Elizabeth R with Glenda Jackson

[Pemba]

Has anyone been watching this series from 1971, currently being repeated on BBC Four? It was very well thought of at the time, and Glenda Jackson is a good actress, so I went to watch all prepared to admire it. However I am finding it very forced and stagey. The characters don't seem real, the dialogue is unnatural and most of the scenes take place indoors in cheap looking sets, a la 'I, Claudius'.

Is this all inevitable, typical of a TV show of it's time? But to bring up 'I, Claudius' again, that was also made in the 1970s, mostly indoors with shakey sets (BBC budgets must have been really low!), but seemed much fresher and more engaging.

Last year I rewatched 'Elizabeth I' on All4, with Helen Mirren, made in 2005 and I much preferred that. The characters seemed more real, and of course visually it was far superior.

Not sure of the historical accuracy of 'Elizabeth R' either. It is shown that the people very much supported Elizabeth rather than Mary Tudor. But I thought popular sympathy was all with Mary due to the way she and her mother had been mistreated by Henry VIII. Catherine of Aragon was beloved, but Anne Boleyn was thought of as a 'whore', I thought. This is why the placing of Lady Jane Grey on the throne didn't succeed. I can see people may have gone off Mary when she started burning people though!

Also, Mary Tudor is shown saying 'Thank God' when she hears her brother Edward is dead and she's now queen. But I was reading historical websites recently which emphasized how fond she was of Edward, he was basically her baby brother and she acted in a maternal fashion towards him?

Also why was Philip of Spain shown with an English accent?!

Can anyone shed any light?

Historically accurate. Historical biography rather than historical novel. It's the only version that really is historically accurate. It is theatrical. Some people enjoy theatre and some don't. Great acting. No coincidence it was full of Shakespearean actors. It was his era. Bear in mind that when it was produced the vast majority of people would be watching on black and white televisions with tiny screens. Not great for scenic grandeur. Colour broadcasting only started in 1967 and wasn't even transmitted to the whole country. You needed to get a new TV set and a colour licence which cost twice a black and white licence. TVs were horribly expensive. A colour TV cost the modern day equivalent of about £5,000'. for one with a big screen - 23 inches. Lots of people rented but agin this was really expensive if you wanted colour. Philip's accent? In real life I have read that he couldn't speak any language well apart from Spanish. Mary was a fluent Spanish speaker.I've never seen Hamlet played with a Danish accent,Macbeth with a Scottish one or anyone in Merchant of Venice with an Italian twang. I think Manuel in Fawlty Towers may have been the first "Spanish" accent on BBC. As of 1971 I think foreign accents were really identified with comic characters or pantomime type villains, By the time I Claudius came out in 1976/77, about half the population had colour tvs often with enormous 24 inch screens. I Claudius is based on a fairly shocking historical novel published 1934. By 76/77, TV had become a lot more permissive and the BBC could get away with broadcasting anything so racy.

Mary Tudor = Bloody Mary. ELizabeth i = Good Queen Bess. Mary started off popular but she was a religious zealot who married a foreign king. The foreign king was a very unpopular move. She was said to be very kind to Edward as a small child but they fell out spectacularly over religion. She would have been relieved that he died so she did not wind up burnt at the stake but could have her shot at persecuting and burning Edward's co-religionists at the stake.

ItsDinah, thank you for that summing. I am old enough to have seen Elizabeth and Claudius the first time round.
I have only just found Mumsnet history and I have enjoyed reading the questions and the replies, both of you.