alanhurst

Hate to take issue with all the eulogies here, elevating this film to greatness and praising Helen Mirren to the heavens, but we found this terminally tedious viewing. Admittedly, we watched it mainly for entertainment rather than to be wowed by Ms Mirren's stratospheric (apparently) acting skills, but we found the story sometimes desperately slow, the acting hysterically over the top in places, the historical accuracy more than slightly questionable, and the director's resort to unnecessarily gory execution scenes almost laughable.

Not a patch on Glenda Jackson's portrayal of Elizabeth I in terms of either acting skill or storytelling, and Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth R at least gripped the viewer as a pacey, involving and well-acted story, so much so that one forgave it it's historical inaccuracies.

So if you are someone who goes weak at the knees at idiosyncratic, over-the-top performances by big-name stars like Helen Mirren, by all means watch, enjoy, and write your lavish review.

But if you simply want to see a good story well told, well paced and competently acted, don't waste your time with this. Somehow it just seemed a bit 'emperor's new clothes' to us.

Many more episodes like this and we will revert to something more interesting. Like watching paint drying. Absolutely dreadful, drawn-out episode with two major figures acting out of character and the story slowing down to a snail's pace for the sake of what we presume was meant to be suspense - starting playing games on my iPad at one point while we waited for something to happen. Have enjoyed this series so far and do hope that the script writers aren't starting to run out of ideas, but we'll see......