The Devil's Whore

The English Civil War has often been over looked as a subject for drama, with most films being very inaccurate. The Civil War was a important watershed moment in English history, showing a king can be overthrown, strengthen Parliament, reformed the English army and in the end limits power the power of kings and a tyrant. The Devil's Whore is also a new step for Channel Four, because they don't normally make costume dramas (BBC normally makes them). Channel Four focus has often been documentaries, buying good American programmes, and make comedy series like Peep Show and the Inbetweeners.

The Devil's Whore has a similar approach to Rome, focusing on a fictional character who becomes involved in historical events and meets famous historical people.

The focus of the programme is on Angelica Fanshawe (Andrea Riseborough), an aristocratic woman from a Catholic background. She has rejected God and sees the Devil because her mother ran off to become a nun. The show starts off with Angelica being a member of the Queen's household just before the English Civil War. But as the Civil War starts and Angelica is forced out King Charles I's camp she allies her herself with political radicals like the Levellers. She also falls in love with soldier and political radical Edward Sexby (John Sims). Angelica also gets very close to honest John Lilburne (Tom Goodman-Hill), a popular political radical, and she acts as his champion to Charles I (Peter Capaldi) and Oliver Cromwell (Dominic West).

If you are excepting an action-packed war drama, you will be disappointed because they are few battle scenes. But there is some good sword fights which are more realistic then others in visual media. The strength of the show is the character drama, about Angelica and her struggles. The other main strength is the political background, from Charles I's struggles to Parliament, to Oliver Cromwell becoming no more then a military dictator. The history is actuate for the most part, for example, in English culture some people like to idealise Oliver Cromwell as a great liberator: in real life he took over through a military coup, oppressed dissenting voices and enforced his puritan views on the nation, as well being a butcher to Irish Catholics in Drogheda and Wexford.

They is a excellent cast, having talented actors like John Sim, Dominic West, Michael Fassbender and Peter Capaldi (who I was particularly impressed with). Anglea Riseborough is a strong newcomer, who is able to hold her own with all these talented people. She turns her character from a lost young woman to a powerful voice of dissent. John Sim, Dominic West, Tom Goodman-Hill and Maxine Peake are also very good in their roles. The production values were excellent, and with a budget of £7 Million, it was put to good use. The set designer and historical scenes were created really well, showing that towns, cities and even important building like Parliament were not very grant. They was an earthy feel to show. Marc Munden was a good director, able to combine all the elements together. He gets the best out of his actors and does some good scenes. He makes the violence realistic and characters like Sexby were heavily scared.

This show was not perfect, they were some problems. Some of the subplots did not lead anywhere, the surreal elements did not work for me, especially because of the realistic sitting, and there were historical inaccuracies, such as the omissions of characters like John Pym and Sir Thomas Fairfax. But the programme does show the complex political background with the different schools of thought during the mid-17th century.

It is worthy viewing.

Well, I had high hopes for this mini series from across the Atlantic, and some of those expectations were met, but, as I should have expected, others were dashed.

The production values are of high caliber. Costumes, sets and locations, particularly for a British mini series, are all exceptional. There's very little in the way of criticism when it comes to poking at the amount of money and care that went into the recreation of late renaissance Britain. Truly, a first rate production where all imagery is concerned.

So where does this small collection of films fall flat? This is going to sound sexist, but it truly isn't, it's a comment aimed at the continued market trend for television; the series was aimed specifically at a female audience with only the superficiality of placating to masculine interests. Every male in this series of films is portrayed as boorish on some level. From Royalists to Parliamentarians, and shades of gray in-between, few of these men have a spine.

Additionally, they're all sex starved. They either are biding their time for sexual favors, or are so wanton as to be willing to force themselves on he fairer sex. They seem to have little else on their minds. And when they are granted female accompaniment, they then squander their "victory" in some sort of stupidity.

That's not really a comment on what I think of society as I think of what TV producers think their audiences want to see. Again, as I've written in other reviews, the TV producer thinking is that since women buy things for the home, it is therefore that audience that the shows must cater to.

"The Devil's Whore" is no different. The concepts and ideals for which both sides of the English Civil War fought are hardly ever mentioned. It seems to be the assumption that said notions have no place within the female psyche, and therefore are not worth exposition. Female concerns are for family, friends and young ones.

So what does one do? The man who watches this can do little but shake his head, and maybe say "Huh, the 60's film with Richard Harris was a bit more entertaining..." Which, in my view, it was.

But the film with Harris had the benefit of being a high budget major theatrical film. It wasn't some one off made for TV mini series that had to compete with "Dancing with the Stars" or other sub-IQ fodder that masks for entertainment.

You may say, "Mister Blueghost, what were you expecting?" Look, I knew this was going to be a TV miniseries about a woman during the English Civil War, but I expected the Powers-that-Be in the UK to do their usual bucking of American market research, and make a film for both sexes and most ages. Something intelligent. Something with a little more purposeful action than the banal placation presented in this film's battle-sequences.

In short, it was a pleasure to see something not made by and for American house-wives and professional women, but it was equally disappointing to see something made for British house-wives and professional women.

*sigh*

Well, maybe I'll whip out my copy of Cromwell tonight, and grin as I see Richard Harris give a high energy performance in his Irish-thesping style of portraying a historic figure who didn't like the Irish a great deal.

Well, I think I've learned my lesson about splurging on a UK TV series of which I know nothing.

Watch at your risk.

THE DEVIL'S MISTRESS (The Devil's Wh*re) (2008) was a pretty interesting series, that immediately drew me in with promises to learn more of the mysteries of the English Civil War (1636 - 1660) though it didn't necessarily live up to the high expectations it set in that regard, it was however, studded with a cast of stars, who all played their parts marvelously, flaws or not and offered insights into the era's turbulence, as well as political, social, moral, religious and sexual politics of the day, if not beheld from a modern eye.

It follows Angelica Fanshawe (Andrea Riseborough), a young "modern-minded" woman who sees strange visions of the devil, as the country is about to be torn in half with the impending civil war. She is torn between her Aristocratic Catholic identity and between her rising beliefs in the Rebel Leveller cause, rising up against the dated Monarchal/Aristocratic systems.

The cast was exceptional. Andrea Riseborough, John Simm, Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Peter Capaldi, Tom Goodman-Hill, and Maxine Peake were all very memorable in their roles which made this series worth while. My favorite acted were John Simm (as the Edward Sexby), Peter Capaldi (as King Charles I), Michael Fassbender (as Thomas Rainsborough) and Andrea Riseborough (as Angelica Fanshawe).

Overall, it was an intriguing yet somewhat melodramatic show, with a few shining exceptions. The character of Angelica was of a love-hate for me, giving me very mixed emotions. Sometimes she felt strong and wise, and other times she seemed whiney and naive. Also, the series tried to imply she loved "men of ideas", but more often than not it seemed her "loves" were "lust at first sight" variety and not very deep at all. I was however, a fan of the tragic, scarred, grey colored, and somewhat cruel character of Edward Sexby (John Simm). He made for an interesting anti-hero, a man that you both fear and root for. His character is one you can deeply brood over, impossibly sad, hopeless and yet inspiring. You want him to find redemption and love, but he walks a tragic path indeed. The pair have an unspeakable chemistry and unique bond, making it impossibly difficult to look away when either / both are on screen. Highly effective technique.

The series was really moving and memorable, highlighting historical events and showcasing the darkers sides of human natures, but too often lowered itself into scenes of melodrama and gratuitous titilation, rather than focusing on the characters development and factual historical events, and the few historical events shown seemed lightly brushed over and not given the time desserved. Perhaps this was due to lower budget or time contraints or both? This series would have been so much greater if given more time and episodes. But still overall, a highly enjoyable series of two tragic figures living through a horrible war and torn country, with divided morals and questionable loyalties, that lingers on in the mind.

I have little knowledge of the historical period on which this is based but it gave a pretty good idea of the socio political situation. All the actors were excellent and Michael Fassbender as Thomas Rainsborough was exceptional.

Peter Flannery wrote one of the finest dramatic accounts of recent history, the epic television series 'Our Friends in the North', but sadly, his attempt to write about the English Civil War is a far inferior affair. To me, the essence of good historical drama is that it distances us from our own times, and allows us to see how others could have held positions that seem to us indefensible; but 'The Devil's Whore' invents a fictitious female heroine, beautiful and anachronistically feisty (and involved in a story line that could have been borrowed from 'Thelma and Lousie'!) who seems to exist for the sole purpose of allowing us to judge the past through a modern pair of eyes. The writer also clearly wanted a share of the market for posh-frock romances, and the possibility of a happy end, while also putting this unlikely figure on the "right" side of the conflict - hence, wholly implausibly, our heroine is rendered as an aristocratic Leveller. The drama's general sympathy for the Levellers (and associated proto-socialist movements) is also overdone, in that the characters with attractive politics are consistently shows to be morally superior, and more likable, than those without. Against, the contrast with 'Our Friends', whose general sympathies for the Labour cause did not reduce the story to a black and white tale, is clear. The only really interesting character in this story is the Charles I, knowledge of whose execution perhaps invokes a certain involuntary sympathy on the part of the viewer, and who is suavely played by Peter Capaldi. But overall, 'The Devils Whore' is part Hollywood narrative , part Jane Austen and a sprinkling of socialism: an odd combination, and a disappointment compared with Flannery's best.