The White Queen like so many, many drama's with an historical bent is good entertainment but little else.
As someone with a background in history I often smile at this kind of drama which, in my opinion, has more in common with Cinderella than historical fact.
The bones of history are present but the overlay is pure 21st century. The nobles and the locals are all well scrubbed, healthy types, who live in spick and span, charming rustic dwellings and walk down more or less immaculate streets.
The reality was not so romantic. Disease was rife not helped by human waste and garbage dumped in streets, rats were endemic and houses were unsafe, dirty places with layers of rotten straw on floors and dodgy fireplaces that often burnt the dwellings down. Not surprisingly the people of this world riven with diseases and nutritional issues that extended to the largely carnivorous, nobility.Suffice to say it was a stinky, less than glamorous world.
Casting these considerations aside, The White Queen, whilst occasionally high brow and a bit corny, is mostly quite watchable. It does in its own chocolate box way follow the historical script and its well acted with a good cast.
An enjoyable romp. Seven out of ten from me.
