interesting enough for me to continue to watch. By the third episode I was hooked and the series has continued to deliver very strongly.

I've just watched the seventh episode and in this my main gripe, which had been the performance of King Edward by Max Irons seems to be so much more convincing than that of the early episodes. Oddly enough Max Irons does the fatter older and extremely morally compromised Edward better than the younger version. Or maybe in the earlier episodes the fault was mine, I simply was not accepting Max Irons in the role of Edward.

The performance I have been enjoying the most is that of Amanda Hale as Lady Margaret Beaufort. There is so much to Margaret Beaufort, that she is a religious fanatic who is continuously scheming and plotting and obsessed with putting her son on the throne. Amanda portrays it all excellently and with Margaret I found myself strangely sympathetic to her cause, even though I realised that if I had encountered her in real life I would have loathed her.

One reviewer has complained that the characters are telling each other things that they know about themselves, but this is an important device in a drama such as this to simply remind the audience just who is who and how they all relate to each other.

I think the script often has many excellent moments, such as at the end of the seventh episode when Henry Stafford, played by Michael Maloney says to Margaret Beaufort "you realise that for your son to become king he has to walk past five coffins". In that scene we know that Margaret understands this and it is communicated that she is capable of doing all that is necessary to get her son on the throne.

Some people complain about historical inaccuracies. There are concrete steps in some scenes, and there are handrails etc. However I think the truth is that the cost of covering all these things up would have been huge. I don't think it is possible for a television series to be totally accurate. Some have complained that the whites in the costumes are too white. However lighting and cameras will often produce a "whiter than white" impression with white clothing. Maybe this should have been countered in some way, however once again, I think that in a television series that is too much to expect.

This series is extremely compelling. The hugely difficult situation for each character is portrayed extremely well. I really feel for the people unfortunate enough to be caught up in this deeply unpleasant world. Even if you know roughly what happens, it remains really rather exciting.

The underlying theme, that the women in the Wars of the Roses were just as significant as the men, is an important point, and by focusing on them it does make for excellent drama as their lives are so interesting.