To me this is a pretty good version of the story. Especially Duff makes a very good and at times a very realistic Elizabeth. A bit funny though is that one of the very main characters seems to be missing on the crew list. I cannot find Hans Matheson doing Robert Devereux - Earl of Essex. Tried to make an update but it seemed so complicated that I gave up after 20 minutes... ;-) Well, with or without a complete list this one is a very good complement to the other ones before it. That said since this one seems to focus more on the very personal and private life of the queen and gives us less about politic and social scenarios of the time.

Priming up to teach Renaissance history I've looked into just about every Elizabeth I movie around--from Bette Davis to Helen Mirren. I endured the dry Glenda Jackson series for its historical perspective, enjoyed the brief comedic overacting of Dame Dench in Shakespeare in Love, totally skipped Cate Blanchett's version due to the reviews openly praising this Hollywood take on known history.As to this newer version, I couldn't bear to finish it, and I usually don't quit movies. The editing seemed to delight in snatches, rendering this as apatched together series of Elizabeth commercials. The lighting was dark, which didn't help. Robert Dudley was portrayed as being way too young. He should have been reserved for the Earl of Essex part. There were other aspects I didn't care for, but the Robert Dudley part needed to be more nailed down seeing how important he was to Elizabeth's reign.Helen Mirren's version to me presents the most personable, the one that really brings out the personage of the queen. The politics in that version were more defined as well. I don't understand why the BBC thought to try and trot out another version of Elizabeth I when so many exist already. Aren't there any other monarchs worth looking into?

Retelling a story in history in the framework of film can be tricky business and Masterpiece Theatre's The Virgin Queen doesn't attempt to adhere to accuracy in the slightest. But, if you're like me, you would love to experience the story of Queen Elizabeth a thousands times over in a thousand ways, and this film richly succeeds in it's own right.I have never seen such accurate costuming, beautiful sets or clever a soundtrack in any Elizabethan film (Oh my God, the soundtrack). Royal stoicism is put aside in lieu of emotive imagery. More than many films of this historical powerhouse, I appreciate the attention paid to the human side of Queen Eliazabeth--her vanity, weakness for the opposite sex (considering her royal responsibilities), and infamous indecisiveness.I could have done without the laughably overblown Casa Nova characterization of Lord Robert Dudley (Tom Hardy, ). He came off as a retired Backstreet Boy, looked far too young for the part, and portrayed none of the cultivated finesse that those familiar with the real man know, in-turn, leaving the audience wondering what about this man is worth the scandal.If you have any interest in a new take of Elizabeth's life since the 1998 film Elizabeth, I truly recommend this mini-series. For a more historically accurate glance of the time period in England, check out BBC's Elizabeth (1971) starring Glenda Jackson.

It has been said that when making a courtly, historical drama, once of the most important things you need is austerity. The audience have to be able to glimpse the past and be enraptured by the drama without necessarily being aware that it's being filmed. Coky Giedroyc's direction mainly consists of a fidgety, over-active camera that makes almost every scene dizzying to watch. No doubt the idea for this eccentric direction is to put some excitement into the drama, however, after such repeated use it quickly loses its effect and becomes very intrusive. I found the direction of 'The Virgin Queen' to be unsubtle, totally lacking in any poignancy and solely aimed at creating an over-the-top, unsophisticated sense of melodrama wherever and whenever.As for the acting - with a part like Elizabeth I, comparisons between this and other performances of the Queen are inevitable, yet Anne-Marie Duff, who by her own admission had a rather shaky knowledge of the subject beforehand, somehow decided it would be best not to view other performances, wanting to 'portray the part for myself', which unfortunately (for the rest of us) wasn't that good. Although I don't think Duff was the right choice for Elizabeth anyway, her performance would have been greatly improved if she'd looked at what other actresses had done. As it was, her Elizabeth lacked substance, she had no 'presence' or ability to rouse, she talked in a southern, middle-class accent and never seemed to age or mature. When I was little I watched bits of 'Elizabeth R' and was totally enchanted by Glenda Jackson. In contrast, when watching this, I felt disappointed by Duff's weak, lacklustre performance.Thinking about the drama as a whole, it's fair to say that the effort went into it. The production values are there, although when looking at it, the words 'lavish' and 'big-budget' cry out louder than 'real' - the characters in their flimsy, satin costumes stand incongruously next to each other. The writing, I didn't find to be as bad as other areas - the main problem being that it compromised historical accuracy. I actually thought there were some really cool lines, although most of these were wasted on Duff who, having not done enough research, delivered them badly (eg, when Elizabeth plays with language in front of the Spanish ambassador).'The Virgin Queen' is a BBC production and I watched it with high expectations. What I found was that it was neither stimulating as a historical biopic, nor particularly engaging in its overblown love story. It is often said that audiences are more sophisticated today, yet the BBC seems to respond to that by pouring millions more into producing dramas, whilst drastically lowering the standards of acting, direction and especially writing. 'The Virgin Queen' has nothing to show for itself; it is cheap entertainment and trash - a worthy successor to the equally dreadful 'Henry VIII'.